Recognition highlights how action-driven learning helps students build character, lead with empathy, and create meaningful change
Participate Learning has been recognized by Character.org with a 2026 Promising Practice Award for Global Leaders, a K–12 school framework that helps students connect classroom learning to real-world challenges through leadership, service, and community-centered experiences.
By connecting leadership, service, and global learning to authentic community challenges, Global Leaders helps students build empathy, responsibility, and the confidence to create positive change in their schools and communities. The Promising Practice award recognizes innovative, effective, and replicable approaches to character development that help students put “goodness in action” through meaningful learning experiences.
This year, Character.org honored 290 schools and organizations across the United States and internationally for practices that strengthen school culture and help students develop the values, relationships, and leadership skills needed to contribute positively to the world around them.
As schools increasingly look for ways to strengthen student engagement, belonging, and future-ready skills, the recognition highlights the growing importance of learning experiences that move beyond academics alone.
In Global Leaders schools, action-driven learning means students apply academic learning to real community challenges through service projects, leadership opportunities, collaboration, and problem solving. By engaging in authentic experiences connected to their communities and the world around them, students develop character through meaningful action and begin to understand their ability to create positive change.
How Global Leaders develops character through action
Global Leaders was recognized for creating meaningful opportunities for students to develop leadership, empathy, and global awareness through authentic, action-driven learning experiences. Across Global Leaders schools, students learn that character is something they practice through collaboration, service, problem solving, and leadership in their everyday learning environments.
Through Global Leaders, schools integrate leadership, global learning, and character development into everyday instruction, helping students recognize their ability to make a meaningful impact.
Participate Learning’s Blueprint for a Better World encourages students to explore how they can protect the planet, care for people, and build a better future. Students begin with issues they can see in their own communities, helping them understand how local action can ripple outward into broader change.
By exploring challenges that connect local communities to global issues, students also develop global competence and a deeper understanding of their role in the world.
In 53 schools across 25 districts in Florida, North Carolina, Connecticut, and New Mexico, Global Leaders helps students practice leadership through real-world problem solving and community engagement.
Schools creating real-world impact
At Heritage Middle School (Burke County Public Schools, NC), students led plastic waste reduction in their cafeteria to encourage environmental responsibility and community action. Their actions sparked districtwide change and earned recognition from then-governor Roy Cooper. Through the experience, students practiced leadership, collaboration, and civic responsibility while seeing firsthand how their actions could influence their broader community.
At South Graham Elementary School (Alamance-Burlington School System, NC), schoolwide food drives and service-learning projects build empathy, leadership, and civic engagement. A local partnership with Harvest Baptist Church helped the school triple its food pantry donations from the previous year as students realized their contributions directly impacted classmates facing food insecurity. The experience helped students connect compassion with meaningful action and understand the importance of caring for others within their community.
At Melaleuca Elementary (Palm Beach County, FL), a science fair became career-connected learning as students extended standards-based experiments into real-world problem solving. Thinking like engineers, architects, and scientists, they explored how their findings applied to infrastructure, energy, and global challenges. Through inquiry, collaboration, and innovation, students developed confidence and a sense of responsibility for contributing solutions to real-world issues.
Building character through action
Says Lindsey Harrison, Associate Director of Global Leaders, “We are deeply honored to receive this award because it celebrates the educators and school leaders who are creating spaces where students feel a true sense of belonging, purpose, and responsibility. Across Global Leaders schools, students are learning that their voices, ideas, and actions can positively shape the communities around them.”
Founded in 1993, Character.org is a global leader in character development and is widely known for its 11 Principles Framework for Schools, which helps schools and organizations build cultures rooted in strong relationships, shared values, and ethical leadership.
This recognition affirms the importance of learning environments where students develop not only academic knowledge, but also the empathy, responsibility, and confidence to become a force for good in their communities and beyond.
Explore how Global Leaders helps schools develop empathetic, globally minded student leaders through action-driven learning and real-world community impact.
About Participate Learning
Participate Learning partners with schools and districts to prepare students for success in a globally connected world through cultural exchange, language programs, and global education initiatives that foster academic achievement, cultural competence, and leadership.
About Character.org
Character.org is a worldwide network of educators, researchers, and civic leaders dedicated to empowering people of all ages to practice and model character strengths and core values that shape positive communities and responsible citizenship.
