On May 28, 2026, the Centre launched a virtual mentoring-based project on Cultivating Virtues for Leadership (CViL). The virtual mentoring-based project comprised a Cohort of School administrators from several Counties in Kenya who have enrolled to attend a series of 12 virtual Coaching and Mentorship Speaker Series. The virtual launch was attended by stakeholders from the Kenya Secondary Schools Heads Association and Teachers Service Commission. Based on CViL programming, the Centre’s collaborative goal with education stakeholders is to mentor and coach institutional administrators by building and enhancing skills and competencies for proper management of learning institutions’ as stipulated in Teacher Induction, Mentorship and Coaching Guidelines.

Grounded in a servant leadership framework, CViL promotes cultivation of virtues to support educators in becoming effective and ethical leaders. In the recent publication, findings suggest that CViL is a relevant and feasible leadership development strategy for the Kenyan context. A published copy of CViL research findings is available through this link:  https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00208825.2026.2642250.
The first virtual coaching and mentorship session on ‘Cultivating Virtues for Leadership Modelas Professional Development for Educators’ was facilitated by Dr. Melinda Bier, Teresa M. Fischer Professor of Citizenship Education, and Co-Director, Center for Character and Citizenship, University of Missouri-St. Louis. Dr. Melinda outlined a virtue-based servant Leadership model with personal virtues like humility, courage, gratitude and forgiveness, and organizational virtues including foresight, empowerment and stewardship, demonstrating how these practices lead to better school climates, higher job satisfaction, well-being and higher productivity, longer leader retention, more trusting environment and positive spillover effects in personal and family life. Also, she encouraged participants to reflect on their noble purpose and why they are leaders. Participants shared their noble purposes and expressed support for the servant leadership approach in the school setting through the chat.

The mentorship sessions are being hosted by the Centre Director for the Character Education Programme, Peter King’ori in collaboration with Prof. Vishalache Balakrishna from the Centre for Research in International and Comparative Education (CRICE) in Malaysia. This Project is supported with the Strategic Initiative Development (SID) grant awarded to CCL by the Association for Moral Education.