Lydia Dugdale could see it. Her students weren’t well. Whether it was the strain of four years at Columbia’s medical school, or being ill-prepared to face the kind of death and suffering that they encountered treating their patients, her students often seemed distressed and overwhelmed. Even though they might be making it through medical school, they weren’t being formed as whole persons.

Late in 2018, North Central College received a grant from the Kern Family Foundation to infuse virtue ethics into their Educational Leadership program, and Dr. Maureen Spelman–then at Saint Xavier University–was brought on to lead the reimagination process. From the beginning, she was convinced that character formation and education were going to be integral to her work revisioning the Educational Leadership program.

This month we are featuring an art essay with pieces by incarcerated men from Westville Correctional Facility. This was featured in the Summer 2023 issue of Virtues & Vocations: Higher Education for Human Flourishing.

As he was preparing to give a talk to Harvard undergraduates about how to do their best work, Dr. Kevin Majeres had an epiphany. He already had years of experience as a psychiatrist and faculty member at Harvard Medical School helping clients overcome their issues with anxiety, and he realized that his approach could also help people with their work.

The Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFTC) at Arizona State University overhauled their entire framework for educating teachers and leaders. Their intention: Educators should be prepared through a lens of both character and intrapreneurship that provides them with a framework for moral and ethical decision-making as they create change in education.