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Saint Mary’s will once again host the Minnesota Character Recognition Awards luncheon in partnership with Synergy & Leadership Exchange on Wednesday, May 22 at the University Center. The event will feature a keynote by Dr. Arthur Schwartz, President of Character.org, a welcome by Minnesota Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Stephanie Graff, followed by the awards presentation that will recognize schools and educational leaders from across the state with awards for Minnesota Ethical Leadership, Catholic Educator, Minnesota Promising Practices, Minnesota School of Character, and Champion of Character. Program begins at 11 A.M. Tickets to attend the event can be purchased for [...]

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is thrilled to welcome back Dr. Marvin Berkowitz for the Ed.S. Spring Faculty Workshop. Dr. Marvin W Berkowitz is a world renowned scholar, researcher and educator. He is the inaugural Sanford N. McDonnell Endowed Professor of Character Education, and Co-Director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He is the author of PRIMED for Character Education: Six Design Principles for School Improvement.

    The school of education at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in partnership with CharacterPlus is excited to offer a Professional Development Webinar Series that focuses on character. The next webinar is on Tuesday, March 5th from 3:30 -5:00 pm. Michael Barolak, MSW will be presenting on Restorative Practices 101. 1.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be awarded to participants for attending each session. The webinars focus on personal development and character.  These “small bites” of personal development and character programming are designed to provide participants with a quick and meaningful boost of awareness and intentionality while filling their personal [...]

  For the past few years, I was offered the opportunity to gain a deeper appreciation for the construct of character education.  My educational background is business, specifically finance and economics.  As such, the concept of character education was somewhat foreign.  The unfamiliarity with the field presented a plurality of questions and opportunities.  The questions centered around how would learning more about this area of research benefit me?  Concomitantly, I was curious as to how I would infuse the lessons learned into the classroom.  The following few paragraphs aim to provide the reader with a working definition of character education along [...]

    The school of education at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in partnership with CharacterPlus is excited to offer a Professional Development Webinar Series that focuses on character. The fourth webinar is on Tuesday,  February 6 from 3:30 -5:00 pm. Dr. Julie Sperry will be presenting and the topic is: Character and SEL Leadership  “The webinar will explore  leading social, emotional, & character-focused initiatives in  schools. 1.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be awarded to participants for attending each session. The webinars focus on personal development and character.  These "small bites" of personal development and character programming are designed to provide participants with a quick and meaningful boost of [...]

  Dr. Antar Salim, D.B.A., a core faculty member of Saint Mary’s Doctorate of Business Administration program, led a learning circle that aims to explore the intersection of character and leadership with staff, faculty, and students.The session provided participants with a deeper understanding of their character strengths and strategies to leverage those strengths to enhance their leadership capabilities. Salim received a faculty fellowship through the Kern Family Foundation to enroll in the Master of Arts in Character Education program at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He is the first at Saint Mary’s to complete the program.   “The learning [...]

  Register for our next CharacterPlus Webinar on January 9th, 3:30 pm Central Time with Dr. Kristen Pelster! We are thrilled to partner with Dr. Pelster once again in providing tools for character development. Dr. Pelster will be speaking on the topic of Exploring Ethical, Intellectual, Performance, & Civic Character. 1.5 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be awarded to participants for attending the session. All educators are invited to register by contacting nerickso@smumn.edu.

This past Fall the Saint Mary’s Twin Cities Campus in partnership with Sisters’ Camelot has launched a new monthly volunteer opportunity for faculty, staff, and students to sort, pack and distribute fresh fruits, vegetables, and other specialty items to anyone in the Twin Cities at the University Center. Sisters' Camelot, a Minneapolis non-profit organization, is dedicated to rescuing food, raising awareness about food justice, and sharing free healthy food in the community.  “Volunteering with Sister's Camelot is very rewarding,” says Gena Bilden, Director of Campus Operations at the Twin Cities. “Knowing that I am helping bring fresh whole and organic foods [...]

Emily Heydon C’16, M’17, C’23 comes from a family of teachers. “My mom was a teacher, my grandma was a teacher. It’s something that really stood out to me,” she said. “It was that, or being a nurse, and I just realized I loved kids.” So, when it came time to look at college programs, she went to the University of Wisconsin-Stout and got her undergraduate degree in early childhood education. She knew she enjoyed working with younger children and wanted to explore ways to help them more. Now in her ninth year as an educator, Emily teaches kindergarten at St. [...]