Students as Ethical Leaders

Ethics Resource Center 2004

Two ERC employees, four high school students and an ethics officer delivered a 75 minute presentation on the ERC's Student Ethics Office Model ™ to a small but enthusiastic audience at the EOA meeting in Scottsdale, Arizone. Joe Kale, Director-Ethics and Business Conduct, Integrated Systems and Solutions, Lockheed Martin Corporation, who has worked closely with the ERC and the students at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Virginia (the SEO prototype), spoke about the need for student ethics offices from the business point of view. ERC's Rielle Miller, a summer intern turned part-time employee, spoke from the point of view of a young worker, especially in light of the NBES 2003 findings that young workers are more likely to feel pressure to commit misconduct.

The students, whose trips were sponsored by the EOA, represented the four schools that participated in this summer's inaugural Student Fellows Program. Individually they discussed: the need for student ethics offices, including fighting pressures to cheat and disrespect others; the costs of unethical conduct and corruption; and how the ethics offices in their schools are operating and having an impact. ERC Character Development Manager Katie Sutliff concluded with information about the Student Ethics Office Model™, including the ERC's role in developing the programs and how others can get involved.

"The audience was impressed by the student's maturity and commitment," said Ms. Sutliff, "Even more so when they learned that the students had developed their own presentations and used their own words." The session was followed by a question and answer period. "As soon as you explain how it works," said Ms. Sutliff, "People get excited - they 'get it.' The hardest part has been getting the word out, but we're excited about the exposure from this presentation."

While the pilot program in four Washington area schools does not officially end until the spring, the ERC has already started working with a small urban New York high school to implement the program and is finalizing a Student Ethics Office toolkit based on the pilot program experience. Ms. Sutliff noted that the schools that have expressed interest show no demographic. "They're all over the board," she explained. "Urban, suburban, small, large, and every part of the country."

"The ERC was the perfect organization to do this," she noted, "since we have both organizational ethics and character development programs." Furthermore, the SEO TM initiative not only provides ethics education for today, it is workforce training for tomorrow, said Ms. Sutliff, noting that it:

• Prepares students for the ethics programs they will encounter in the workplace
• Promotes an ethically-educated workforce
• Serves as a training ground for tomorrow's ethical leaders and ethics professionals
• Provides opportunities for corporations to share their knowledge and skills with schools and students

Interested individuals and organizations can support the SEO movement in a number of ways, including:

• Mentoring
• Offering in-kind support
• Hosting a Student Fellows Program (SFP) meeting
• Sponsoring a school
• Supporting character education at the ERC; or
• Spreading the word.

For more information, please contact Katie Sutliff by email at

Katie@ethics.org

or by phone at 202-872-4767.