Full of Gratitude
This fall, we looked around and saw that, while we had much to be grateful for, the community around us continues to face a variety of needs. As we entered the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, we supported several student-led donation events as they expressed their own gratitude by giving back to the community.
We collaborated with Psychology intern Gracie Hall as she organized a donation drive to benefit the UD Food Co-op and Opening Doors. Attendees of mid-November events for Women's Hockey, Volleyball, and Wrestling gave food and hygiene items as they entered. Look at all the items they gave!
It was important to Gracie to connect meaningful service to gratitude and purpose. She says, "I chose Opening Doors because of their commitment to supporting women and families facing difficult circumstances. I also had the opportunity to visit the organization during a May Term course, where I learned firsthand about the impact of their work. Organizing this drive was a valuable experience that helped me recognize the importance of purposeful service in our community and showed me just how generous students, families, and community members can be."
Character Ambassadors led the Character Scholars in collecting and delivering donations to four local non-profit organizations: the Dubuque Rescue Mission, Project Rooted, Opening Doors, and Resources Unite.
Character Scholars and Ambassadors
We moved to a new format this fall for Wendt Character Scholars and Ambassadors, with weekly meetings falling into four different categories.
- At our Voices of Virtue meetings, we heard from speakers who shared their experiences and bits of wisdom to help us guide our own choices.
- On Mindfulness Mondays we focused on wellbeing, to help ourselves and those around us to flourish.
- During our Table Talks, we shared meals together, formed closer bonds, and strengthened our community.
- During our time to Read, Reflect, Relate, we discussed books we had read together as a cohort and reflected on the insights we gained from them.
Early in the fall, we held a retreat at Wolter Woods & Prairies. We spent time helping Wolter Woods staff with prairie maintenance, considering conservation and ecological needs, and connecting our work to the four character pursuits.
The Wendt Center hosted a heartwarming Friendsgiving for our Wendt Scholars and Ambassadors, complete with all the classic Thanksgiving favorites. Each scholar brought a family tradition to share at their table, making the meal extra meaningful and personal. It was a wonderful opportunity for connection, celebration, and building community!
The Wendt Center hosted our annual Christmas party in early December, bringing together our scholars, ambassadors, mentors, and advisory board members for a festive evening. Guests enjoyed a lively round of “Name That Christmas Tune” trivia and a spirited cookie-decorating competition, where we named first, second, and third-place winners. It was a wonderful night of fun, connection, and community-building!
Character and Emotional Intelligence
UD recently welcomed Joshua Freedman, CEO of Six Seconds: The Emotional Intelligence Network, as the featured speaker for this year's Michael Lester Wendt Character Lecture. His presentation, From Me to We: Developing Character for the Common Good, explored how emotional intelligence and a focus on community wellbeing can strengthen character in meaningful and lasting ways. The event brought together students, faculty, staff, and community members for an engaging conversation aligned with UD's Mission and the Wendt Center’s vision across campus.
In addition to the lecture, the Wendt Center partnered with campus and community groups to host the largest Six Seconds POP-UP Festival in North America right here at UD—an interactive celebration designed to strengthen connection, kindness, and emotional wellbeing. More than 300 third-grade students from the Dubuque Community School District and 300 Worldview students from UD participated!
The week also included two Lunch & Learn sessions led by Joshua Freedman, one for students and another for faculty, offering opportunities to further explore themes of character, emotional intelligence, and community engagement.
Check out the collages below for more of the best moments of the POP-UP Festival and the Lunch & Learn sessions that Joshua Freedman led during his visit with us.
Character in the Classroom
Spotlight on Character and Teaching
When we heard about a new activity that Molly Hein, Assistant Professor of Business, was doing with one of her classes, we wanted to share it out!
Each Friday, Molly asked her class to reflect in their journals about:
- three things they were grateful for
- at least two things they learned in the class
- one way they demonstrated character in their life that they were proud of
- any challenges they faced that week
- anything else they wanted Molly to know for the week or prayer requests
Molly then took the journals home over the weekend, read through them, and prayed over each student. Molly elaborates, "even if they didn't ask for prayers, I thanked God for their gratitude list, what they learned, and prayed over their challenges."
Molly also explained that she had several purposes for this activity:
- "To encourage students to focus on gratitude for what they have in their lives
- To give students opportunities to reflect on how they are demonstrating character to others (which ties in to living out UD's mission of challenging students to live lives of worth and purpose)
- To give them something to take with them at the end of the semester
- To give students an opportunity in a respectful, private way to consider their faith (without any pressure to have to do so)
- To help me to better understand what their "walk" looked like that week
- To ensure each student knows I care about them and their personal and professional growth"
The students we talked to appreciated the explicit work with gratitude and embraced the chance to tie their schoolwork to their faith. See their responses below!
New funding for Character in the Disciplines
Through the Institutional Impact Grant the Wendt Center received from the Educating Character Initiative, we are able to give departments extra funding to support their character learning outcomes over the next three years. Some of the projects departments have identified include the following:
DNAS is in the early stages of planning to create a "Wall of Character" - a visual representation of character exemplars in their field. This project will eventually be displayed in the University Science Center, highlighting local, national, and international men and women in science who are exemplifying character in their work and lives. Philosophy, Politics and History will be hosting a screening of the documentary "Eternal You" with a panel discussion to follow on campus. The panel that accompanies the film will draw upon the wisdom and insights of people who come at these issues from different philosophical, spiritual, professional, and disciplinary perspectives. Sociology will be using their funding to support bringing back a formerly offered course "Food and Ethnicity." Psychology will use funding to further support project-based experiences that follow their KARE logic model (Knowing, Acting, Realigning, and Encouraging) that began this year. Nursing and Education are currently exploring ways to collaborate and pool their departmental funding together to support service and community engagement initiatives.
We are very excited about the great ideas we're hearing and can't wait to see them come to fruition!
Wendt Faculty/Staff Grants Update
Faculty and staff have been (and continue to be) busy with projects supported by small grants funded by the Wendt Center--read on for details!
Amy Baus's project, Playing in the Sandbox with Integrity Through STEAM, is engaging students actively to develop the virtues of integrity, curiosity, and perseverance. Students in the following courses are participating in this initiative, tying character to lab-oriented psychology activities: Methods in Behavioral Research, Applied Behavior Analysis, Theories of Personality, Learning and Behavior, and Psychology of Gender. Brian Hallstoos took students from his course, Understanding Museums, to Cedar Rapids, visiting three museums that offered a wide range of exhibition experiences and perspectives. These museum visits and associated activities focused on developing the virtues of curiosity, humility, respect, inclusivity, community, and empathy. Franklin Yartey attended and presented a paper titled "Framing the Pirates of Somalia: A Critical Meta-Analysis" at a conference in September, The 10th International Conference on Communication and Media Studies in Paris. Phase 2 of this project will be bringing this project and knowledge to the students in Intercultural Communication this spring semester, focusing on building integrity and awareness. Kim Hilby and Ken Godwin will be taking students to Cuba in the spring semester, as a service-learning trip to bring food, medicine, clothing and supplies to Cuba. Students will engage in service projects and develop the virtues of empathy, dignity, respect, and service. Maggie Appel-Schumacher and Ken Godwin took students to Tanzania this past summer term, where students were exposed to Tanzanian culture. Students were able to compare and contrast various urban and rural settings and wider social forces while being immersed in Tanzanian culture. Students developed the virtues of empathy, adaptability, and cultural humility. Michele McKinlay took English and Theater students to A Midsummer Night's Dream this fall, which embodied onstage the more questions they face in their lives, and offered the opportunity for self-reflection and community. Virtues developed through this experience included humility, truthfulness, resilience, collaboration, stewardship, and purpose. Nick Elder worked to bring Dr. Catherine Denial to campus, and the Wendt grant allowed for copies of her book, a Pedagogy of Kindness, to be purchased for faculty and staff. The goal of this initiative was to infuse kindness into courses and classroom experiences, connecting to faculty's own character development and professional growth. Kaycie Lawson and Nolan Bielinski will be traveling this spring to the Galapagos Islands, where students will have opportunities to engage in sustainable practices, service, self-reflection, and grapple with issues surrounding ecotourism and biodiversity protection while exploring new cultures and communities. Virtues that students will focus on developing include conservation, ethical decision-making, communication, truthfulness, stewardship of environment, hope, gratitude, and wellbeing. Shea Chapin and Michelle Grace took students to Europe during the summer of 2025, where students enrolled in Peace and Justice in Europe learned the foundations of international human rights, and the international enforcement against human rights violations. Virtues developed while on this trip included empathy, justice, responsible leadership, courage, respect, and compassion.
Worldview Corner
Worldview Seminar 101
300 students enrolled in Worldview Seminar 101 this fall! Some curricular highlights included:
- Reflecting on values, identity, and who they are becoming
- Exploring our CliftonStrengths in collaborative class spaces and with a community partner, Antonio Mouzon
- Participating in the largest Pop-Up Festival event focused on character and kindness in partnership with the Wendt Center
- Attending the Involvement Fair
Worldview Seminar 201
Another 50+ students in Worldview Seminar 201 spent time this fall:
- Engaging with their vocation, calling and purpose
- Modeling global citizenship and positive social values
- Participating in community engagement with Resources Unite and local food pantries
Big News!
This spring, Worldview Seminar 2 students will be participating in community-engaged learning and participating in an event in April where campus and community members can gather to hear them present on their experiences.
THANK YOU to the 22 faculty Worldview instructors that helped shape and impact students' first semester at the University!
Character on Campus
Book Discussion Groups
Three separate groups of faculty and staff read and discussed Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier by Arthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey. Topics of conversation ranged from the necessity of unhappiness to ways to cultivate better relationships, to the value of finding purpose.
Lunch and Learn
This year we are excited to launch a new Lunch and Learn series for students, faculty, and staff, with deep appreciation to Stan and Patti Hasselbusch, whose commitment to the work of the Wendt Center for Character and Leadership have helped to make this Lunch and Learn series possible.
Our first Lunch and Learn emphasized kindness in academia, with Catherine J. Denial, author of A Pedagogy of Kindness, offering strategies and tools for infusing kindness into our coursework and interactions with students.
We also held two lunch and learns in conjunction with the Character Lecture and POP-UP Kindness Festival. Make sure to scroll up to read about those!
Later in the semester, our Wendt Character Ambassadors invited Anderson Sainci, Director of the Office of Economic Mobility for the City of Dubuque, to lead a Lunch and Learn session for students. Anderson guided attendees through an engaging discussion on the importance of having tough conversations—why they matter, how they shape character, and how they contribute to stronger, more compassionate communities. Students gained practical strategies for approaching difficult conversations with courage, clarity, and respect.
Character and . . . Connection
Check out the final issue of our Character and . . . journal online at https://www.dbq.edu/Wendt/Publications/CharacterandJournal/. Read a letter to students from Wendt staff, plus essays by Anne Funke, Joe Klinebriel, and Nick Elder. Senior Psychology major Anna Haverland also wrote a delightful response article from a student perspective. We foresee more opportunities to create resources on character for students in the future!
Character in the Community
We kept busy with several group service projects this fall! Students signed up through Pathways to Purpose or the Character Scholars Program to work together to help out the Dubuque Community!
- Cleaned up trash at Swiss Valley
- Helped harvest and put the Wolter Woods gardens to bed in preparation for winter
- Helped Project Rooted sort and organize after a big event for Spartans Make a Difference Day
- Assisted with St. Vincent DePaul's fundraiser: Ride/Walk/Bike for the Poor
- Provided support to racers at Dubuque County Conservation's Swiss Valley Trail Races
- Participated in the Dubuque Arboretum & Botanical Gardens' fall clean-up
Wendt Center Updates
We have a few items to share about the daily comings and goings within the Wendt Center as well!
Wendt Advisory Board Updates
Emma Powell, Coordinator of Student Engagement and Formation, has also joined the Wendt Advisory Board as our liaison to the athletics department. We are thrilled to have her on board!
Our current Advisory Board's new structure includes specific roles for each new member:
- Katie Bailey - Staff engagement lead
- Shea Chapin - Wendt grant applications lead
- Nathan Hough - Faculty engagement lead
- Stowe Kintzinger - Scholar applications lead
- Emma Powell - Athletics engagement lead
Jon Barz, Beth McCaw, Adam Smith, and Franklin Yartey will also remain on the advisory board, serving as elders and sharing their wisdom. Wendt staff plan to oversee different areas of the advisory board's work as well, with Liza Johnson taking engagement, Anne Funke Wendt grant selection, and Mary Bryant the Scholar selection process.
Farewell, Savannah!
We said goodbye to Savannah Stookey, the Wendt Center's loyal and delightful student worker since 2022. Savannah is off to student teach in the spring and then pursue her career in education. We'll miss you Savannah! (What will we do without you?) Don't forget to visit whenever you're back on campus!
UD Enters the LearningWell Coalition
We’re excited to announce that UD has officially joined the LearningWell Coalition, a national network of colleges and universities dedicated to learner-centered education that promotes lifelong wellbeing, purpose, and flourishing. By becoming a member, we gain access to valuable resources, collaboration opportunities, best-practice sharing, and tools to help deepen our commitment to student wellbeing and character development. Click here to view UD's page: https://learningwell.org/university-of-dubuque/ Additionally, Liza Johnson was invited to attend the Coalition’s national leaders meeting in Chicago — a gathering of higher-education leaders committed to reimagining campus culture through purpose-driven education and student wellbeing. This participation reflects our dedication not only to join but actively engage with the broader higher-education community to strengthen character, purpose, and the holistic student experience.
Working with the ARC
As part of the Educating Character Initiative grant, one of the Wendt Center's key goals is to advance character development across our broader networks. The American Rivers Conference (ARC) plays a central role in both the University of Dubuque and the student-athlete experience. To further our goal, Liza Johnson recently met with student-athletes at the ARC Student Leadership Conference to gather their insights on what good character looks like for athletes, fans, and administrators. She is leading this effort to identify cultural gaps within athletics and develop solutions that foster a values-driven environment. In addition, she will be speaking at the ARC Conference in May to collect similar feedback from athletic directors and faculty representatives.
Sharing our Framework
We continued our efforts to share out the Wendt Center's new character framework and programs with an open house. Little by little, we're getting the word out!
George Fox Visit: Christ-Centered Character Formation Convening
This fall, Liza Johnson had the honor of attending the “Christ-Centered Character Formation Convening” at George Fox University. She joined peers from faith-based colleges to explore how to nurture student character in ways that are grounded in faith while also welcoming a diverse student body. What stood out most was the spirit of generosity—participants openly shared successes, challenges, and innovative practices, creating a true sense of community and shared purpose.
Educating Character Initiative: Assessing Character and Evaluating Programs
Liza Johnson and Anne Funke recently attended the “Assessing Character and Evaluating Programs” workshop offered by Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative. The program focused on helping grantees develop practical strategies to evaluate the impact of character education initiatives. During the workshop, they learned tools and frameworks to design evaluation plans and measure program outcomes effectively. They will now apply these insights to strengthen assessment practices and enhance the impact of character-focused programs on our campus.
Congratulations to Mary Bryant on 10 Years in the Wendt Center!
Today we celebrate Mary Bryant, our incredible Director of Media and Programming in the Wendt Center, as she reaches an inspiring milestone—10 years of dedication, creativity, and unwavering care. Mary is known for her warmth, empathy, and an impressive range of multifaceted skills that make her an irreplaceable part of our team. She leads with kindness, steadiness, and a genuine love for the Center’s mission—qualities that elevate everyone around her. Simply put, our department wouldn’t function without her. Mary is the behind-the-scenes superhero who makes the rest of us shine, bringing heart to every project and excellence to every detail. Please join us in celebrating Mary—her decade of service, her extraordinary impact, and the many ways she makes the Wendt Center a better place every single day. Cheers to 10 remarkable years, Mary!
Mark Your Calendar!
Spring 2026 Michael Lester Wendt Character Lecture with President Travis Frampton
Feb. 9, 7:00 p.m.—John & Alice Butler Hall, Heritage Center Storytelling is one of the most enduring ways we pass on character. In this unique lecture, President Frampton opens the book of his own leadership journey inviting students, faculty, and guests to consider how their own stories can become sources of meaning, growth, and transformation in a changing world.
Free event—no tickets required!
Personal Empowerment Training for Faculty and Staff
This 9-week personal empowerment program focuses on building social and emotional competencies using the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network EQ-in-Action framework. The training will be co-led by Liza Johnson and Anne Funke.
Dates: Mondays, 3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Jan 26, Feb 2, 9, 16 & 23, Mar 9, 16, 23 & 30.
Faculty and Staff Book Discussion Groups Led by Becky Canovan
We are so excited to have Becky Canovan leading our discussion of The Seed Keeper by Diana Wilson, the 2026 Dubuque County Reads selection!
Choose from two discussion time options: Wednesdays: Feb. 25 and March 11 (12:30-1:20 pm) OR Thursdays: Feb. 26 and March 12 (3:30-4:20 pm)