Philosophy 228 – Honors Introductions to Ethics

My service learning course was Philosophy 228 (Honors) – Introduction to Ethics. The course was designed to focus on ethics, which of course, is the study of good versus bad. The class was intuitively separated into two distinct sections: ethical theory and applied ethics. Ethical theory was the reading, writing, and studying portion of the class. On the other hand, applied ethics centered around the service-learning assignment. I’m not going to lie; the reading and lectures were dense and very confusing. But they were valuable, the professor did a wonderful job of digging into the material. The presented material went way back, to the ‘fathers’ of philosophy, like Immanuel Kant, Aristotle, and Thomas Hobbes. Even though the material was old, dare I say, ancient, it laid a very basic foundation that I could then use to analyze arguments and write discourses. Ethics gives a basis for understanding not only what should be considered good and right, but how to apply it to our lives.

Unsurprisingly, this course included a self-guided service project. For my project, I contacted a few different organizations within my church so that I could collect donations for a homeless shelter in Norfolk, Virginia. This shelter is called the Union Mission Ministries and they provide food, shelter, clothing, and many other things for people who are down on their luck, and have nowhere to live. I informed a co-op and a youth group, who are both based out of my church, about what I was doing for my project, and asked them to help me. They were very happy to oblige, and over a few weeks, I collected boxes of items in which the shelter was in desperate need. After washing the clothes and organizing the items, I dropped them off at the shelter in Norfolk.

Accomplishments	Skills	Experiences
~460 donations                     ~Awareness ~Different outlook	~Time management ~Public Speaking ~Thinking critically and ethically	~Watching a community come together ~Pride in my accomplishments
Difficulties	Shortcomings	Further Steps
~Getting responses ~Gaining momentum ~Staying on track	~Small-scale ~Not many volunteers	~Bigger project ~Collect donations regularly ~Lecture

Interested in learning more about my service project? Visit the website here: 

Besides the service learning project, which took up a bulk of the course’s assignments, I completed a couple of short assignments and three papers. The mini-assignments were given throughout the semester and followed a syllogistic-formula. 

In the state of nature, there is no common power

Where there is no common power, there is no law

Where there is no law, there is no injustice

Therefore, in the state of nature, there is no injustice

The papers were a combination of home-essays and in-class essays. Some were to analyze already proposed arguments, and critique them against other philosophies. Other times, I took popular topics and crafted arguments based on the beliefs of other popular philosophers. 

Skills that employers are seeking 

Work in a team structure	Plan, organize, and prioritize work
Make decisions and solve problems	Obtain and process information
Communicate verbally	Demonstrate computer software proficiency
Analyze quantitative data	Create and/or edit reports
Demonstrate technical knowledge	Influence or sell to others

Make decisions and solve problems & Plan, organize, and prioritize – service learning project

Demonstrate technical knowledge – textbook reading

Influence or sell to others – collecting donations

———————– Reflection ———————–

This class has prepared me for a career in Human Resources because through it, I have gained valuable skills pertaining to balancing a heavy workload. Not only was the project time-intensive, but I still had to keep up with the class work and my other classes, not to mention working  part-time. It has also shown me the importance of serving my community. The time I spent on this project, and with everybody involved, is not something that I will quickly forget.