Kanas Wesleyan has earned the NAIA Champions of Character Five-Star Institution Award that honors institutional commitment to character-driven athletics. KWU earned Gold Level status for the award.

Institutions are measured on a demonstrated commitment to Champions of Character and earn points in character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition and character promotion. Institutions earned points based on exceptional student-athlete grade point averages and by having minimal to no ejections during competition throughout the course of the academic year. There are three levels of achievement for the award – bronze, silver and gold.

In 2022-23, KWU received Bronze Level status for the award, but returned to Gold status for 2023-24, last achieving gold status two years ago in 2021-22.

“I am thrilled with our coaches and athletic staff to be back at Gold status for the Champions of Character award,” said KWU Director of Athletics Miguel Paredes. “It shows our continued commitment to excellence in all facets of what we do.

“We challenged our teams to display outstanding character on and off the playing field and to give back to the community in many different ways. It shows that we are committed to doing the right thing here at KWU in everything we do.”

There were 131 institutions that earned Gold status for the award, with 108 achieving a perfect score of 100 on the scorecard. There were 210 institutions that earned the Five-Star Award at all levels (gold, silver, bronze).