The grant comes from the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. Bellarmine University is one of 33 institutions to be selected for the grant from an application pool of 170.
Bellarmine University has received a 2025 Educating Character Initiative (ECI) Institutional Impact Grant from the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. The three-year grant is in the amount of $250,000 and will allow the university to establish a new fellowship program: Character, Community, and Collaboration: Integrating Character into Experiential Learning.
According to an article on Bellarmine University’s website, Dr. Jon Blandford, who serves as the university’s assistant provost and is the lead on the project, was quoted as saying, “We’re excited to take this next step in our work around character education and believe that the goals of the Educating Character Institute align perfectly with our mission as a Catholic liberal arts university to prepare students not only for successful careers, but also for lives rich in meaning and purpose. We are confident that our students and community partners will benefit from this project, and that it will strengthen our efforts to form the next generation of leaders of character who will serve our city, commonwealth, and region.”
The Character, Community, and Collaboration: Integrating Character into Experiential Learning initiative will provide funding for teams of faculty, undergraduate students, and community partners to design undergraduate courses that all future undergraduate students will participate in as part of the university’s core curriculum. The courses will be designed to explore character development and emphasize qualities like humility and openness. Nine new courses will be developed over the next three years.
The initiative will be co-led by the university’s Center for Community Engagement. The project is currently seeking community partners to collaborate with for the community-engaged courses. Nonprofit organizations are welcome to contact Dr. Liz Todd Byron, the university’s executive director of experiential learning and community engagement, at etodd@bellarmine.edu.
For more information about Bellarmine University, visit the school's website.