Johann Ducharme Awarded New Grant That Focuses on Entrepreneurial Leadership and Character

Johann Ducharme ECI award graphic

article written by Horn Entrepreneurship

Johann Ducharme, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and faculty director of the Siegfried Fellows, was awarded a $50,000 grant from The Educating Character Initiative (ECI), a part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, for the project “Institutional Consensus of Character Education at the University of Delaware.”

The aim of this 12-month grant is to conduct an institution-wide, strategic consensus of the leadership and character work currently underway and begin assessing for the collective impact of academic, extra-curricular, and athletic programming. The Capacity-Building Grant will fund activities such as strategic gatherings of UD leadership educators, programming led by character scholar-experts, and a convening for entrepreneurial leaders across Delaware.

“The future hope is to facilitate and integrate the collective efforts of leadership, entrepreneurship, and character formation at UD, building upon the structures and processes to create an institutional exemplar for state flagship universities,” said Ducharme.

Ducharme’s research sits at the cross-section of entrepreneurship, leadership, and intellectual virtues with particular emphasis on fostering intellectual humility in entrepreneurs and future leaders. “Intellectual humility is understood as a virtuous ability to remain aware and own one’s intellectual limitations,” said Ducharme. “In short, a willingness to admit ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I might be wrong.’”

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