Participants from the University of the District of Columbia, Prairie View A&M University, Drake State Community & Technical College, St. Philip’s College and Shelton State Community College recently gathered for HBCUs Embracing and Retaining Our Everyday Strengths (HEROES), an intensive week of training designed to build relationships, establish community and prepare attendees for Gallup’s CliftonStrengths certification curriculum.
Throughout the week, HEROES participants engaged in immersive, full-day training sessions aimed at deepening their understanding of strengths-based development while earning the credentials to serve as Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches on their campuses. The program is designed to introduce the CliftonStrengths framework and equip participants to lead strengths-based work at their institutions after the training concludes.
A historic convening
The program centerpiece was the inaugural HBCU CliftonStrengths Community of Practice — a first-of-its-kind gathering that brought together practitioners from across the growing historically Black colleges and universities strengths-based movement.
While HEROES is a certification training program, the community of practice serves a different purpose: connecting those coaches and campus leaders into an ongoing network. Where HEROES builds individual capacity, the community of practice builds collective capacity, creating a shared space where trained practitioners across institutions can continue learning from one another.
For the first time, alumni of previous HEROES cohorts joined current participants in the room. These alumni — now Gallup-Certified Strengths Coaches — represented Elizabeth City State University, Claflin University and Texas Southern University. They were joined by Campuses Adopting Strengths-Based Education (CASE) officers from Alabama A&M University, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), Prairie View A&M University and Winston-Salem State University, uniting two distinct but connected strengths-based initiatives under one roof.
The session was designed to move beyond traditional training. The community of practice was built as a dedicated, ongoing forum where HBCU leaders could share ideas, implementation strategies and lessons learned, while collectively shaping the future of strengths-based education across the HBCU community.
Sessions throughout the day covered Gallup best practices, an interactive session exploring emerging applications of artificial intelligence in strengths-based technology, and collaborative activities focused on practical strategies for embedding CliftonStrengths into the student experience and institutional culture.
Building a lasting network
Organizers emphasized that the significance of the day was not the training itself, but the foundation it established. Rather than treating strengths-based work as isolated efforts on individual campuses, the community of practice positions participating institutions as ongoing collaborators — a network that will continue sharing resources, successes and challenges long after the week concludes.
In this way, HEROES and the community of practice function as two connected stages of the same broader mission: HEROES prepares individuals to lead strengths-based work on their campuses, while the community of practice ensures those individuals, and the institutions they represent, remain connected to a growing national community committed to sustaining that work.
A fitting close
HEROES Week concluded with a certification graduation ceremony recognizing participants’ accomplishments. Keynote remarks were delivered by Robin Sanders, a veteran American diplomat, international affairs expert and higher education leader with more than three decades of service in U.S. foreign policy. Sanders, a graduate of Hampton University, previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Congo and to Nigeria. Her remarks underscored the national significance of the initiative and the growing momentum behind strengths-based transformation across HBCUs.
