grantee stories Archives - The Program for Leadership and Character

Gathering for the Common Good: Reflections from a convening of faith-based institutions at George Fox University

November 17, 2025

ECI Community members pose for a group photo

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

At Utah State University, peacebuilding isn’t just a skillset; it’s a way of being

November 17, 2025

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.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

At Seton Hill University, Catholic origins inspire universal virtues

October 22, 2025

photo collage of newspapers with black-and-white images of nuns and another image of Vietnam protestors

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.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

How Fort Lewis College is helping heal the past and face the future

September 9, 2025

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.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

New character education initiative at Syracuse University focuses on fans

August 12, 2025

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.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Can Intellectual Virtues Re-Energize Teaching?

July 25, 2025

In an opinion essay for Inside Higher Education, Senior Lecturer of Marine Conservation and Ethics at Duke University Rebecca Vidra—a 2025 ECI Teacher-Scholar Grant recipient—reflects on her work to redesign courses on environmental issues in ways that center the formation of intellectual virtues like curiosity, humility, and resilience.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Centering intellectual character development at UC-Irvine

June 5, 2025

The Anteater Virtues program at the University of California-Irvine focuses on the development of four key intellectual virtues: curiosity, integrity, intellectual humility, and intellectual tenacity. One of the project’s distinctive features is the support it receives from senior academic leadership.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Beyond Funding: Bellarmine, ASU, and George Fox

May 21, 2025

We were privileged to speak with several of the principal investigators of 2024 grants while they attended the Program for Leadership and Character’s spring visit and ask, “What is most exciting about what you are learning from their grant projects?”

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Beyond the Funding: Baylor, University of Delaware, & Villanova

April 24, 2025

students in a workshop setting with post-it notes

Recent highlights from three ECI grantees.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

Salem College Hosts Women’s College Convening on Character

March 17, 2025

On February 10, representatives from five women-serving institutions gathered at Salem College for a Women’s Colleges Convening on Gender, Leadership, Ethics, and Character.

Categories: Educating Character Initiative News

The Program for Leadership and Character

Gathering for the Common Good: Reflections from a convening of faith-based institutions at George Fox University

At Utah State University, peacebuilding isn’t just a skillset; it’s a way of being

At Seton Hill University, Catholic origins inspire universal virtues

How Fort Lewis College is helping heal the past and face the future

New character education initiative at Syracuse University focuses on fans

Can Intellectual Virtues Re-Energize Teaching?

Centering intellectual character development at UC-Irvine

Beyond Funding: Bellarmine, ASU, and George Fox

Beyond the Funding: Baylor, University of Delaware, & Villanova

Salem College Hosts Women’s College Convening on Character

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