Campbell University is one of 29 colleges and universities to receive an Institutional Impact Grant from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative in an effort to enable institutional leaders, faculty and staff to “infuse character in undergraduate curricula and programming in ways that align with mission, context and culture.”
Campbell University will receive up to $431,000 from the overall $15.6 million grant — funded through the support of Lilly Endowment Inc. and Wake Forest — to create “a distinct undergraduate learning experience at Campbell that integrates the hallmarks of character, initiative and calling.”
Core goals of the project at Campbell will include:
- Embedding those hallmarks strategically in curricular programming,
- Providing professional learning opportunities and resources on character education for faculty and staff,
- Establishing an office that supports work on the hallmarks of character, initiative and calling, and
- Articulating the hallmarks consistently to describe and embody the mission of Campbell University, thereby integrating them into the school’s culture.
The project at Campbell is led by Rev. Faithe Beam, vice president for student life and Christian mission, and Borree Kwok, associate provost for administration and academic success.
“Those hallmarks of character, initiative and calling are what distinguishes the educational experience for students at Campbell University,” said Beam. “These three hallmarks came out of conversations across our campus community over the course of the last 18 months. This is how our faculty, staff and students have described their experience at Campbell, and we needed to use a shared language when we discuss those experiences.”
Beam and Kwok said they’ve been laying the foundation for the integration of the hallmarks at Campbell since last spring. Invitations were extended to undergraduate faculty to become “early adopters” and incorporate character, initiative and calling into their instruction. Student Life and Athletics participated in workshops, and faculty and staff were surveyed to describe their plans for implementation.
“For some of our professors, it’s less about changing their approach and more about honing in and better articulating what they’re already doing,” Beam said. “I think a lot of what came through in our research is that faculty are already incorporating concepts of what character looks like, especially in some of our professional programs. So, we’re developing a shared language so that it helps students connect the dots that what they’re learning in English about character and learning in engineering about integrity is more impactful.”
A substantial part of the grant will be focused on curriculum design and supporting faculty in the classroom. Beginning next spring, Campbell will offer retreats with up to 50 participants in the first year and up to 120 in the second year. The anticipated number of participants will make up approximately 33 percent of the total faculty, “potentially providing a significant impact on the institutional culture in character education,” according to Kwok.
Another significant portion of the grant will go toward the creation of a digital portfolio website for students to capture and reflect on their experiences. A director position and a graduate assistant will be added to oversee the digital portfolio program with the goal of permanently including it as a capstone of the Campbell University education, potentially impacting all undergraduates.
“It’s not just for students to collect documents or notes from the classroom, but it’s about reflecting on their experiences — both inside and outside the classroom — that helped develop the character while they were here,” Kwok said. “How did their time here contribute to their personal growth? They’re still figuring out who they want to become, and we want that to be a significant part of their education.”
Campbell was one of dozens of institutions that submitted proposals to develop or expand character education on their campuses and one of 29 schools chosen to receive funding from the grant. According to Wake Forest University, grant recipients included 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.
“It’s my hope that at Campbell, students can talk about how they have explored their character and strengthened it as a result of their experiences here,” Beam said. “I hope they have developed relationships with faculty and staff and their peers who have inspired them to understand their sense of calling and how they will live that out. I hope they will be able to talk about their time here as one that was both informative and transformative as a result of the hallmarks.”
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. For more information, email Faithe Beam at beam@campbell.edu.