We CU and Team of Scholars Receive Grant from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative

We CU Community Engaged Scholars and a team of Education at Illinois researchers have received a $50,000 capacity building grant from the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University. The team includes PI Chris Napolitano, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology; Chrystalla Mouza, Dean of the College of Education; Kaylin Ratner, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology; Emily Stone, We CU Co-director and Director of Public Engagement for the College of Education; Olivia Hagedorn, We CU Postdoctoral Researcher; and Katie Shumway, We CU Co-director and Senior Director of Community Engagement for the School of Social Work.

The team proposes to integrate civic character education into We CU’s proven service learning infrastructure. The team will work closely with the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham to develop and refine a character education initiative that is specific to Illinois. 

Napolitano believes the program will cultivate civically engaged graduates who embody the spirit and drive of our campus’s land-grant mission. “Service-learning courses can help students develop the tools and perspectives for navigating the complex challenges they will face beyond campus,” Napolitano said. “Ultimately, we want to help students to leverage the expertise they have developed on campus to collaborate with their communities with compassion and kindness —the very essence of the Illinois Way.”

The program will be delivered through service learning classes, and We CU will work with College of Education and the Community Learning Lab in the School of Social Work to cultivate deep institutional buy-in among faculty and community partners. Stone emphasizes the alignment of the grant with Illinois’ priorities: “This grant allows us to directly connect our successful service-learning model with the university’s core priorities. We're not only preparing civically engaged leaders but also supporting our land-grant mission and reinforcing the general education curriculum's focus on informed engagement.”

The team plans to apply for a larger institutional impact grant from the Educating Character Initiative next year. 

A project of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, the Educating Character Initiative was founded in 2023 with the generous support of Lilly Endowment Inc. The ECI provides support to enable institutional leaders, faculty, and staff to infuse character education into undergraduate curricula and programming. The program aims to catalyze a broader public conversation that places character at the center of leadership and society.

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