University of Missouri–St. Louis education professors Marvin Berkowitz, Wolfgang Althof, Melinda Bier and Victor Battistich founded the Center for Character and Citizenship in 2005 to create stronger learning environments through respect and empathy for students, faculty and staff. On Sept. 29 friends of the center commemorated the Center for Character and Citizenship’s 10th anniversary.
In its first decade, the center has instituted paradigm-shifting programs for educators and pre-collegiate students such as the Leadership Academy in Character Education, Youth Empowerment in Action! and Missouri Youth Engaged in Local Government. Local community partners include organizations and companies like CharacterPlus, Circus Harmony and Anheuser-Busch. And beyond local efforts, the center has presented character and citizenship research and trained educators in countries such as Taiwan, China, England, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Spain with international partners such as the HTC Foundation in Taiwan, the Jubilee Centre in England, and Reitaku University in Japan.
“It’s much easier for educators to learn, master and enact curricula than it is to form genuine bonds and change ways of being with students in the classroom,” said Berkowitz. “As educators we are here to serve the developmental best interests of kids, and working on strategies for role modeling and teaching social responsibility is where the rubber hits the road.”
Reviewed 2015-10-08