Prior to this course, the word “ethics” seemed too daunting for me to tackle. I had always struggled to determine the difference between ethics and morality whenever it came up in my high school classes, and I had never taken a full-on ethics class, or anything even remotely similar. I approached the course with trepidation and expected it to slaughter my GPA (and my sanity).
I was pleasantly surprised to find that ethics can be a fascinating topic that leads to lively discussion among peers. Having become accustomed to general education courses in which students who were forced to be there stared blankly at professors, I nearly jumped when people in the room actually responded with interest to what Dr. Repp said and asked questions that related to specific situations where the ethical theories could be applied. Through studying ethical theories, I learned about unique perspectives through which one can examine contemporary social issues. These theories also provided insight into why people think or act in certain ways. I am glad that this course remains a required subject for all Longwood students and wholeheartedly believe that it will prove valuable to me throughout other academic endeavors.
Below, you can read one of my Applied Ethics exercises. For this assignment, we drew slips of paper with ethical theories written on them from a bag. We then had to apply this to a contemporary issue (in this case, immigration) and construct arguments in favor of and against the issue at hand.