What does character education add to the educational vision of a community college? Though in the early stages of their work, Ted Hadzi-Antich, Grant Potts, and Arun John at Austin Community College (ACC), suspect there will be a fulsome payoff for civic communities, employers, and, of course, the students themselves. In short, everyone benefits when an access institution puts character at the center of its work.

Something unprecedented is underway within the five universities that make up the Texas Tech University System. While many universities look to infuse character education into their curriculum, Texas Tech is focusing on the adults it employs. The gamble is that investing in culture change by putting its people first will affect institutional change. And it’s paying off.

Starting in the fall of 2015, Chisolm helped found the Paul McHugh Program for Human Flourishing with the goal of helping medical students explore “big questions,” like what it means to be human, to be a good physician, and to lead a life of flourishing.

In 2016, Cynda Rushton started exploring what could be done to help nurses prepare for the moral distress and suffering that they would inevitably face as part of their work in healthcare. And the leadership at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing was on board. Dean Patricia Davidson knew how many nurses leave the profession within their first year of work, making it clear how important emphasizing the role of resilience is in preparing nurses for their careers. From there, the Mindful Ethical Practice and Resilience Academy (MEPRA) was born. Through MEPRA, nurses learn to be mindful, clarify their values, and exercise self-stewardship, all skills which then strengthen their moral resilience and help them confront the ethical challenges they face in acute care settings.

Ryan Antiel, MD is currently spearheading The Project on the Good Surgeon, a program for surgery residents at the Duke University School of Medicine that helps them consider both their ethical and technical formation as surgeons. The Project’s vision “is focused on helping residents rediscover meaning and purpose in their work, develop the character traits necessary to sustain their calling, and ultimately promote flourishing in their surgical practice.”