2024 J.T. Barton, Jr. Memorial Ethics Award Recipients

1st Place: Justin Wolfe

As a member of CHANGE, Clemson's student ethics committee, Justin Wolfe will use this award money to fund the Ina B. Durham High School Ethics Case Competition. This ethics case competition aims to engage high school students from across the Southeast in critical thinking to propose thoughtful solutions to ethical dilemmas. Teams of two students from high schools around the Southeast use the Rutland Institute's STAR decision-making model to craft a solution to an ethical dilemma proposed by CHANGE. Through competing, these high school students learn how to strategically approach ethical dilemmas, to lead ethically, and to identify solutions and stakeholders in situations requiring ethical consideration. This will be the sixth year CHANGE has hosted this event, and the first year in which the event has been named for Ina B. Durham.

2nd Place: Rylee Cowan

Rylee will use this award money to host an asynchronous, virtual ethics essay competition. As a representative of the College of Arts and Humanities, she wants to ensure that creativity is at the forefront of her event. Additionally, because many on-campus events are in-person, she wants to give students the opportunity to participate in something on their own time and from wherever they are. Her essay competition will be open to all students on campus, who will be asked to analyze and propose a solution to an ethical dilemma. Students will be asked to submit an essay or video response analyzing the dilemma and giving their solution according to the Rutland Institute's STAR model for ethical decision-making. Her event aims to get students involved with and thinking about ethics by a more accessible medium than traditional instruction or programming. By asking students to consider the stakeholders in the dilemma and provide a testable solution, they will become better equipped to understand and confront the consequences of ethical decisions in their own lives.

3rd Place: Holly Williams

As a continuation of her doctoral research and to examine the ethical use of emerging technology, Holly plans to use this award to create a program that works with juveniles who are at risk of engaging in damaging, deviant behaviors online. Her program seeks to build a foundation in ethics, from her research background in online juvenile delinquency, in order to educate students in the K-12 system. Her recent research has shown that students in middle school are at a point in their life where they are most at risk of becoming deviant, but are also the most able to make lifelong changes to avoid deviant behaviors. The overarching purpose of this program will be to teach such students ethical decision-making at this pivotal stage in their life through age-appropriate workshops that use online environments and the STAR decision-making model as the focus for group thought activities.

Honorable mentions also receiving awards: 

Ridge Kaauwai

A member of CHANGE, Ridge plans to use the funding from this award to primarily reach students in the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Life Sciences with an activity addressing the ethics of pet parenting. Ridge plans to encourage students to think more about the responsibility and ethics of caring for animals through a partnership with various non-profit organizations and local veterinarians who will be able to weigh in on the topic. Using the STAR model, posters, and other media, this event will facilitate ethical discussions among students and expert guests.

Zion Kaauwai

Zion, a student in the Master's of Real Estate Development program at Clemson, aims to reach as many students as possible in the new College of Architecture and Construction with his event. Through an event featuring round table talks and booths with professors and industry professionals, students will have the opportunity to address the ethical gray areas of the construction industry and to develop themselves as ethically-minded professionals. Topics of discussion aim to center the relationships among subcontractors and general contractors, vendors, and management, as well as their respective layers of contractual obligations.

Tyler Simmons

With funding from this award, the aim of Tyler's program is to host an open dialogue amongst participants about trust. This dialogue seeks to encourage students to address the ethics behind what makes people trusting, why we trust others, and why we do not. The event will center student involvement as an effective means of deep-diving into how we think differently and how we gain new perspectives. Also addressed will be the ethics of how modern society defines a trusting person, and if participants would define themselves as trustworthy based on the definitions of their peers and others.