Warren Wilson College Receives $350,000 Grant to Advance Civic Environmentalism and Climate Stewardship

Grant builds on lessons from Hurricane Helene to connect character, citizenship and environmental responsibility

SWANNANOA, N.C., Aug. 20, 2026 — Warren Wilson College has received a three-year, $349,732 Institutional Impact Grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), a project of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, to advance an educational model connecting environmental stewardship, service and civic responsibility. The ECI is funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc.

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The award supports "Cultivating Climate Character: Relational Stewardship and Citizenship at Warren Wilson College," an initiative building on the College community's response to Hurricane Helene in 2024. The grant follows a previous $50,000 Capacity-Building Grant and will formalize experiential practices that connect character development with stewardship of community and place.

The work reflects a concept central to Warren Wilson's educational philosophy: civic environmentalism — the belief that the health of communities, democratic life and the natural environment are interconnected, and that education should prepare students to care for all three. Guiding that philosophy are Indigenous, place-based approaches to storytelling and knowledge sharing, with collaboration and reciprocity serving as the project's central values.

That philosophy became especially tangible following Hurricane Helene, when students, faculty and staff participated directly in recovery, land stewardship and community support — demonstrating Warren Wilson's longstanding belief that education, work and service are not separate from society's challenges, but essential to addressing them.

The initiative will focus on three areas: a Storytelling Fellowship engaging students, faculty and staff in peer-driven storytelling; Inclusive Excellence Programming centered on leadership, dialogue and character development; and expanded Community Engagement and Work opportunities that put climate stewardship and citizenship into practice.

"Our character-building approach is community-oriented and inclusive, with community encompassing people, place and environment," said Scotti Norman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Material Culture and Archaeology who developed the proposal. "These initiatives will enhance undergraduate student character development through bottom-up, holistic engagement that creates a sense of belonging and connection to place."

"We consider the college relational — we are constructed and reconstructed through interactions and shared experiences with people, places and more-than-human communities," said Siti Kusujiarti, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology and Chair, Social & Cultural Studies Department who co-leads the project with Norman. "That relational approach, rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing, is what makes storytelling and reciprocity central to how we practice climate stewardship and citizenship here."

The grant advances Warren Wilson's Progressive Promise, an educational model integrating academics, work and community engagement through experiential learning. Its roots extend to the College's founding as the Asheville Farm School in 1894 and continue through initiatives including the Center for Working Lands, Climate Action Now and Democracy in Action.

About Warren Wilson College

Warren Wilson College is a vibrant, independent college with an innovative curriculum that purposefully integrates the liberal arts with community engagement and work experiences to prepare students for not only professional success, but also a life of meaning. Visithttps://www.warren-wilson.edu.

Media Contact: Ally Hughes, Director of Public Relations [email protected] 310-500-8488