Alverno College's Thea Bowman Institute Honored With Promising Practices 2021 Award

The Wisconsin Character Education Partnership (WCEP) has awarded the Thea Bowman Institute for Excellence and Leadership at Alverno College a 2021 Promising Practice Award for the program’s racial identity development seminar.

Alverno’s Thea Bowman Institute is a cohort-model, full-tuition scholarship program for Black undergraduates who have a strong desire to serve as leaders, which is supported by a group of Alverno faculty and staff who identify as Black women. This group of “Inspi-A-Neers” hosts monthly racial identity development seminars that give the Bowman Scholars a “safe space to facilitate identity awareness, develop critical thinking skills, and experience joy, healing and hope for the future,” says Dr. Vanessa Hintz, a licensed clinical psychologist, an Alverno assistant professor, and a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant.

“I’m thankful to be recognized for the amazing work we’re doing and to be able to continue this work with our scholars,” said Hintz, who is also a Bowman Scholar Inspi-A-Neer. “It’s so important to develop a social-emotional connection with students to create a safe space for learning, to have these conversations so they feel valued and free to be their authentic selves, and to empower them.”

WCEP annually presents Promising Practice Awards to schools or districts that have developed and successfully implemented a unique character education practice. Promising practices are activities or programs that have had a significant impact with measurable results on the development of character education in a school or organization. They should be unique, specific and easily duplicated by other schools and districts.

This is the first time WCEP has awarded a Promising Practice Award to a Wisconsin non-K-12 school.

WCEP promotes the intentional proactive effort by educators to instill in all Wisconsin students core universal ethical values such as integrity, honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect for themselves and others through character education. To learn more about WCEP, visit wicharacter.org.

For more information about the Bowman Institute, visit alverno.edu/bowman.