Wendt Character Initiative • Winter 2024-25•

Wendt Center Updates

Welcome, Liza Johnson, our new director!

Liza Johnson, EdD, hit the ground running in her first semester as Director of the Wendt Center. From her previous position as UD's Personal Empowerment Director and as an expert in social and emotional learning, she has contributed new and keen insights to how we define and cultivate character. Under her leadership, the Center has begun collecting input from stakeholders across campus and exploring opportunities for strengthening and expanding our programming. We'll be sure to share updates as they happen!

New Journal Issue: Character and Inevitability

We released our tenth issue of our annual journal, Character and . . . Inevitability this fall. Authors Donovan Tann, Katie Boyer, Dale Easley, and Dan Fleming contributed thoughtful essays on how we can practice good character in response to what may seem inevitable, including climate change, aging, death, and mourning.

Abram Van Engen, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, provided a thoughtful response to the essays that emphasized the importance of having a telos, or end goal, in mind when fashioning the narrative that orients our choices as we face the inevitable.

Read Character and . . . Inevitability

2024-25 Research Team

This year's Wendt research team is also finalizing their drafts for next year's issue, Character and . . . Connection, to come out Fall 2025!

Mary Bryant and Liza Johnson with the 2024-25 Wendt Research Team, Lori Welsh, Sue Ann Marino, Nick Elder, and Joe Klinebriel

Podcast Episodes

As ever, we released podcast episodes in our Character Explorations series to accompany our new journal issue. Hear thoughtful discussions on inevitability straight from the authors' mouths.

We also published several podcast episodes on citizenship and civic virtues, raising and delving into important questions on how we can best contribute to our community. Listen online or search for Character Explorations on your favorite podcast platform.

Listen to Character Explorations

Check out a behind-the-scenes clip from one of our recent podcast episodes!

Life Worth Living

Faculty and Staff discussed Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most by Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun, and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, and pondered questions of life and existence. It also gave readers a peak into the first-year experience, as it is now required reading for World View Seminar I.

Going for Grants

Liza Johnson, Anne Funke, and Mary Bryant visited Wolter Woods in September for a fantastic retreat that kicked off a series of intense grant preparation/writing sessions. In December they followed up with focus groups to share their work and receive feedback.

Conferences Galore

Wendt staff also carved out time to attend conferences, to share and gain knowledge about current practices in the world of character and higher education.

Anne Funke and Liza Johnson attended CASEL's Conference and presented a poster on UD's Personal Empowerment Program.

Mary Bryant, Liza Johnson, and Anne Funke attended Wake Forest's Conference on Educating Character Across Differences. Anne Funke also presented on the Wendt Center's C.A.R.E. Model of Character Education for Athletes.

Heart-Warming Message

Character Scholar Mia Miller invited Wendt Center Staff to a December Women's Basketball Game for Faculty & Staff Appreciation Day. We were so touched by her kind message to us and enjoyed the very exciting game!

Character Scholars

Fall Semester's Kick-off Picnic

Wendt Scholars, Mentors, Advisory Board, and Staff enjoyed games, food, and fellowship together at the kick-off picnic!

Scholar Meetings

Scholars heard about Courageous Compassion from various speakers and processed what they learned with their small group and faculty mentor.

Topics on Courageous Compassion

Beth McCaw helped us define character.
Adam Smith encouraged us to think of courage as a virtue.
Judy Wolf provided her experience with service.
Victor Anderson shared how compassion serves him as a juvenile court office.
Angie Heidenreich and Mary Beth Theis showed us the importance of gratitude.
Nathan and Christy Hough shared their experience with compassion and the foster system.
Kristina Heinzen taught us about hospice and the essential role of compassion.
Jeff Haverland helped us see the challenges that first responders face.

Community-Building

With community time added into meetings, Scholars build closer relationships with more peers.

Warm-up days saw Scholars inviting friends and instructors up to the Wendt Center for snacks and hot drinks.

Spartans Make a Difference Day

10 Character Scholars, Mentors, and staff served at Convivium Urban Farmstead on Spartans Make a Difference Day. Many Character Scholars served in other parts of Dubuque with their athletic teams that day.

Scholar Christmas Party

We had so much fun together at the Christmas party, with delicious burgers, Christmas trivia, and a gingerbread house contest! Special guest/future Wendt Mentor Maggie Appel-Schumacher served as judge, and Dan Fleming's mentor group won the most total points to earn first place in our first annual Christmas party competition.

Gratitude Week

Wendt Character Scholars shared their gratitude with groups on and off campus, including the staff at the VA Clinic, NAMI, MercyOne Surgical Unit, United Way, Washington Middle School, and Alladin Food Service, as well as at UD's Advancement Office, Health Center, and AD staff.

Habits, Hope, and Heroes

Tammie Jo Shults shared her story of resilience and faith, both on her path to become pilot and as she faced challenges during her career as a naval aviator and as a commercial airline captain.

As a child she was inspired to pursue aviation, but the lack of support for women in the industry delayed her entrance into the profession. After her application to the Air Force was turned down, she persisted. She realized her goals with the U.S. Navy, earning her pilot’s wings in the T-34 and serving as an aggressor pilot for naval aviators during Operation Desert Storm. She became one of the first female F/A-18 Hornet pilots and promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve.

After retiring from active duty, Shults’ extensive training for high-pressure situations came to her aid as a commercial pilot for Southwest Airlines when an engine on a Boeing 737 exploded at high altitude on April 17, 2018, causing multiple system failures and rapid depressurization. Shults remained calm and composed and made a successful emergency landing in Philadelphia, saving 148 passengers and crew.

Shults' faith lifted her up and helped her continue through her hardest moments. Her message of hope and resilience was inspiring and encouraging to us all.

After her talk, Tammie Jo Shults warmly greeted audience members.

The next day, Shults met with Aviation students to share more of her experiences with them.

Shults generously shared her time with us, speaking with students and answering questions.

World View Corner

World View Director Anne Funke introduces new freshmen to World View Seminar.

The World View Seminar courses were busy this fall, and helped support approximately 300 first-year students in their first semester at UD. This fall, some highlights in World View Seminar 101 included:

Reading a new text, Life Worth Living, that explored ideas of purpose, the meaning of a good life, relationships, and faith.
Welcoming President Frampton to campus at a World View Ice Cream Social
Engaging in the Wendt Character Lecture for the first time, welcoming Tammi Jo Shults as our campus speaker
Experiencing a faculty panel on exploring and developing one's worldview
Taking the CliftonStrengths assessment and exploring how to leverage their strengths in college and beyond
And more!

World View Students engage their strengths with a tower-building challenge.

Between three sections of World View Seminar 201, students completed over 350 hours of service in the community, specifically at Wolter Woods and Prairie and in collaboration with ResourcesUnite.

Dr. Funke has been working closely with NetVUE (Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education) this fall as a part of our Program Development grant. This grant is supporting vocation in our undergraduate experience, focusing on the World View Seminar 201 course specifically.

With the support of a faculty/staff advisory team, we've begun to explore the text Called Beyond Ourselves that was written and edited by scholars at NetVUE partner schools. We will continue our work into the spring semester, developing vocation-specific activities that can be incorporated into the general education experience, specifically the World View curriculum.

Next steps with this grant is to begin strengthening community partnerships to provide students with meaningful service learning experiences in their first year.

In addition to the grant, a number of faculty and staff attended NetVUE's Big Read event, hosted right here in Dubuque on the Loras College campus in September. This conference fostered meaningful relationships and stimulated conversations on how UD can continue to engage with students in meaningful vocation exploration. The group of conference attendees has continued to meet and work together throughout the fall semester.

NetVUE's Big Read event's UD attendees (back row: Jim Gunn, President Frampton, Kevin Cattani; front row: Jon Barz, Mary Emily Duba, Anne Funke, Mary Bryant, Nicky Eisbach, Liza Johnson, Emily Rollins

Spring Preview

Don't miss these upcoming Wendt Center events!

Jon Turbett, Special Agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, will deliver the Spring 2025 Wendt Character Lecture on Monday, February 3, 2025, at 7 p.m., in John and Alice Butler Hall, Heritage Center.

Info on the Wendt Character Lecture

Liza Johnson will lead a 9-week Personal Empowerment program for faculty and staff this spring. The training focuses on building social and emotional competencies using the Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network EQ-in-Action framework.

Faculty-Staff book groups will discuss How to Know a Person by David Brooks in February. There are still a few openings left! Email wendt@dbq.edu for details or to sign up.

Email the Wendt Center to sign up

Wendt Grants Open House: March 12, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Want to hear more about how UD faculty and staff used their Wendt Grants to develop character in students? We invite you to our Wendt Grants Open House!

Announcements

Applications for the 2025-26 Wendt Character Scholars Program are open through January 31st! Students who will be full-time UD undergrads for the 2025-26 academic year (fall and spring) are eligible to apply. For instructions and application links, click the button below.

Character Scholar Applications

Other Opportunities

Calvin University offers wonderful speakers through their online January Series. Many of the talks will intersect with character, community, vocation, and service, and we highly recommend them! You can find the schedule and register for free via the button below.

Calvin University's January Series

Learn More about the Wendt Character Initiative

Credits:

Wendt Center for Character Education