Gerald R. Ford Leadership Forum
On Tuesday, September 12, 2023, students and young professionals were able to stop by the Ford Museum Plaza for free Pronto Pups, permanent jewelry, and networking opportunities with other students. Ford Fellows also helped decorate bags for Kid’s Food Basket.
What, exactly, is vice, and why does it captivate our attention and capture our character the way it does? What kinds of vices contribute to good order and what kinds detract? How do we figure out how to tolerate vice while respecting the demands of community, complexity, and freedom itself? On Saturday, April 1, Ford …
Ordinary Virtues and Splendid Vices: Should a Community Tolerate Bad Character? Read More »
Dr. Angel Adams Parham demonstrates the importance of the Black intellectual tradition in America and how much of its strength comes from its immersion in the great texts of the Western tradition. By drawing on students’ own experiences and placing them in “The Great Conversation,” we deepen their experiences of truth, beauty, and goodness – …
The Black Intellectual Tradition with Angel Parham Read More »
A Black History Month Event, “Restoring Our Communities: Social Activism and Local Solutions” The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and the Ford Leadership Forum welcome Robert Woodson of the Woodson Center, along with his associates, to Grand Rapids for a conversation on grassroots solutions to social problems, on how to reduce violence, and how we …
Is Civic Friendship Possible? Ever since Aristotle described politics as a mode of civic friendship, political thinkers and actors have adopted it as the model for organizing political life. But is friendship the best analogy for understanding political life? What are the limitations of the model, and are there more useful models for us to …
Forgiveness is a Christian virtue. Is it also a political one? To what extent does forgiveness depend on repentance, and upon justice? Some say democracies cannot survive without practicing forgiveness; others that this is too much to expect. Should we resign ourselves to mere toleration, or can forgiveness be approximated in concrete political ways? These …
On January 11, 2023, students and young professionals heard from Alexander Velting, a Financial Advisor at Northwestern Mutual. He demonstrated the importance of planning for both short-term and long-term goals, such as paying down debt, wealth accumulation, and tax efficiency. This event helped to educate taking your financial practices to the next level with planning …
November 12th, 2022 “No man is a hero to his valet.” So goes the old saying, indicating in part that public displays of courage are often not what they seem to be. People might think they’re doing something courageous while not actually risking anything. Whatever else courage means, it has to include a response to …
“What is Courage? With Houston Christian University” Read More »
“It is well that war is so terrible,” Robert E. Lee once observed, “or else we should grow too fond of it.”
October 24 and 25, 2022 What is virtue? Why does it matter? It seems we live in an age that doesn’t know exactly how seriously it should take virtue. We seem more intent on signaling it than we do on living it. There’s a lot of confusion around the concept, so in this seminar we …
