Teaching the Whole Engineer with Elisabeth Arnold Weiss

What does character have to do with engineering, education, and the future of tech? Everything.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss—associate professor of technical communication at USC Viterbi, character-education innovator, and former acrobat(!)—joins us to explore how character isn’t an “add-on” to engineering, but the accelerant that makes trustworthy technology and resilient people possible.

Drawing on 25+ years teaching engineers, athletics-forged grit, and fresh insights from the Virtuosity program and Wake Forest’s Educating Character Initiative, Elisabeth shows how to weave virtues into packed curricula, high-stakes industries like aviation, and everyday life—from studios to classrooms to parenting.

🧠 What you’ll hear:
 🧬 Why character is intrinsic to being human—and to practical wisdom and judgment
 🎬 How stories (and great films) mirror character transformation
 🏗️ Why tech’s speed & power demand human-centric engineers we can trust
 ✖️ The formula: Competence × Character = Trust (and faster ethical decisions)
 🏋️ Athletics as a forge for humility, courage, discipline—and high-performance mindsets
 🧱 The “tight curriculum” problem—and Elisabeth’s fix: broad infusion across courses, labs, and co-curriculars
 🧭 New USC initiatives: a Freshman Academy character module, the Engineer-23 milestone framework, TEAM (Teaching Engineers Athletes’ Mindset), industry exemplar talks, and “Keys to Life” purpose walks
 🛫 Inside aviation safety: linking leader character to communication, culture, and mortal-stakes decisions
 📲 How Virtuosity’s daily habit-stacking made character a lived operating system (not a lecture)
 👩‍🏫 Why educators must practice what they teach—and model growth in public
 👪 A surprising parenting takeaway: candour and consistency as acts of integrity

If you care about building trustworthy tech, teaching the next generation, or simply growing your own judgment in a machine-shaped world—this conversation will both ground and stretch you.

Resources
•  Educating Character Initiative (https://leadershipandcharacter.wfu.edu/eci/)

About Virtuosity

• Website (https://virtuositycharacter.ca/)
• Monthly Newsletter (https://mailchi.mp/virtuositycharacter/subscribe-to-the-virtuosity-monthly-newsletter)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/virtuosity-character)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/virtuositycharacter/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=)

Host, Dr Corey Crossan (https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreycrossan/), is a research and teaching fellow at The Oxford Character Project where she develops and facilitates character development programs for students, industry, and university partners. Corey’s love for elite performance developed as she competed in top-level athletics for most of her life, highlighted by competing as a NCAA Division 1 athlete. Corey translated her understanding of elite performance into a passion for helping individuals and organizations develop sustained excellence. She is also the co-founder of Virtuosity Character, a mobile software application created to support the daily, deliberate practice of character-based leadership development.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome
• 1:40 Introduction to Elisabeth
• 3:16 Character Matters
• 9:53 Film & Storytelling
• 12:06 Early Influences & Family
• 18:58 Acrobatics & Humility
• 26:00 Engineering Education
• 29:30 Integrating Character at USC
• 34:11 Why Engineers Need Character
• 41:17 Overcoming Curriculum Constraints
• 51:51 Practicing What You Preach
• 53:48 Virtuosity in Higher Education
• 1:02:13 Character in Aviation
• 1:04:09 Character Quotient
• 1:13:12 Bye For Now

Transcript

Corey Crossan [00.00.09]
Every choice builds character. On the Virtuosity podcast, we explore how to make every day a rep toward excellence. I'm Corey, your host and co-founder of Virtuosity. My journey into character development began in sport, where I discovered that strengthening my character didn't just improve my performance — it transformed my entire life. Since then, I've been gripped by understanding how we can intentionally build character to fuel both personal and professional success.

At Virtuosity, we believe character is like a muscle. It needs consistent training. That's why we've built a research-based system that acts as your character gym, making character development practical, scalable, and accessible, even within the largest organizations.

On this podcast, we sit down with participants from our flagship Virtuosity program, where individuals commit to a full year of daily character development powered by Virtuosity. Our guests will share why character matters to them, how they're applying it in their personal and professional lives, and the insights they've gained along the way. We hope these conversations challenge, inspire, and equip you with new ways to integrate character into your own journey.

Subscribe to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. And if something resonates, share it with your friends and colleagues. Ready to start your own Virtuosity journey? Download the Virtuosity Character app or visit virtuositycharacter.ca to learn more. Now, let's dive into today's episode.

Hello everyone and welcome to the tenth episode of the Virtuosity podcast! If you're new, I encourage you to check out our launch episode with Mary Crossan for a powerful introduction to the series. Today, we’re thrilled to welcome Elisabeth Arnold Weiss as our guest.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss is an Associate Professor of Technical Communication Practice at USC Viterbi, where she has taught for over 25 years. She leads courses in advanced engineering communication, ethics, and social impact, and has developed global and cross-cultural components for innovation and safety programs. A Fellow with Virtues & Vocations and grant recipient from the Educating Character Initiative, she creates advanced character-building and immersive learning labs, including Improv for Engineers and the ViterbiVerse.

Her outreach includes ATLAS, partnerships with schools and STEM programs, and initiatives such as TEAM with USC Athletics, the Keys to Life series, and the DREAM Industry Mentorship. She has received USC’s Mentoring Award (2024), Writing Award (2022), and Viterbi Dean’s Award for Innovation (2019). She also chairs the ASEE Pacific Southwest Region and serves in leadership roles with USC’s Slaughter Center and iPodia. Elisabeth holds degrees from the University of Virginia and Claremont Graduate University.

Elisabeth, welcome to the podcast! It’s so great to have you with us.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.03.03]
Thank you so much, Corey. It’s wonderful to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Corey Crossan [00.03.08]
The first question I launch into every single session is: why does character matter to you?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.03.16]
That's a good question. I appreciate that question. And I'm going to tell you a couple of things. Character matters to me quite a bit for two distinct reasons. The first is I feel like character is intrinsic to what it means to be human— to the human experience.

I actually believe that we are here to build character. I think that's the endeavor of life in many ways. So I see character as innate to the human experience. It's innate to learning. It's the essence of it, the heart of it, and it's what's happening to us or what we're doing throughout our life experiences.

I see it in a very big way, even though it can be more subterranean. Through life experiences, I feel like we learn; we hone our judgment, our practical wisdom. Even our ability to survive and evolve is part of it. We're essentially creatures navigating our environment.

We're interfacing with one another, relating, learning how to work together, how to use resources, how to make stuff, even how to enrich the human experience. So I think it's central to life itself. I think it's that fundamental.

Philosophers for thousands of years have reflected on how to live. They've offered various approaches to living, to morality, to ethics. I think of these as ideas, theories, disciplines. But character, I see as more fundamental.

It's lived experience itself—the actions, the reactions, the behaviors—an outward manifestation of the philosophies and the beliefs. I think, as you've described really well, we're dynamically shaped by what we go through in life, and we're shaping ourselves. In Aristotelian thought, it's really etched into our being. It's how we're shaped.

I even think of it in terms of film: if you think of characters in a film, they have an intent. They go through something, they encounter a challenge, and they transform through the experience. Film is reflective of the human experience, and that's the essence of it. I see character as deeply intuitive—it's right below the surface.

We'll talk about the Virtuosity Program through the podcast, but the breakthrough innovation I see in this program that you and your co-founder, Mary Crossan, have taken—is something very intuitive you've surfaced. You've externalized it, made it visible, accessible, brought it into consciousness in a structured way.

This is an important breakthrough for people like me—teachers, people who are trying to improve their own character—because it enables us to front load character. When you gain awareness of things happening in daily life, we can actively, intentionally, purposefully seek experiences that help us grow and become better versions of ourselves.

You've provided—or the program has provided—structure to conceptualize what that better version is. The more we are informed and can make better decisions and choices, the more we can grow in that way, and then we're able to more frequently apply that learning.

I think the Jubilee Center out of Oxford terms this the integrated virtue of practical wisdom: quick decision making and know-how, and of course judgment, which is the central virtue of the virtuosity character wheel. All that life experience gives us the judgment and the practical wisdom to make decisions that can literally impact the future of humanity itself. In terms of that future, I am deeply invested in it. I care a great deal about the future.

On your character wheel, I rev high on transcendence. I'm very future-oriented, at times even preoccupied with it. I'm fascinated by it. I'm very curious about the future, but I'm invested in it. I'm a mother. I have two young-ish children, and I care about the world they will inhabit. 

In addition, I've spent my entire adult life—post-school, 30 years and going strong—as an educator. I care a lot about the next generation. I want them to flourish, and I feel responsible for enabling that—for their success and their well-being. Last but not least, I'm in a future business because I teach engineers, and I see engineering as the most transformative discipline of our time. It impacts everything.

Technology propels us forward. It changes our perspective. It changes how we engage with one another and with the world. It's disruptive—highly disruptive. For better or for worse, it can be a wonderful game changer, or it can produce unintended consequences, but it does change our way of life regularly and change the social order. So character really matters to me as an educator in the engineering field. Wow.

Corey Crossan [00.09.53]
The engineering piece—there's so much responsibility built into that. My brother's an engineer, and I see all the different applications possible there. I want to dig into the education piece in a bit, but there's so much to unpack in what you just said.

The piece about film and characters—I’ve always found that interesting because when you look at the arc of characters in films or movies, you often see it rooted in their character change, for better or for worse. It moves us when people grow or face challenges. When you break it down, it can be rooted in these character changes we see. I've loved looking at film and movies through that lens. I'm glad you brought that up.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.10.41]
It's true. It's a great point and a great resource to study this. And to your point, I feel like more people say, “Oh, movies are not as good as they used to be.” Maybe that's just an idea that floats around, but they don't feel like they have as much heart.

I was talking to a friend about this, trying to figure out why. Why are we not as interested in movies? Is it generational? What is it? My friend said something profound: it seems like people don't change in films. They don't transform. They don't even reveal their true selves. They're just trying to be understood, and it's more that other people in the film have to understand them. I thought that was a powerful insight because it made me think.

Corey Crossan [00.11.36]
Yeah, that's so interesting. I'm going to pay attention to that now and see if I can spot it.

Okay, going back to the education piece. You are in education, specifically in the engineering field. What pulled you into it?

You talked about why you think character is interesting in engineering. Maybe go into more of your background—how you got into education and engineering. You also received a character grant this year. How is that evolving for you?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.12.06]
Thank you so much for that question.

Similar to you, Corey, I developed character through athletics. That's how I built my own character. I was aware of it, but athletics is where I forged it.

I'll touch on that, but I'm going further back to my personal background.

From a very early age, I was immersed in character development—or at least what we're calling character development today. My dad was a lawyer and a Sunday school teacher. He was about morals, laws, ethics, and rules.

As I grew up, my dad gave me good advice, especially as I was getting older. He said, “We've taught you right from wrong. You know the rules, but you've never really been tested. You need to get out there and develop good judgment.” He talked a lot about good judgment. It felt a little elusive, but that was helpful.

My mom was very practical. She was a PE teacher and coach. She taught me self-discipline and how to apply rules and principles in everyday life.

When I was younger, I was a gymnast. One summer, I was practicing something over and over. I was about 14 or 15. My mom came outside and said, “Elizabeth, I see that you have a lot of drive. You're working very hard.” She handed me a book: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

It was wonderful to read at a young age. It helped start a lifelong habit of what you call habit stacking. If it weren't for habit stacking, I wouldn't have done half the things I've done. I started to train good habits. Both of my parents pushed my brother and me toward independence and self-reliance—moving us beyond awareness into development of virtues.

I was fortunate to attend a K-12 school that explicitly taught character—Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia. Their motto is “Minds that seek, hearts that serve.” They had strong academics and athletics and linked athletics to character. I thrived there.

I went on to the University of Virginia and received a broad liberal arts education. I majored in sociology and minored in psychology. It was wonderful.

I started a career early. In college, I became a professional writer. I worked for several publishing companies as an editor, co-founded an arts, entertainment, and culture magazine that’s still around, wrote a column, and reviewed films, books, and plays.

Writing was something I was pretty good at. I love language and the Oxford English Dictionary. I was developing competence and confidence. I was on track for a job in New York City at Condé Nast.

As things came together for post-college plans, I chose a road less traveled and pursued my passion: teaching. It was tugging at me. That brought me to LA and to higher education. It also felt like a welcome challenge.

I entered a master’s program in film—not production, but film studies—learning to read film as a text. I stayed interested in culture and fine arts, continued to write film reviews professionally, and did script development.

After that, I entered a PhD program in English Lit. After a number of years, I felt it was too much analysis. I wanted to teach. I was looking for something to balance me out. I was too much in books and in my cerebral life, and I had a background in athletics.

Los Angeles offers many opportunities. To make a long story short, Corey, I became an acrobat. I became an aerialist.

Corey Crossan [00.18.58]
So random. I'm so glad!

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.19.01]
You're laughing, and I like it.

Corey Crossan [00.19.04]
I love it though. I love it.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.19.07]
There was something absolutely preposterous about it, and it was funny for that reason. I thought, “How does a person even do this?” It was also ridiculously hard. I wasn't coming to it early; I was already an adult and hadn’t been an Olympian or trained in Russia. There were people with a lot of background, so it felt preposterous, but I was able to do it.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.19.07]
I think a lot of it was mindset, self-discipline, and having great coaches. But this was probably the most challenging thing I've ever done. It did not come easily, even though I had a background in athletics.

It really forged my character and who I am today. I still have that mindset. People ask me, “Do you miss it? Do you want to go back?” No. I had a good six-year career doing that, and that was enough.

The greatest takeaway was mindset—the mental skills.

Through that experience, I learned humility. Nothing makes you humble like athletics, even if you're good. I performed at a high level, but the daily work keeps you humble.

I gained respect—respect for things like gravity. Respect for craft, for what it takes to hone a skill. Respect for art, because this wasn’t a competitive sport but a performance art. The goal was not to show the work but to make it look effortless, flawless, aesthetic.

I also deepened my appreciation for practice. Athletics are never about the performance; they’re about practice.

And I gained courage. I used to think courage was the absence of fear. I learned it’s not. If you don’t have a healthy fear of heights, something else is wrong. Courage is overcoming fear—through discipline, training, learning. It’s managing fear so it doesn’t hijack your nervous system.

At the same time, I was still a graduate student. As I finished my doctoral studies, I got a job as a teaching assistant—called a tutor—at Harvey Mudd College, a wonderful engineering school in Claremont, California.

I fell in love with the field. Technology is what transforms society. This was the late 90s, when the internet was starting up and things were really changing.

I realized I’d been studying culture, which reflects society, but technology is what drives it.

I loved teaching engineers. Brilliant people. I enjoyed teaching them humanities, social sciences, and writing. I was using the same skills but applying them in engineering education.

From there, I was brought to USC, where I’ve now enjoyed a 26-year career at the School of Engineering. It feels like I’m just getting started.

I’m an associate professor of advanced communication, advanced writing and communication, and critical engagement for engineers. I’m part of the Engineering and Society program, where we focus on communication, ethics, and critical thinking. I more or less lead the character piece in that program, which we aim to integrate throughout the Viterbi School and beyond.

We have a wonderful Dean, Yannis Yortsos, who began talking about character years ago. He’s part of the broader community around this. It resonated with me immediately.

It was familiar, like a revelation. I realized: I’ve been teaching character all along. I just wasn’t calling it that.

I had been creating assignments as vehicles for self-discovery and personal development—helping students ideate and articulate the best version of themselves, and giving them opportunities to enact and practice virtues.

As a teacher, I believe in practicing what I assign. I don’t give students something I haven’t done myself. When I asked them to build a “Moral Compass” project, I did it myself. When we did civic virtue projects, I was living it alongside them.

I’ve always tried to role-model consistency, authenticity, and my personal best in the classroom.

For the past three years, I’ve been very involved in the growing community of practice around character education. It’s been a pleasure to be part of it.

You mentioned the grant. I was honored to receive one from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative, funded by the Lilly Endowment and administered by their Program for Leadership and Character.

The grant equips institutions with resources to integrate character education into their context, curriculum, and culture.

Michael Lamb, executive director and co-author of Seven Strategies for Cultivating Virtue in the University, has been a pillar in this work. Others—Olga Pierrakos at Wake Forest, Jessica Kohler, Jennifer Rothschild, and Elizabeth Whiting—have been invaluable guides.

The goal of my grant was to gain expertise in character education. I immersed myself in the scholarship: leader character frameworks, strategies for cultivating character, codes of ethics, seminal research, foundational resources.

Every time I think I’ve learned something, 100 more things appear. But it’s fascinating.

This is how I discovered the Virtuosity program. Thank you—it has made my work much easier. I joined the cohort in early 2025, and it’s been the mainstay of my development.

Before that, in 2023–24, I was a fellow with Virtues and Vocations at Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns. Before that, I received a grant from the Engineering Information Foundation to build the ViterbiVerse, a VR platform of virtual spaces for practicing communication and exploring character.

That project wasn’t formally character education, but it pushed the boundaries of experiential learning. We continue to approach character development experientially. We believe it’s more effective when students live it, not just study it as a subject.

Corey Crossan [00.32.01]
Wow. I feel like you’ve lived five lives within one life. That’s why I laughed when you said you were an acrobat. Knowing what you do now, then hearing that journey—it’s amazing.

And it’s clear how your experiences reinforce one another across disciplines. That’s where so much of the beauty comes from. It’s fascinating to learn more about your path.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.32.37]
Oh my gosh, I know. It’s been a long journey, but I’m grateful. I have a zest for life. I love living it. My dad always jokes, “You haven’t missed much.”

Corey Crossan [00.32.51]
Sounds like it! And for the listeners—the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest is an amazing opportunity. They give grants to U.S. universities to embed character into higher ed. If you’re in the U.S. and interested in character, definitely check their website.

Corey Crossan [00.34.11]
Going back to character in engineering—over the last few years you’ve been doing this intentionally.

People often ask, “Why do engineers need character? What does that mean?”

What have been some of the aha moments for you in supporting engineering students with the character piece?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.34.11]
That’s a great question. One thing people may not realize is that we often think engineers need something added, like character. But I never took that view.

What engineers are doing is so impactful to our lives—it’s mission critical. They must not only be highly competent but also trustworthy.

At the Viterbi School, our goal is to develop the trustworthy engineers of tomorrow and integrate character throughout the technical curriculum. Our Dean often uses a simple formula: Character + Competence = Trust.

I’d even change that plus sign to a multiplication sign—because character is an accelerant.

Technology is becoming more powerful, and the rate of change is accelerating. Technology is disruptive. I’m optimistic and a student of technology, but whether it promotes flourishing remains to be seen.

Just a few examples:

·       Robots now outnumber humans in Amazon warehouses.

·       1.3 million autonomous vehicle rides per month.

·       AI is being used for companionship, conversation, and coding.

·       The space industry is building infrastructure for the Moon and Mars.

These developments show how deeply technology shapes society.

I believe relationships with machines will be among the most important relationships of the future. Humanoid robots, AI agents, and chatbots are quickly becoming part of daily life.

This isn’t necessarily bad—it could open space for deeper human-to-human interaction. But humans and technology are merging, becoming more alike. That changes our concept of what it means to be human.

Technology is increasingly human-like, so we need human-centric thinking—people-first decision-making. This helps prevent unintended consequences and supports sound judgment, ethical clarity, and wise decisions.

Character is the essence of being human. Emotions are part of character. The root of “emotion” is “to move.” Emotions push us to grow, to extend ourselves. Machines cannot do that.

We need to trust that technologies are thoughtfully designed by people of character.

I see character in engineering as attractive to students. It’s like an X factor—an accelerant to excellence, not just another subject.

It’s a leadership advantage. It speeds decision-making and supports the ready application of ethics. As new, unfamiliar technologies emerge, ethics must be applied quickly, not after years of debate.

Character is integral to the practice of engineering. Students are already high-performing people. Character just needs to be tapped into, cultivated, and brought out—especially judgment and practical wisdom.

Corey Crossan [00.40.48]
Yes, especially as we move into more machine-dominant industries, judgment becomes even more important.

As you’ve been bringing character into engineering, have you faced challenges? If so, how have you overcome them—or has it been smooth sailing?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.41.17]
So far, it’s been wonderful. But there is a very practical challenge: the tightness of the engineering curriculum.

Engineering students take a lot of credits each semester. There isn’t much tolerance for add-ons or courses perceived as “extra.” That’s the constraint I’m working under—how to innovate without taking anything out of the technical curriculum.

The question becomes: how do we integrate character into the work they’re already doing?

One strategy we’ve developed is what I call a broad infusion strategy. Instead of creating a stand-alone course, we integrate character education across multiple levels—curricular, co-curricular, extracurricular, undergraduate, graduate, and professional.

The focus is on language: using virtue terminology and ethical reflection across different contexts. The goal is to cultivate a shared and accessible language of character that has social credibility and cultural resonance.

This also honors institutional context. Every school is unique, with its own culture and strengths. At USC, for example, students are highly collaborative, communicative, and aspirational. Those strengths give us natural entry points for character infusion.

We’re piloting a character module in the Viterbi Freshman Academy this year—the first contact course for all incoming freshmen. That’s very exciting.

We also developed Engineer 23, a transformative academic framework built around 23 milestones. Each milestone represents a key attribute of character that defines the trustworthy engineer of the future.

Another initiative is TEAM—Teaching Engineers Athletes’ Mindset. This brings engineers and athletes together to promote human excellence across physical and mental domains. We host panels where coaches, athletes, and engineers share mindset and performance virtues such as confidence, resilience, perseverance, and teamwork.

We also run an Industry Mentorship Speaker Series. Experienced professionals—moral exemplars in my view—share personal and professional challenges, how they overcame them, and how those challenges shaped their character and leadership.

Another program, Keys to Life, is a partnership with USC’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life. It’s a motivational discussion series focused on purpose, and we even hold purpose walks across campus. It draws many engineers and non-engineers alike.

Mentorship is another space where character has become invaluable. I mentor students well beyond graduation. Given today’s tight job market, some are struggling, and we’ve been using that time to focus on character development—setting them up for leadership opportunities when the right doors open.

So that’s the approach: weaving character in broadly, infusing it into existing strengths, and creating opportunities that feel integral rather than additional.

Corey Crossan [00.51.06]
There are so many good examples there. I’m glad you shared them—they’re tangible.

The curriculum constraint is so real, especially in engineering, but really across every program.

You’ve clearly invested deeply in your own character journey. How important do you think it is for facilitators, teachers, and staff to go on that journey themselves before they bring it to students?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.51.51]
Oh, you absolutely have to do it yourself. It would be irresponsible not to. You have to practice what you preach.

And honestly—it’s helpful personally. It has helped me in all kinds of ways.

Like you said in the character quotient questions, you think you’ve got it covered—“Yeah, I learned that growing up, I’ve got it.” But no, it’s never-ending.

Having a sustained awareness of character is a gift. Once you build that awareness, it becomes a lens you carry with you.

It’s always top of mind.

Corey Crossan [00.52.57]
Yes, exactly. And like you said, it also helps in your personal life.

I know for many facilitators and educators, it can feel like “one more thing” on top of an already busy schedule. That’s why we designed Virtuosity to be just a small touchpoint each day—it transforms your day without adding a big time burden.

So, moving into your Virtuosity experience, I want to ask one question. You can take it in any direction:

Either share a personal insight you’ve had, or reflect on how this program might support character education in universities.

What are your thoughts so far?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [00.53.48]
I think education is absolutely primed for this. We’re not just delivering content anymore. Content is everywhere. We’re not just subject-matter experts transferring knowledge. That old model doesn’t apply.

There’s real demand for character education. Parents are interested. Industry is interested. And students themselves want it. They come to school to improve themselves.

In fact, I’ve surveyed my students during an ethics unit for the past five years. They develop a little “moral compass,” and every year the number one value has been self-improvement. They want to improve themselves.

Michael Lamb talks about this in Seven Strategies. College students are in the middle of identity formation. They already come with good values and goodwill. Our role is to give them opportunities to practice and cultivate those into sustained virtues.

Habits are also formed during school. Virtuosity is based on habit stacking, and this helps young people build lifelong learning habits. We all need to adapt, reinvent, and improve continually—so forming those habits early is powerful.

Awareness goes a long way with students. School populations are already social and connected, and language spreads quickly. If they become aware of the concepts, that awareness activates character across their experience.

Our students genuinely want to make the world a better place. It sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. I don’t want to get in the way of that. I want to empower it.

Autonomy is also essential for this generation. There’s erosion of trust in authority, so students need tools to discover themselves. They are creating themselves during these years. We want to give them the tools to build the best version of themselves and live it.

Character education fits higher ed because it’s synergistic, like creativity. Creativity isn’t exclusive to the art school—it cuts across everything. Character works the same way.

It’s also not prescriptive. Virtuosity front-loads the language but doesn’t tell people how to behave. For adults, that would be condescending. Instead, assessment is self-directed. Students need autonomy in this work.

It’s not about us judging them as trustworthy. It’s about them earning the right to trust themselves—developing the confidence and practice to rely on their own judgment, make good decisions, and draw on their inner resources.

We’re also seeing great potential for Virtuosity in the USC Aviation Safety and Security Program. It’s a gold-standard certification program that draws aviation professionals—Cal Fire helicopter pilots, executives, fighter pilots. They work in high-stakes environments where mistakes have mortal consequences.

I teach the communications portion of the Safety Management Systems course, where we’ve made a direct link between communication and character. We’ve integrated leader character frameworks and articles like Character: Your Competitive Edge from MIT Sloan Management Review.

This resonates strongly with aviation professionals. They’ve seen failures of leadership firsthand and are deeply invested in building cultures of integrity, accountability, and judgment.

Another course I help teach is Human Performance, Resilience, and Leadership. We’ve been eager to bring more character development into it.

I focus on high-performance mindset skills—originally developed in sports psychology. For aviation professionals, we emphasize mastery of craft (competence) and mastery of self (character).

It’s a natural fit.

Corey Crossan [01.02.13]
I’m so glad you shared that, especially the aviation piece. You mentioned it earlier, and I wanted to come back to it.

It’s amazing how, when you get into organizational culture, students see that organizations care about character. That motivates them to care too.

And it works the other way as well—organizations see students focusing on character, and it inspires them to be ready to take in graduates who’ve built that foundation. That symbiotic relationship can be powerful.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [01.02.58]
That’s a great point. In aviation culture, you’re expected to do these things at every level.

It doesn’t have to be top-down or dictated by HR. It spreads because people bring it in, model it, and live it. That makes it very influential.

Corey Crossan [01.03.22]
Mhm. As we wind down, I have one final question. Then I’ll open it up in case there’s anything we haven’t touched on.

The last question I ask every guest is about their character quotient.

For listeners who are new: it’s a list of ten questions to help you understand how effectively you’re living character. The first set is about awareness, the second about development, and the last about embedding character into your context.

I think you’ve had the chance to take it. Could you share how that went for you? Which areas are you proud of, and which areas could you work on more?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [01.04.09]
It’s funny you should ask. I definitely feel like I’m just getting started.

I scored a 71 out of 100. That didn’t sound great to me at first, but it is what it is. The questions were excellent—they made me think at a meta level.

They pushed me to reflect on the long arc of what I’m trying to accomplish. How do we establish character across an entire field, in a way that’s enduring and sustainable?

That’s what excites me: making character education robust enough to prevent bad things from happening in the future.

I scored high in the awareness section. I’m fairly fluent in the language of character, though I want to dig into the nuances of dimensions, elements, and behaviors.

I love words and concepts, so I’ll keep working critically and deeply with the language. Discussing it with students and colleagues helps me grow too.

One example: I learned that “authenticity” in this context isn’t just your current self—it has an aspirational quality. Your authentic self is who you want to be. That was new for me.

Where I scored lower was in consistency across roles. I feel like I show up as the same person every day, but I do switch roles a lot: professor, leader, mother, volunteer.

I want more of a through-line across my life, so I’m not compartmentalizing as much.

Interestingly, I’ve also become a better parent through this work—but not in the way I expected. I’ve actually become stricter.

When we studied honesty, I realized I needed to be more candid with my kids about expectations. I couldn’t sugarcoat or soften as much. They need to see integrity and consistency from me.

Temperance and patience are natural strengths of mine, but sometimes I overuse them. That can mean letting things slide when I shouldn’t.

So, for me, courage right now looks like disciplining more consistently—having the strength to hold that line for my kids.

On the organizational application questions, I scored lower. But that’s also the work ahead, and I’m excited about it.

I’m proud of how quickly I’ve been able to internalize the program’s content. It’s almost like installing a new operating system—an internal software.

I tend to share what I learn with students right away, even before I feel like an expert. They know me as a learner with a growth mindset, and they often add insights that help me too.

So yes, I feel proud of the rapid uptake, and I’m eager to continue. The structure of Virtuosity—small, daily, accessible—has been a real unlock for me.

I’ve never encountered something I’m trying to learn that felt so intuitive. That’s a testament to how the program is designed.

And I imagine it’s helping a lot of people in both their personal and professional practice.

Corey Crossan [01.10.44]
Thanks for sharing that. I love the examples—like modeling your learning openly with students. That’s powerful, because in schools there’s often pressure to always have the right answer.

And your parenting insight is such a great example of how character shows up differently for each of us. For you, it meant becoming stricter; for someone else, it might mean softening. It depends on where we’re starting from.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [01.11.32]
So true, so true.

Corey Crossan [01.11.34]
We’ve covered so much ground today, but before we wrap up, I want to give you the chance to share anything on your mind.

No pressure—but is there anything we haven’t touched on that you’d like to share?

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [01.11.50]
I’m really excited about the next phase. This practice of character education is robust and growing.

I’m especially energized by the community that’s emerging across the U.S. and beyond. I think it’s so important for higher ed, for organizations, and for people in general.

I’m curious to see how it will play out, how helpful it will be, and I’m grateful to be part of it.

And I’m grateful to be part of the Virtuosity program—thank you for making such a great contribution to this practice.

Corey Crossan [01.12.38]
I’m so glad you joined too. You mentioned scoring lower on embedding character into context, but from everything you’re doing, I’d give you a ten out of ten.

You are a true character champion. I’ve loved learning about your examples today, and I know listeners will be inspired.

I’m excited to see what comes next for you and for the character work.

Elisabeth Arnold Weiss [01.13.09]
Thank you so much, Corey. Thanks for having me.

Corey Crossan [01.13.12]
Thanks for joining!

You’ve just finished another episode of the Virtuosity Podcast. If you have questions or want to connect, reach out to me at corey@virtuositycharacter.ca. I’m also on LinkedIn — let’s connect.

As always, thank you so much for listening. Bye for now.