Initiative is an active concept that describes the motivation to develop knowledge, skills and competencies that will prepare one for life and work. It is also where inquiry in the classroom and in life lives, and where decision making, discernment and confidence are developed. As a student cultivates initiative, there is a strong chance they will experience failure and will learn the value and importance of resilience. While initiative takes on many forms, the concepts of critical thinking, curiosity, collaboration and courageous leadership resonate within the classroom and in professional settings for Campbell students. These forms of initiative take particular expressions in the context of one’s calling and are practiced through their sense of character.
NASA Rover Competition
Campbell’s School of Engineering is among only handful of schools accepted into NASA’s 2025 human-controlled and remote-controlled rover competitions in Huntsville, Alabama.
Campbell’s team — which finished third overall in 2024 against schools from all over the world — will again field a Human Exploration Rover Team (HERT) team and will for the first time take part in the recently launched Remote-Operated Vehicular Research division, which will require students to build a rover that can be controlled remotely.
“To have Campbell accepted in both is pretty impressive,” Dean Jenna Carpenter said. “We have great faculty mentors and outstanding students who put countless hours into making these teams such a success. We are also grateful for wonderful sponsors and funders who support their efforts.”
Preserving the Pollinator Trail
Biology professor John Barlett and his students have become caretakers of the Pollinator Trail, which occupies 370 acres between U.S. 421 and the Cape Fear River, next to the Keith Hills community and golf course.
“It’s a wonderful teaching space,” says Bartlett, a former research scientist for the USDA Forest Service. “I’m a huge proponent of learning by experience, and for much of what I teach in the classroom, you have to get out here to see it to really understand what you’re learning. I’ve had students from larger cities who’ve never seen areas like this — they’d never stepped off an asphalt path before and were terrified of being out in nature. But after a few weeks, they own the space. They fall in love with it.”