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FREE TO ATTEND. PLEASE REGISTER FOR FREE TICKET! Minneapolis, MN –   Notre Dame Professor John Duffy will present Bridging the Divide for the annual Hesburgh Lecture, 3 p.m., Saturday, 11/11/23 at The Basilica of Saint Mary, Teresa of Calcutta Hall (Lower Level), 88 N. 17th St., Minneapolis, MN 55403. The Basilica of Saint Mary and Saint Mary’s University School of Education Character and Virtue Education will co-sponsor the lecture.  Before the 2020 election, one thing many sadly agreed on was our nation was likely to remain deeply divided, regardless of the outcome. Repairing or bridging the deep political and social divisions within our society will require leadership consensus building, and [...]

    Antar Salim, D.B.A., a core faculty member in the Doctorate of Business Administration program at Saint Mary’s, 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. Dr. Salim is the first at Saint Mary’s to complete the program. “The MA in Character Education afforded me an opportunity to examine myself, as well as life in general, from a more panoptic perspective,” says Dr. Salim. “I was not familiar with neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics. However, over my three-year intellectual journey at [...]

Saint Mary’s school of education is committed to providing virtue-based professional development for faculty and staff as curriculum development continues. Tony Klemmer, Ph.D., founder of Wisdom for Good, led a personal formation retreat for twelve faculty and staff at Saint Mary’s. Diane Moeller, Associate Professor in the Ed.S. in Educational Administration program, said, “The goal of the retreat was to shift the way we see the world through a moral lens so that we can understand moral goodness, human flourishing, and ultimately lead lives of meaning. We will continue in four virtual sessions in the coming weeks to complete our retreat [...]

Posted By: Dr. Matt Gerlach On: 2023-10-27 Posted On: 2023-10-27 This past Tuesday, Saint Mary’s University welcomed former Minnesota Viking, Super Bowl Champion, speaker, and author, Mr. Matt Birk for the most recent installment in the Cardinal Virtue Lecture Series. Birk is a 15-year NFL veteran, former Minnesota Viking, and Super Bowl champion with the Ravens. The lecture series was launched in 2019, shortly after the arrival of Rev. James P. Burns as the 14th president of Saint Mary’s. Cardinal Virtue speakers and topics are chosen to create thought-provoking dialogue as Saint Mary’s cultivates in its learners virtues that will guide them throughout their educational journey [...]

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota and CharacterPlus are partnering to host a series of monthly webinars 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 wile filling their personal development and character toolboxes. All webinars will be on Tuesdays 3:30-5:00 pm CDT. Dates are: Dates for the webinars are: October 24 November 14 January 9  February 6  February 27 March 5 Each session is $20. 1.5 continuing education units (C.E.U.s) will be awarded to participants for each session. Register at: smumn.edu/selectcharacter.

St. Mary’s University of Minnesota is thrilled to welcome Dr. Tony Klemmer from October 27-28 to give his “Wisdom for Good” Retreat to the Saint Mary’s  Ed.S. faculty, advisors, and staff. “Dr. Tony Klemmer, founder of Wisdom for Good, has been working closely with the EdS faculty and Saint Mary’s Curriculum Department as they take on the task of re-writing the curriculum for our highly respected Principal, Special Education Director, and Superintendent licensure programs,” says Ed.S. Program Director, Marcia Nelson. “Tony has invited the Saint Mary’s faculty to experience a personal formation journey for themselves before they are tasked with taking our [...]

  On September 18th, delegates from several faith-based universities around the country gathered at the Minneapolis campus of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. Dr. L. Gregory Jones, president of Belmont University, and Dr. Liz Gulliford, honorary research fellow at the Jubilee Centre for Character & Virtues, were keynote speakers. The convening focused on  the role of faith in higher education as well as character and virtue education. Dr. Jones presented: “Formation for Flourishing: Why faith-based higher education can help renew the purpose of education.” Dr. Gulliford presented: “An Appreciative Critique of the Jubilee Centre’s Character Framework” and “Alternative meta virtues to [...]

Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, 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, will lead a discussion on the topic of moral phobia in education on October 13th. He is also the author of PRIMED for Character Education: Six Design Principles for School Improvement, which Saint Mary's faculty and staff read in a book study this summer. A light lunch will be served. Please e-mail hjordan@smumn.edu to RSVP.

St. Mary’s University of Minnesota is thrilled to welcome Dr. Marvin Berkowitz and Dr. Kristin Pelster for a two part workshop for Ed.S. faculty on October 14th. Berkowitz is a world-renowned scholar, researcher, and educator from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He wrote PRIMED for Character Education: Six Design Principles for School Improvement. Dr. Kristen Pelster, also from the University of Missouri-St. Louis, will also be joining to present on character education.  “Dr. Marvin Berkowitz, director of the Center for Character and Citizenship at the University of Missouri at St. Louis has been a partner and supporter of Saint Mary's character [...]

  by Deb Nahrgang | Mar 31, 2022 | Exec. Doc of Education in Leadership GRAD, School of Ed, Stories As principal of Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake, Minn., Christina Pierre C’05, C’10, D’16 deals with a lot of paperwork, personnel, policy revisions, and budgets. Never losing sight that learning is the No. 1 priority of her work, Pierre believes it’s incredibly important to carve out time to investigate organizational development changes that better meet the needs of her sixth- through eighth-grade students. “I wish my entire job was about this,” she said. “Working together to move education forward is absolutely critical.” One outcome of [...]