We’re pleased to share the Educating Character Initiative 2025 Project Brief, a snapshot of our shared work and its direction. This document reflects the ECI Community’s collective efforts and commitment to forming students, institutions, and cultures shaped by character for the common good.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
“I teach courses in leadership and ethics in the law, and I begin most of those courses by asking students a series of questions, including: ‘By a show of hands, how many of you think there’s a decent chance you’ll go to prison for something you do related to your future work as a lawyer?’ writes Kenneth Townsend, Executive Director of Leadership and Character in the Professional Schools.
Is being virtuous good for you – or just people around you? “People who are habitually more compassionate, patient, and self-controlled tend to experience better well-being. And when people display more compassion, patience, and self-control than usual, they tend to feel better than they usually do,” the ECI’s Michael Prinzing explains in The Conversation.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
“Many American colleges are elevating discussions of character. Wake Forest University has developed the Educating Character Initiative, a national network of colleges committed to putting character at the center of curriculum,” writes Clark Gilbert in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
United Negro College Fund’s Jelani Favors and the ECI’s Emily Hunt-Hinojosa and Michael Prinzing make the argument that character education efforts at HBCUs have been underappreciated. To kick off conversations around research on the role of HBCUs in educating character, they invite you to collaborate and join the discussion.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Current ECI grantees share what helped them develop strong proposals, build partnerships, and connect their ideas to their institutions’ needs. Together, they remind us that this work matters, that there’s room for many approaches, and that you are not alone in the process.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
In 2025, ECI Webinars brought together diverse perspectives on how communities can cultivate wholeness, reciprocity, care, justice, and hospitality, and how character can be intentionally developed through community.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
In the episode, Aaron Cobb discusses hope—not just as a feeling or a fleeting optimism, but as a virtue that shapes character and community.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
“We don’t just train people to be doctors or engineers or business leaders; we train people to think for themselves, and that is profoundly liberating,” Duncan Pritchard recently told LearningWell magazine about the university’s character work.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
This fall, George Fox University hosted ECI Community members united in exploring the formation of student character in faith-based higher education. Together, this group of thoughtful leaders represents a growing subset within the ECI Community: faith-based institutions committed to forming students with the qualities they need to serve the common good.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News