TRW students work on the Welcoming the Dear Neighbor? project.
St. Catherine University has been named a 2026 recipient of a $400,000 Institutional Impact Grant by the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), a project of The Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University. The three-year grant supports integration of character education into undergraduate curricula, focusing on the virtues students need to become ethical social justice leaders, in alignment with the University’s mission.
The project will support faculty strengthening the core curriculum by embedding virtue studies into courses and deepening experiential learning, particularly in sophomore Global Search for Justice seminars.
"Experiential learning forms a signature part of students' experience at St. Kate's,” said Sophie Hunt, PhD, director of Community Work and Learning and Collaborative Research. “With this grant, we will be able to make that experience even richer by launching our new student leadership cohort and expanding community-engaged learning, global studies, and intensive research across the Core."
St. Kate’s is one of 44 projects nationwide to be awarded an Institutional Impact Grant this year for its proposal, Developing Virtue through Action: A Curriculum to Foster Love of Neighbor without Distinction. The grant will be led by co-principal investigators Hunt and Rachel Neiwert, PhD, associate professor of history and director of core curriculum, assessment, and accreditation.
The award continues the work begun by the year-long Capacity-Building Grant that St. Kate’s received from the Educating Character Initiative in 2025. Through the Capacity-Building Grant, the team engaged the campus community to learn about shared values, assessed community engaged learning (CEL) in The Reflective Woman (TRW) courses, and designed a new CEL Ambassador cohort for students to lead CEL in TRW.
"The grant provides exciting opportunities to think about a common thread that can run throughout the Core Curriculum, offering a more cohesive experience for students," said Neiwert.
The grant will also connect these efforts with other character-focused work at St. Kate’s, through the establishment of a Summer Character Institute and a permanent resource library — ensuring that social justice values remain an integral part of the student experience.