Character Day Tomorrow

Wake is one of thousands of organizations worldwide who will be participating in the annual Character Day tomorrow.  No, it isn’t about dressing up as your favorite character – it is an effort to raise awareness about character development and character strengths.  Character strengths, as defined by Character Day, are “the positive parts of your personality that impact how you think, feel, and behave and are the keys to you being your best self.”

The Office of Student Engagement has a bunch of things your students – and YOU – can do if you want to be part of Character Day:

There is a VIA (Values in Action Character Assessment) that people can take. It’s online and free! This quick 15 minute quiz helps you understand your core characteristics.  I took it this morning because I am a giant nerd for surveys like this.  My top 5 character strengths were – in this order – Love, Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence, Prudence, Judgment (as in ‘thinking things through and examining all sides’ not ‘I am judging you’), and Honesty.

Use social media – tweet your VIA results with the hashtag #WFUCharacter or #WFUCharacterDay, or share any other character related musings on various social media platforms with those hashtags.

Visit Characterday.org all day on Thursday, September 22nd to join the Global LiveCast Q&A to listen and ask questions to some of the most prominent leaders in the field of character development, from all different perspectives: Martin Seligman, Angela Duckworth, Sal Kahn, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, and many more. Full speaker lineup and schedule.

Students can stop by the “Character Day” Resource Table in the Benson Student Center and pick up a free Character Kit. (Sadly, that one isn’t for parents and families, but the rest are!)

See more in the CHARACTER DAY flyer.

Two more fun things:

Campus Recreation just added a video about the Pros vs. Joes event from Orientation. It’s a fun look at one of the most beloved parts of Orientation for our students.

Campus Rec is also going to be offering Hard Hat Tours of the Sutton Center/Reynolds Gym Renovation over Family Weekend.  I am told the tour goes through the old Reynolds Gymnasium (Phase II & III) and shows folks what is being done as well as pictures of what it will look like in the coming days. If you want to take a tour, sign up online.