University Awarded Grant from the Educating Character Initiative

May 22, 2025

The University of the South has been awarded a Capacity-Building Grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), a part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. The grant will enable a group of faculty and staff to develop a framework for incorporating character formation efforts into key student programs as outlined in the University’s recently adopted strategic plan.

As Sewanee’s team approaches this work, they will emphasize the integration of academic study and learning through doing. Building on existing practices like community engaged learning (CEL), dialogue programming, learning cohorts, and reflective practices, the group will seek to infuse character building into Sewanee’s newly redesigned First Year Experience (FYE) program. 

Offered in a pilot version in 2025 before expanding to include all new first-year students in 2026, the new FYE combines academic study with co-curricular immersion and the establishment of a foundation for students’ success. By elevating character work and aligning it across the program’s components, FYE aims to set all students up for a Sewanee experience rooted in deep exploration of their own dispositions and purpose.

“The important work of character formation is already in progress in so many parts of Sewanee, from the Honor Code to athletics to Bonner and Canale service programs to the classroom and community engaged learning courses, and more,” says Amy Patterson, director of the Office of Civic Engagement. “With the support of this grant, we look forward to developing a common understanding of character formation and being able to reach all new Sewanee students through the First Year Experience.”

Sewanee is one of just 42 colleges and universities to receive an ECI Capacity-Building Grant in 2025. Founded in 2023 through the support of Lilly Endowment Inc., ECI 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.

First Year Experience
The First Step in the Sewanee Journey

Sewanee’s First Year Experience (FYE) is a multi-dimensional jump start to the Sewanee experience. Consisting of an academic course (Sewanee Encounter), an exploration of opportunities and activities (Sewanee Explore), and a one-credit course designed to help students establish a foundation for success (Sewanee Embark), FYE gives new students an early start on finding community and experiencing all that Sewanee has to offer.

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Community Engaged Learning
Community in the Classroom

At Sewanee, we understand that there are ways to learn that have nothing to do with sitting at a desk. That’s why every day, our students leave the classroom to get involved directly in their community—both locally and globally. Through a variety of community-engagement programs, Sewanee students use what they’ve learned in the classroom to help others and, in turn, bring the lessons they learn in the community back to the classroom.

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Civic Engagement Programs
Bonner, Canale, and More

The Office of Civic Engagement supports multiple summer and academic year internships for students to invest in community and deepen their leadership and professional skills, including: the Bonner Leaders Program, a four-year service and leadership scholarship; the Canale Internships, in which students pursue a year-long project that addresses a community-identified need; and more.

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