For three days last fall, teams from ECI grantee schools filled four conference rooms with colorful sticky notes and arrows, mapping out how their projects would create changes that form individual and institutional character. They had come together for the ECI’s Program Assessment for Character […]
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
The Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School welcomed its inaugural cohort of HBCU Moral Fusion Scholars to campus in May. Their commitment to awaken “a new heart and a new hope through a moral commitment to prioritizing love, truth and justice,” renews hope for the future for this essay’s authors.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Baylor University’s Andrew Hogue and the ECI’s Emily Hunt-Hinojosa share learnings from the Common Good Character Trust. Through the group’s discussions, they discovered that “character-building efforts that aim at the common good need a model of character formation that accounts more fully for institutions, cultures, and broader social forces.”
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
At the 2026 NetVUE Conference, teams from four ECI-supported campuses — University of Dubuque, Bellarmine University, King University, and Belmont University — shared how character, vocation, and mission are woven into daily campus life. Their approaches range from faculty learning cohorts and holistic advising to campus-wide character festivals and communities built on accountability.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
A diverse group of coaches, athletic directors, trainers, and academics came together to discuss the challenges and opportunities of promoting character development in college sports.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
“We’re going to develop the leadership for the next generation of leaders, and we’re going to do it in the ways that we care about when it comes to character,” Chris Marsicano, P.I. for Davidson College’s Institutional Impact Grant and the inaugural director of the Martin Institute for Public Good, recently told LearningWell magazine.
Categories: Educating Character Initiative News
Howard University is developing an H.B.C.U.-based theoretical model for character education. In this work, they are looking at key considerations of character education through an H.B.C.U. lens, including the legacy of character within Black education and the paucity of Black-centric character education within the literature.
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
“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