Bard College Receives 2025 Capacity Building Grant from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—Bard College is the recipient of a 2025 Capacity Building Grant for $50,000 from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative to support its “Character in Context at Bard College” project. Led by Associate Dean of the College and Associate Vice President for Academic Initiatives Nicholas Alton Lewis and Executive Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard Christine Gonzalez Stanton, the project aims to lay the foundation for character education at Bard by developing a shared framework that is adaptable and reflective of the institution’s unique values, which include curiosity, a love of learning, idealism, and a commitment to the link between higher education and civic participation. The “Character in Context at Bard College” capacity building project will establish an advisory group composed of faculty, staff, and two student representatives. The cohort will explore vocabularies and frameworks for character education and investigate what character is within the context of Bard College.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Educating Character Initiative at the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University for their generous support. Through the ECI Capacity Building Grant we look forward to exploring language and frameworks for character education in conversation with the various constituencies of our campus—faculty, staff, students, and alumni—as we consider character in the context of the Bard community,” said Lewis.

“Character isn’t performative. It doesn’t always look strong, polished, or loud. In a world obsessed with being seen, character is what you do when no one’s looking,” said Gonzalez Stanton. “At Bard, it’s shaped in quiet moments when someone listens without interrupting, makes a hard choice without praise, or simply pauses long enough to care. These small, often unseen acts ripple outward into trust, courage, and community.”

In 2025, the Educating Character Initiative (ECI) awarded 40 Capacity Building Grants to 42 colleges and universities. ECI is a part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. 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. Inspired by their motto of Pro Humanitate (for humanity) and supported through a generous grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., they have developed the Educating Character Initiative to support a wider community of individuals and institutions to educate character within colleges and universities. Through the creation of a network of interested institutions and educators, the development and dissemination of research and resources, the organization of conferences and convenings, and the direct awarding of grants to individuals and institutions interested in advancing this work in their own contexts, ECI aspires to nurture a creative, compassionate, and collaborative community of educators who can learn from each other as partners in character education. Learn more at leadershipandcharacter.wfu.edu/eci/. About Bard College
Founded in 1860, Bard College is a four-year residential college of the liberal arts and sciences located 90 miles north of New York City. With the addition of the Montgomery Place and Massena properties, Bard’s campus consists of more than 1,200 parklike acres in the Hudson River Valley. It offers bachelor of arts, bachelor of science, and bachelor of music degrees, with majors in nearly 40 academic programs; advanced degrees through 13 graduate programs; nine early colleges; and numerous dual-degree programs nationally and internationally. Building on its 165-year history as a competitive and innovative undergraduate institution, Bard College has expanded its mission as a private institution acting in the public interest across the country and around the world to meet broader student needs and increase access to liberal arts education. The undergraduate program at the main campus in upstate New York has a reputation for scholarly excellence, a focus on the arts, and civic engagement. Bard is committed to enriching culture, public life, and democratic discourse by training tomorrow’s thought leaders. For more information about Bard College, visit bard.edu.

This event was last updated on 06-12-2025

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