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.
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.
“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. Pritchard is director of the Anteater Virtues Project, which promotes the intellectual virtues of curiosity, integrity, intellectual humility, and intellectual tenacity across the university.
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.
What does it mean to build the traits of a peacebuilder rather than just theoretically know how to resolve conflict? At Utah State University, a religious studies professor and a political science professor are collaborating to enhance the university’s core curriculum with peace studies pedagogy that’s integrated with character education.
The North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Office of Community Engagement and Service, NCCU Wesley Campus Ministry, and Duke University Chapel co-sponsored a public conversation on “What an Education is For: Character and the Second Curriculum at HBCUs” at NCCU on Thursday, Oct. 16.
Seton Hill University is weaving its founding spirit, rooted in the mission of the Sisters of Charity, into a modern approach to character education. With support from the ECI, faculty and students are turning archives, classrooms, and conversations into spaces where virtues like humility, wisdom, and gratitude spark to life.
A recent study found that framing discussions about race around virtues like courage and patience reduces defensiveness, fosters openness, and encourages meaningful action. Our ECI Senior Research Fellow Juliette Ratchford contributed to the research.
The Educating Character Initiative announced a request for proposals from U.S. colleges and universities for grants between $50,000 and $1,000,000 to develop the character of their faculty, staff, and students.
In socially diverse contexts, character educators often struggle to articulate what “good character” means. They want to avoid both moral dogmatism and relativism. In this webinar, three distinguished presenters draw on Anishinaabe principles of relationality, process, and reciprocity to offer a third way, showing character educators how they can help students develop a contextualized understanding of good character.
Philosophy graduates consistently score higher on tests of verbal and logical reasoning than their peers from other majors, according to the new research by members of the ECI Community.
Once a federal Indian boarding school, Fort Lewis College is using its ECI Institutional Impact Grant to address its painful past by “centering character education within a reconciliation initiative that goes beyond atonement to institutional change,” writes LearningWell Magazine.
In the August installment of our media partnership with LearningWell Magazine, a publication of the LearningWell Coalition, Syracuse University’s “Character Development and Sport Fan Engagement” project is highlighted for differentiating itself from most sports-driven character-building projects by focusing on the fans.
In July, 52 faculty members from Wake Forest and beyond joined us for our “Character Across the Curriculum” workshop. The goal was to support educators who want to integrate leadership and character development into new and existing courses.
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.
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.
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.
“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. Pritchard is director of the Anteater Virtues Project, which promotes the intellectual virtues of curiosity, integrity, intellectual humility, and intellectual tenacity across the university.
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.
What does it mean to build the traits of a peacebuilder rather than just theoretically know how to resolve conflict? At Utah State University, a religious studies professor and a political science professor are collaborating to enhance the university’s core curriculum with peace studies pedagogy that’s integrated with character education.
The North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Office of Community Engagement and Service, NCCU Wesley Campus Ministry, and Duke University Chapel co-sponsored a public conversation on “What an Education is For: Character and the Second Curriculum at HBCUs” at NCCU on Thursday, Oct. 16.
Seton Hill University is weaving its founding spirit, rooted in the mission of the Sisters of Charity, into a modern approach to character education. With support from the ECI, faculty and students are turning archives, classrooms, and conversations into spaces where virtues like humility, wisdom, and gratitude spark to life.
A recent study found that framing discussions about race around virtues like courage and patience reduces defensiveness, fosters openness, and encourages meaningful action. Our ECI Senior Research Fellow Juliette Ratchford contributed to the research.
The Educating Character Initiative announced a request for proposals from U.S. colleges and universities for grants between $50,000 and $1,000,000 to develop the character of their faculty, staff, and students.
In socially diverse contexts, character educators often struggle to articulate what “good character” means. They want to avoid both moral dogmatism and relativism. In this webinar, three distinguished presenters draw on Anishinaabe principles of relationality, process, and reciprocity to offer a third way, showing character educators how they can help students develop a contextualized understanding of good character.
Philosophy graduates consistently score higher on tests of verbal and logical reasoning than their peers from other majors, according to the new research by members of the ECI Community.
Once a federal Indian boarding school, Fort Lewis College is using its ECI Institutional Impact Grant to address its painful past by “centering character education within a reconciliation initiative that goes beyond atonement to institutional change,” writes LearningWell Magazine.
In the August installment of our media partnership with LearningWell Magazine, a publication of the LearningWell Coalition, Syracuse University’s “Character Development and Sport Fan Engagement” project is highlighted for differentiating itself from most sports-driven character-building projects by focusing on the fans.
In July, 52 faculty members from Wake Forest and beyond joined us for our “Character Across the Curriculum” workshop. The goal was to support educators who want to integrate leadership and character development into new and existing courses.