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High Integrity

firmly adheres to moral and ethical principles, personally and professionally

Editing Stories for the Facing Hunger Book (Summer and Fall 2014)

One of the very first tensions I encountered in the Facing Project was in my role as editor. According to the Gallup Strengths Quest, one of my top five strengths is responsibility in that I take psychological ownership for the work I do and commitments I make. As I was editing I realized I felt responsible for not only the words on the paper, but the accurate portrayal of a real person, and the part I was really struggling with was the community’s perception and response to this person. My emotions and thoughts ranged from wanting the stories to be incredibly impactful and moving, to wanting to tone down other stories to protect them from what I predicted would be a harsh and insensitive reception from the audience. I was able to exercise ethical fitness by first being able to name the ethical dilemma, the right v. right, I was facing. In some instances it was a question of truth v. loyalty. For example, one individual was very honest about doing drugs. Was I supposed to include that information in the story? What would the implications be? What loyalty did I feel? To the subject? To the Breadbasket? To this project and the opportunity to breakdown stereotypes instead of affirming them? This was a powerful learning experience for me in that I was aware of these warring thoughts and was able to name the tensions and make intentional decisions, instead of trying to ignore the tensions and go with my gut or what felt safest or most comfortable. Because I had the capacity to make ethical decisions personally, I was able to act with high integrity professionally.

Grading Papers as a Class Leader (Fall 2013-Spring 2014)

My primary goal as a Class Leader for the School of Leadership Studies’ Introduction to Leadership class was to facilitate a twelve person learning community’s exploration of the question, “leadership for what?” through critical reflection, practice, and service learning. Throughout the semester, my students each wrote two papers in addition to responding to weekly reflection questions. It was my responsibility to grade their assignments, and while our faculty leadership team provided rubrics, I quickly discovered how much gray area exists in those black and white point breakdowns. There is definitely a science to grading, but so much of it remains an art. Objectivity is so important, yet difficult when you spend so much time trying to get to know each student individually. I struggled with knowing the purpose of assignments and the grades attached to them—did the highest grade reward writing ability, effort and willingness to engage, application of content, depth and originality of thought? Did these carry equal weight? Does tough evaluation with lots of feedback attached to a lower grade inspire more or less effort on the next assignment? I wrestled with questions of fairness—if I took off points and challenged my students to dig deeper in their next assignments, was it fair that students in other sections received full points for completing the work? I went and visited with my supervisor about the questions I was wrestling with. He really challenged me to consider what I believed to be important about the work the students were being asked to do, the skills and thought processes we were trying to help them to develop, and what role I thought grades and my feedback played in that process. Before I could uphold ethical and moral principles and act with high integrity in this role, I had to consciously identify and name the values I held as it related to homework and grades.

Ethical Dimensions of Leadership (Fall 2013)

In the fall of my junior year of college, I had the opportunity to take a class called Ethical Dimensions of Leadership. Before taking this class, I think I considered myself a person of high integrity. I had, what I perceived to be, a fairly clear sense and standard of right and wrong and for the most part found it easy to do the good and right thing. This class turned my conception of what it means to live and act ethically on its head. In this class we discussed the difference between ethical temptations (choosing between a right and a wrong) and ethical dilemmas (choosing between two rights). In the case of ethical dilemmas, having a core set of values does not typically help one resolve and act on the dilemma, but instead more clearly name what the competing factors are. Resolution and action depend on context and require placing one value before another and being able to stand by that choice. At the beginning of class I found myself extremely uncomfortable with this idea, clinging desperately to the naïve and detrimental cop-out “oh wow I have no idea what I would do in that situation” and the underlying whisper, “I’m glad it’s not me”. While I liked to think that my warring between the two possible decisions and courses of action was indicative of a high moral code and unwillingness to compromise my values, what I eventually realized is that is was more reflective of underdeveloped, untrained, undisciplined ethical fitness. What this class did for me was open my eyes to the reality of ethical dilemmas, develop my capacity to identify my competing values and be intentional about the choices I make instead of relying on mere gut instinct, and increase my desire to work and live in a transparent, moral, and deliberative community.

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