Wake Forest’s Educating Character Initiative announces $15.6M in grants to 29 institutions

Thanks to the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. and Wake Forest University, the Educating Character Initiative (ECI) has awarded $15.6 million in Institutional Impact Grants to 24 projects among 29 colleges and universities seeking to undertake a substantial and sustained effort to educate character in undergraduate populations across their institutions. These three-year grants range from $100,000 to $1 million. They will provide support to enable institutional leaders, faculty, and staff to infuse character in undergraduate curricula and programming in ways that align organically with their mission, context, and culture.

With the addition of $2.1 million in Capacity-Building Grants awarded in June, the Educating Character Initiative will provide grants totalling over $17.7 million to 71 institutions in 2024. This year, the ECI was able to award more Institutional Impact Grants than anticipated, thanks to a generous commitment from Lilly Endowment Inc. last month.

“We are thrilled to see the creativity and commitment of so many colleges and universities who want to educate character at such a critical time in our society,” said Michael Lamb, the executive director of the Program for Leadership and Character, of which the ECI is a part. “Character education is not one-size-fits all, so we’re excited to learn from the initiatives that this impressive group of institutions will undertake. We are grateful to Lilly Endowment Inc. for supporting this national community and eager to see its impact on the future of higher education.”

A wide range of public and private colleges and universities––representing diverse populations of students, institutional types, and disciplinary orientations––submitted innovative proposals to develop or expand character education efforts at their institutions. Recipients of Institutional Impact Grants include major research universities, liberal arts colleges, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, religiously affiliated colleges, multi-institutional collaborations, a Historically Black University, two military academies, and universities serving large populations of first-generation college students.

“Beth Purvis and I are grateful for and impressed by the exceptional quantity and quality of proposals we received this cycle,” said Jennifer Rothschild, incoming Director of the Educating Character Initiative. “Our entire ECI team is excited to support these grantees as they deepen our collective understanding of character and expand the capacity to educate character in their respective undergraduate institutions across the country.”

Impact Grant Awards

The list of institutions receiving 2024 Institutional Impact Grants, along with the names of their projects and project leaders, are included below:

Arizona State University
Cultivating Civic, Moral, and Epistemic Virtues
Among Undergraduates in Arizona’s Public Universities
Joan McGregor, Tyler DesRoches, Cristy Guleserian, and Juliann Vitullo

Belmont University
Leading With Character and Purpose
Nathan Webb and Lori Baker

Brandeis University
Developing Just Actors and a Just Community:
Character Education as Active Participation and Respectful Inclusion at Brandeis
Anita Hill and Daniel Kryder

Campbell University
Character, Initiative, and Calling:
Educating Leaders for Purposeful Lives and Meaningful Service
Faithe Beam and Borrée Kwok

Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America Virtue and Character Initiative
Peter Kilpatrick, Andrew V. Abela, and Thomas W. Smith

George Fox University
The Character & Leadership Initiative: Bridging the Curricular and Co-Curricular Divide
Travis Pickell and Joseph Clair

Harvard University
The Virtues for Academic Flourishing Initiative
Tyler J. VanderWeele and Brendan W. Case

Hope College
Accelerating Character Development through a Gratitude-
and Generosity-Based Model of Higher Education
Daryl Van Tongeren and Nicole Dunteman

King University
Thoughtful, Resourceful, Responsible: Three Years Forming Character at King
Glenn E. Sanders and Laura Ong

Montclair State University
Planting the SEEDS of Character Growth: Developing Civic and Community Responsibility through Ethical Inquiry using Virtual Reality
Jennifer Brown Urban

Purdue University
In collaboration with Tuskegee University, Franciscan University of Steubenville,
and University of New Hampshire
Integrating Character Development in Engineering
and Computing Undergraduate Courses
Marisa Exter, Iryna Ashby, Steve Frezza, Mihaela Sabin, and Cassandra Thomas

Seattle Pacific University
Classrooms That Cultivate Character:
A Psychologically-informed Intervention and Assessment of Christian Virtues
Brittany M. Tausen, Thane M. Erickson, and Krystle Jalalian-Chursky

Tuskegee University & California State University, Los Angeles
Building the Character Collaborative:
Designing an Inter-Campus, Cross-Cultural Character and Leadership Education Program Rooted in the Philosophy and Vision of Booker T. Washington
David Augustin Hodge, Sr., Kathy Cooke, and Rolundus Rice

United States Military Academy & Wheaton College
Character in the Core Curriculum: How Values-Based Institutions Fare In Forming Student Character
Elise Dykhuis, James Cornwell, Peter Meindl, and LTC Benjamin Elliott

United States Naval Academy
Moral Character Development and Assessment at United States Military Academies
Edward Barrett

University of California, Berkeley
Applying the Science of Character to Bridge Differences in Higher Education
Juliana Tafur

University of California, Irvine
Educating for Virtuous Intellectual Character (EVIC)
Duncan Pritchard

University of Mississippi
“The Character of Leaders” Initiative: Integrating Moral, Civic, and Intellectual Virtues
Deborah S. Mower and Melissa L. Jones

University of Notre Dame
Learning Becomes Service: Expanding Character Education Programs at the University of Notre Dame
Suzanne Shanahan and Meghan Sullivan

University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania Leadership Education Institute
Zachary Herrmann and Taylor Hausburg

University of Tulsa
Honors Education as Character Education
Jennifer A. Frey, Matthew Post

University of Virginia
The University of Virginia Engineering Character Strength Initiative (ECSI)
Rosalyn W. Berne and Jesse Pappas

Virginia Tech & Colorado School of Mines
Building a Culture of Compassion in STEM Education: Empowering Faculty as Agents of Institutional Change
Qin Zhu, Michele Deramo, and Jill Sible

Whitworth University
Call and Character: Educating Mind and Heart at Whitworth University
David Henreckson and Nathan King

Applicants who did not receive funding in this round are encouraged to re-apply in Spring 2025. Others interested in taking on or learning more about character education at their own institutions are encouraged to join the more than 1,000 members of the ECI community. Registration is free.

About the ECI

The Educating Character Initiative aims to equip a wide range of public and private institutions of higher education with the resources, funding, and support needed to integrate character education into their distinctive institutional contexts, curricula, and cultures. The broader aspiration is to foster a robust network that recognizes the value of educating character within higher education. ECI is hosting a number of opportunities for faculty and staff at Wake Forest and beyond through the end of 2024, including webinars, campus visits, and a major international conference in December featuring keynote speaker Jesmyn Ward. For more information on these events, and how to join the ECI community, email us at ECI@wfu.edu.

About The Program for Leadership and Character

The mission of the Program for Leadership and Character is to inspire, educate and empower leaders of character to serve humanity. Through innovative teaching, creative programming, and cutting-edge research, we aim to transform the lives of students, foster an inclusive culture of leadership and character, and catalyze a broader public conversation that places character at the center of leadership.

With the creation of a network of interested institutions and educators, the development and dissemination of research and resources, the organization of conferences and convenings, and the direct awarding of grants to individuals and institutions, the Program for Leadership and Character aspires to nurture a creative, compassionate, and collaborative community of educators who can learn from each other as partners in character education.