Cultivating Agency, Character, and Citizenship: A Visit to Vertex Partnership Academies | Today's Battlegrounds | H.R. McMaster | Hoover Institution episode artwork

EPISODE · Feb 18, 2026 · 58 MIN

Cultivating Agency, Character, and Citizenship: A Visit to Vertex Partnership Academies | Today's Battlegrounds | H.R. McMaster | Hoover Institution

from Today’s Battlegrounds · host Hoover Institution

Join Ian Rowe, cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies and Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Hoover senior fellow H.R. McMaster as they discuss education reform and the importance of cultivating agency, character, and civic understanding in young people. Recorded at Vertex Partnership Academies in the Bronx, the conversation explores how education can help students develop responsibility, meaning, and moral discernment. For more conversations from world leaders from key countries, subscribe to receive instant notification of the next episode.  ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Ian Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where his work centers on education, upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. Mr. Rowe holds degrees from Cornell University and Harvard Business School. He is the author of Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for All Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover their Pathway to Power. The FREE acronym stands for Family, Religion, Education and Entrepreneurship. Rowe is cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a network of virtues-based International Baccalaureate public charter high schools launched in the Bronx in 2022. H.R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is also the Bernard and Susan Liautaud Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute and lecturer at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He was the 25th assistant to the president for National Security Affairs. Upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1984, McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army for thirty-four years before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Feb 18, 2026

Embed this episode

Ready to play

Cultivating Agency, Character, and Citizenship: A Visit to Vertex Partnership Academies | Today's Battlegrounds | H.R. McMaster | Hoover Institution

0:00 58:27

No transcript for this episode yet

We transcribe on demand. Request one and we'll notify you when it's ready — usually under 10 minutes.

No similar episodes found.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is this episode of Today’s Battlegrounds?

This episode is 58 minutes long.

When was this Today’s Battlegrounds episode published?

This episode was published on February 18, 2026.

Can I download this Today’s Battlegrounds episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.
URL copied to clipboard!