Roanoke awarded grant to support character education, student development

Roanoke College has been awarded a $50,000 grant that will build its capacity to weave character education into every aspect of campus life.  

The Educating Character Initiative — part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University — selected Roanoke for its second cohort of national grant winners. The funding supports colleges and universities that are developing new ways to elevate character, ethics and leadership within the student experience.

“We are deeply grateful for this support,” said Kathy Wolfe, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college. “Since its founding, Roanoke's mission has shaped what our students know and who they grow to become. As we consider the challenges of the 21st century and beyond, we are doubling down on our commitment to an education emphasizing character formation and development inside and outside the classroom.”  

Roanoke will be forming a task force of faculty, staff and students to lead an in-depth, campus-wide dialogue focused on how the college community collectively defines character and how the college can elevate principles of character in its curriculum and student programs.  

By creating a shared vision for character education, Roanoke will be able to establish a framework to guide how it supports and mentors students for years to come. The work will include case study reviews, workshops, facilitated discussion groups, student symposiums, guest speakers and common readings aimed at clarifying existing methods and identifying strengths to build on.  

This focused approach will help Roanoke deepen its commitment to student development, rooting those efforts in the values and voices of the college community. Reinforcing character education is a cornerstone of Roanoke’s new strategic plan, as well as the ongoing Purpose Project, a multi-part approach to supporting students as they pursue their purpose.  

Roanoke was selected for a grant amid what program leaders described as an exceptionally competitive round of applications.   

“We were overwhelmed by the quality of the proposals we received this year,” said Jennifer Rothschild, director of the Educating Character Initiative. “It is exciting to see so many institutions developing character projects rooted in their own identities and missions. We have so much to learn from these projects.”  

The grant was made possible by the Educating Character Initiative and the philanthropic foundation Lilly Endowment Inc. The initiative is part of a wider mission at Wake Forest University to inspire, educate and empower leaders of character to serve humanity.