Austin Community College District (ACC) is creating new opportunities for students to gain real-world skills for the workforce. 

The College was awarded a $781,200 ECI 2025 Institutional Impact Grant to launch an initiative called Transforming the Faculty & Student Experience: A Framework for Growing Character at Austin Community College. The program is designed to infuse character into ACC curricula and programming.

“ACC is one of the first community colleges to engage in this transformative work,” says Ted Hadzi-Antich Jr, ACC Government professor. “Integrating character education and development can help our students develop the habits of mind that foster intellectual, civic, and moral virtues. Our students can gain essential skills that translate to professional and personal success in a rapidly transforming world.”

“We intend to broaden inquiry into character education across ACC and to put that model into practice through a faculty-led project that would invite faculty to investigate character education through the reflective development of teaching and learning practices, tools, and curriculum,” added Arun John, ACC English professor. “Given that most students at ACC must complete at least some general education courses in the core curriculum, this initiative could impact all degree-seeking students.”

The three-year grant was awarded by the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), a part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, and funded in part by Lilly Endowment Inc.

“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,” says Grant Potts, ACC’s dean of Curriculum Management. “Through innovative teaching, creative programming, and cutting-edge research, we aim to transform the lives of students, foster an inclusive culture of leadership and character, and catalyze a broader public conversation that places character at the center of leadership.”

ACC is one of only two community colleges recognized and one of only 33 higher education institutions across the nation to receive the grant under Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative.

Led by John and Hadzi-Antich Jr., recruiting and planning for the initiative will begin in fall 2025, followed by a faculty institute in spring 2026 with a core group of faculty. This core group will refine ACC’s character model, develop learning toolkits, and create reflective assessments focusing on practical wisdom virtues aligned with general education competencies. These resources will then be explored by an extended number of faculty in coordinated communities of inquiry, who will redesign their general education courses through a character education lens. 

The effort will expand to broader communities of practice within interdisciplinary programs and disciplinary contexts, fostering ongoing reflection and exploration of character in teaching and learning. Ultimately, this foundational work will inform and support the development of curriculum alignment projects, including common first-year experiences, cross-disciplinary general education assessment, dual credit program alignment, and a cohesive liberal arts pathway centered on character education. 

Faculty recruiting for the initiative will begin in the fall.

For more information about the grant program, visit the Wake Forest website.

Tags: ECI 2025 Institutional Impact Grant, English, government, grant, Wake Forest University