OUR HISTORY
how we started
Sanford N. McDonnell
The Center for Character and Citizenship (CCC) was established at the University of Missouri - St. Louis in September 2005. The idea for the CCC came out of the collaboration of two endowed professorships which had overlapping missions. Marvin W Berkowitz, Ph.D. was hired in 1998 as the inaugural Sanford N. McDonnell Endowed Professor of Character Education. Wolfgang Althof, D. Phil. joined UMSL in 2004 having been appointed the Teresa M. Fischer Endowed Professor of Citizenship Education. Following Dr. Althof’s retirement in 2018, Melinda Bier, Ph.D. became the Co-Director of the CCC.
The CCC was built upon a broad set of resources. The two endowed professorships brought both two internationally recognized scholars and the fiscal base of the two endowed funds. They also brought with them three core programs: the Leadership Academy in Character Education®; Kids Voting Missouri; and MY LOGO (formerly known as CECH-Up).
how we progressed
CCC staff, 2005
Youth Empowerment in Action
Melinda Bier, Ph.D. developed a long-standing and highly regarded program of extramurally-funded research around empowering youth to tackle civic and health problems (Youth Empowerment in Action), which became the fourth cornerstone program of the CCC.
Summer Institute / PRIMED Institute
In 2001, Marvin Berkowitz developed the Summer Institute in Character Education which took place in St. Louis almost annually through 2019. In 2012, Dr. Berkowitz brought the Summer Institute to Taiwan where it has been conducted annually through 2019 through a partnership with and support from the HTC Educational Foundation. In 2019, the Summer Institute was renamed the PRIMED Institute℠ in Character Education. Also in 2019, the PRIMED Institute was conducted in Bogota, Colombia, in conjunction with the Co-School Institute.
Graduate Courses
Graduate courses (M.Ed., Ed,D, and Ph.D) focusing on character education, citizenship education and servant leadership have been created and are taught regularly.
Educators from Taiwan visit St. Louis.
international scholars
Over time, numerous scholars with national and international reputations decided to come join the UMSL faculty because of the existence of the endowed professors and/or the CCC. This in turn led to the applications of doctoral students and visiting scholars from around the world (e.g., Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Kenya, Colombia, Switzerland, Germany, Spain) wishing to study at the CCC.
journal of character education
The CCC houses the Journal of Character Education, founded by and co-edited by Marvin Berkowitz in 2003.