Ethics in action
A chance encounter in 2010 with a University of Chicago student who was home on winter break led Kristen Monroe, currently UC Irvine Distinguished Professor of Political Science, to launch a mentoring program that’s since served more than 3000 scholars who are interested in exploring some of life’s biggest questions.
"Initially, a young woman had run across some of my work and asked if she could do some research with me," says Monroe, director of the UCI Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics & Morality. Founded in 2003, the center investigates how everyday people operate when thinking about moral choices. Monroe told the student that, while she couldn't pay her as a research assistant, she was welcome to join her. Various students continued to approach Monroe and others in the center until she eventually had an idea: to start a more formal mentorship program associated with the Ethics Center. "Why don't you show people how you can learn about ethics by actually doing work in ethics?" she says.
By 2019, there were 40 in-person participants. "It got so large that I had the opportunity to bring in graduate students and other faculty to help," says Monroe. "We had so many applications, we had to start doing things formally." She enlisted the help of Andrada Costoiu to help lead the Summer Mentoring Program.
Then COVID struck. "That's the end of the program," thought Monroe. But she wondered if perhaps it might work online. In its first year as an entirely virtual program, which is the status quo today, the program garnered 129 scholars, mostly from California (though not entirely). This summer, there were more than 600. "We have people that sometimes get up at 3 o'clock in the morning in China or India to take part," says Monroe. "We had, one year, someone who is Israeli, and he taught the course at 9 o'clock at night in Tel Aviv, in order for it to be offered during the day in California."
This year, the month-long program that wrapped on July 10 featured 17 modules on topics ranging from AI to hope to nuclear risk. "You really get involved in the research that the mentor is doing," says Monroe. For example, she taught a course on morality during war, so she asked students to interview people who had been in a war to see what it was like. "Another year, I've had courses on the moral of the story — how you learn about ethics through stories — and I said, find somebody, maybe in your family or someone that was important to you, ask them about their life and the moral choices that they made, and then write that up. Do the interview, write it up, and see what that teaches you that you can learn as a young person by talking to someone who's had a longer life and had more experience."
The modules that are most popular often center on economics. One past mentee, Hannah Dastgheib, returned to lead her own lesson this year, on how to manage money in an ethical way. While topics like budgeting and investing may seem purely financial, they're actually deeply connected to ethics, says Dastgheib. "The goal is not just to teach students how to manage money but to help them think critically about fairness, responsibility, and the real-world consequences of economic decisions while giving them practical skills that will help them throughout their lives," she says. The module explored what society owes those who face unequal opportunities, how financial systems can create (or reduce) inequality, and how individuals can make thoughtful, responsible choices with their resources. The module was oversubscribed ahead of the program's start, says Monroe.
Dastgheib, who first participated in the mentoring program as a high schooler and then as a teaching assistant during her undergrad years, loved the program so much that she encouraged her younger sister, Isabelle Dastgheib, to partake, then two cousins, too: Max Razmjoo and Evan Razmjoo. "I found a family at the Ethics Center," says Hannah, and she's not talking about her flesh and blood. "Beyond learning and research, I found a community of people who genuinely care about their students and encourage them to grow. Professor Monroe and Andrada, in particular, have been incredible mentors. They have always empowered me to explore new ideas, pursue research that genuinely interests me, and challenge myself academically. That encouragement has had a lasting impact on me, and it inspired me to create the same kind of experience for other students."
The program has taken on a pyramid shape. Beneath Monroe and Costoiu are mentors who guide participants through the program. Then there are teaching assistants, who are interns who have excelled in the past and want to learn how to do more. "If a student is really good one year, sometimes they want to do a little more, and so we've kind of created an interim category of teaching assistants that are people who've worked on the project for a while, know what's going on, and they're interested in learning how to take on a little more responsibility," says Monroe. For students who wish to continue working with research mentors informally, she and Costoiu sometimes organize small groups that continue meeting during the school year. Dastgheib and several of her family members worked on a book with Monroe, for example.
"These are extraordinary students, and we're just so lucky to have the chance to work with them," says Monroe. "It's such a gift."
While the program started out with mostly college students, it's not restricted by age nor by academic experience. Today, many local high schoolers take part, as do non-traditional students and seasoned professionals on occasion. "That's just the way it worked," says Monroe.
The organic nature of the program is, she thinks, part of its appeal. "We show them opportunities — we don't push them. If they want to do it, we will encourage them and help them in any way we can, but it's really up to them," she says. "You want to show them that education is wonderful. It's a magic bullet. It opens up a whole new world."
The program seems to be filling a vacuum. "There's a hunger out there that I see to understand how people operate and whether or not life is filled with good people. What does it mean to be a human being? That's really what ethics talks about. Why are we here? What's the point of it all? I think there are a lot of people who are very interested in that," says Monroe. "I think, at some level, we're failing our students by just talking about technical skills and knowledge in the sense of information."
Looking ahead, the program is trying to engage more retired faculty. "There are a lot of people, who don't necessarily want to do the administrative work anymore, or they're tired of being on committees, but they still like the research and they still like the teaching. So I've tried to set up a program where we can engage retirees." Researchers don't have to have existing ties to UCI. This year, Canadian scholar Paul Nesbitt-Larking mentored students on benevolence, and Helen Haste, a retired professor who taught at Harvard, did work on moral education.
"People have asked, 'Why don't you get bigger? Why don't you give credit for it? Why don't you charge money for it?'" says Monroe. "We don't really want to do that, because I think, once you get into that, it can get too formal. It takes away some of the fun."
More important than fun, though, is the eyes that are being opened. "If you give an opportunity to someone, it's really exciting to see what they do with it, and that's pretty much all we do," says Monroe. "We just show them that there are some doors, and then they go charging through them."
She likens the mentorship program to a ripple effect. "I do one thing that helps somebody else, and then they help somebody else. That's what you want to do in education."
—Alison Van Houten for UCI Social Sciences