Whitworth to Offer New Program Focusing on Flourishing and Educating Character Thanks to Generous Grant
The more than $240,000 grant was awarded by the Educating Character Initiative, a part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University and made possible by a generous grant to Wake Forest from Lilly Endowment Inc.
Whitworth applied for the grant earlier this summer presenting its new program “Call and Character: Educating Mind and Heart” (C&C).
“As many liberal arts universities are struggling to articulate their fundamental purpose, we want to chart a way forward,” says Davey Henreckson, director of Whitworth’s Weyerhaeuser Center for Christian Faith & Learning. “Call & Character will ask faculty and students how our educational community can cultivate good habits of mind, heart and soul. And further, how can these good habits help us become more excellent friends, disciples, citizens and neighbors? We’re grateful to be part of a growing community of universities across the country that care deeply about education of the whole human person.”
Call & Character will invite the Whitworth community to draw on a rich intellectual, moral and spiritual vocabulary to talk about how its educational community can provide students with the character traits they need to flourish as human beings. Led by Henreckson and Nathan King, Edward B. Lindaman Chair and professor of philosophy, C&C has three overarching goals. They include:
• Infusing a focus on character formation into Whitworth’s curriculum, across all disciplines. Three faculty cohorts (one per year) will meet regularly to discuss how various character traits (such as courage, humility and love) might be woven through classroom and cocurricular education.
• Introducing a pedagogy of character formation into Whitworth’s growing professional programs in business, health sciences, engineering and environmental science.
• Creating cohorts of exceptional faculty and student-scholars who will be devoted to exploring the moral life, both in theory and in practice. In this piece of the project (called Communio), multiple cohorts of students will commit to sharing regular meals and conversation around a set of readings led by Henreckson. Communio meetings will be designed to build friendships and model hospitality. A typical meeting will last a few hours, with time for deep conversation centered around a shared experience of poetry, prose, nature or film.
“The national trend toward character education dovetails nicely with the mission of a Christian university like Whitworth,” King says. “We seek to prepare our graduates to ‘honor God, follow Christ and serve humanity.’ These tasks require formation in character. And while the university is already devoted in various ways to such formation, my hope is that this grant will infuse such efforts with fresh insight and energy.”
After the three years of grant funding expires, Henreckson and King hope to extend the project through institutional funding and matching donor gifts.
Wake Forest awarded grants to 29 colleges and universities this year. Other recipients include Harvard University, the University of Notre Dame and the University of Virginia.
About the Program for Leadership and Character:
The mission of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University is to inspire, educate and empower leaders of character to serve humanity. Through innovative teaching, creative programming and cutting-edge research, it aims 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.
About Whitworth University:
Located in Spokane, Wash., Whitworth is a private, Christian liberal arts university affiliated with the Presbyterian church. The university has an enrollment of about 2,500 students and offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Contacts:
Trisha Coder, associate director of media relations, Whitworth University, (509) 777-4703 or tcoder@whitworth.edu
