Inside the Formation Collaborative, RiseStrong 2025 with Joe Mankowski

How the Formation Collaborative is helping the Belmont community find and pursue a sense of self

Who am I becoming? What shape am I taking?

According to Associate Director of Leadership and Formation and Initiatives Joe Mankowski, these are the questions the newly established Formation Collaborative is aiming to help Belmont students, staff and faculty answer.

“At our simplest form, we want to help people think about why they do what they do and how they do it,” he said. “It's about knowing your sense of purpose and applying your entrepreneurial mindset to that calling — understanding how you pursue your purpose, stay connected to it, and aspire to become the person you want to be.”

Initiatives focused on character development and discovering purpose are seemingly a dime a dozen in the workplace in 2025, but the Formation Collaborative is approaching its mission differently than most.

The Collaborative is infused with strategic initiatives, partnerships and offices across campus focused on furthering Belmont's commitment to Whole Person Formation.

Alongside Mankowski, the Formation Collaborative leadership team — made up of Executive Director of Formation and Leadership Dr. Nathan Webb, Director of Undergraduate Core Curriculum Dr. Amy Hodges Hamilton, Director of Character-Centered Leadership Dr. Jeremy Fyke, Director of the Teaching Center Dr. Mike Pinter and Director of Service-Learning Tim Stewart — is committed to developing experiential learning opportunities for the Belmont community.

Enter the Formation Collaborative’s flagship campus program, RiseStrong.

RiseStrong 2025 

RiseStrong 2025, the second iteration of the week-long event, is a celebration of perseverance, resilience and growing from adversity. Fourteen events were held from March 31-April 4 that encouraged campus to reframe failure as a steppingstone towards flourishing and whole-person formation.

“We want to make this stuff actually practical,” said Mankowski. “We’re facing the realities of changing economic situations, political tensions, social reform and ostracization, and that is all outside of our lived contexts of being partners and friends and people. Life is getting more complicated, meaning we are more likely to encounter a failure. The more we can expose ourselves to failure, the more immune we become to it and the less it derails us.”

Central to RiseStrong’s theme is the legendary Winston Churchill quote, “Failure is neither final nor fatal.”

When creating the programming, Mankowski and his team kept that idea at the heart of every session — what we experience does not make us a failure. Failure is part of the process. We all bounce back. We all rise stronger.

RiseStrong 2025 speakers included Heisman Trophy winner and Bowling Green State University Head Coach Eddie George, CEO of The Hope Desk and Executive Director of Fund Recovery Ryan Cain, country music artist Steve Moakler and Founder and CEO of The Cupcake Collection Mignon Francois, all of whom overcame a myriad of obstacles to discover and pursue their purpose.

“I am officially an expert of failure, and I've had to learn to embrace that,” said George. “But failure is a part of the process of success. It's a part of you growing, developing as a person and finding your God-given purpose. It's all a part of the plan. You have to embrace it. It has to become your friend."

Other workshops, events and games throughout the week focused on fortifying mental strength, how to heal, finding strength in community and developing emotional intelligence.

The Pivotal Role of Authenticity 

In addition to top-notch programming, it’s paramount to the Formation Collaborative to keep authenticity and relevancy at the forefront. 

While inspirational, not everyone will relate to George’s testimonial of two critical fumbles on a national stage before winning college football’s most prestigious honor and later starring on Broadway.

“With RiseStrong, we want to find that balance between fantastic speakers and stories like Eddie and the equally fantastic lifetime teacher who has dedicated themselves to others and mounted those comebacks time and time again without a spotlight on them,” Mankowski said. 

On a personal note, the RiseStrong and the Formation Collaborative’s work as a whole serves as a personal reminder to Mankowski to put his best foot forward every day and find joy in who he is.

According to Mankowski, he sometimes feels as if he is preaching to himself through his own programming.

“I have a desire to be as authentic and integrous as possible, and when you feel you are being scrutinized or fail, our response to that often triggers inauthenticity because we try to cover it up,” he said. “I can look back at how I’ve grown over the years and discovered how to live in an authentic way, and that’s valuable to me.”

Finally, the Formation Collaborative’s is rooted in authenticity — it is central to the organization’s identity.

“We want to equip people at Belmont with the resources they need to be diverse leaders of character and purpose in ways that are authentic to their lived experiences, and we have to do so in a way that’s authentic to our mission,” Mankowski closed. “We want to come alongside them. We aren’t going to tell someone how to do something, but ask where they need help. How can we work together? We want to see our work make an impact and create a ripple effect of change.”