Bringing Ethics Out of the Classroom

Is it okay to “ghost” someone you’ve been dating? What is the value of objectivity in journalism? How should government officials communicate information about COVID-19?

These questions are just a few of the topics presented to students during the National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB), a program that hosts regional bowls and a national event each April in which teams discuss real-life ethics. The program is part of the Parr Center for Ethics in Carolina’s Department of Philosophy.

During its inaugural year (2012-13), NHSEB oversaw 11 regional competitions with about 1,000 students participating. In 2021, the program hosted 40 regional competitions with nearly 4,000 students taking part.

“For a program that is less than 10 years old, it’s grown like wildfire,” said Alex Richardson, who joined the Parr Center as director in fall 2019.

Lauren Haines saw a flyer for the National High School Ethics Bowl during her first year of high school. She participated in the event all four years of high school. When she came to UNC in 2019, she continued to be involved as a mentor.

“I think the social aspect of the ethics bowl is so valuable,” Haines said. “It teaches students how to argue in an accessible way and how to approach people who might disagree with you.”

Haines says involvement in the program helped her learn how to translate scientific jargon into language that is clearer for a broader audience.

“I write for an artificial intelligence and data science company now,” she said. “I don’t think I’d be able to do it if I didn’t have that language practice from the ethics bowl.”

Learn more about the National High School Ethics Bowl…

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    string(2687) "A shot of Peabody Hall, the home of the School of Education
A transformational gift to the UNC School of Education will create a unique fellowship program that will enable a multi-faceted approach to ensure highly effective educators serve students in rural, high-needs North Carolina communities.

State-wide data has shown that having a Carolina-trained teacher can boost student learning beyond what is expected for learning in a given school year. The largest gains were among students from underrepresented backgrounds and economically disadvantaged schools.

With a $3 million commitment over the next four years, the Fellows for Inclusive Excellence program will remove barriers and support current UNC School of Education students and recent graduates to serve as teachers and school counselors in Title 1 schools, starting in Chatham County Schools and Person County Schools.

Ultimately, the Fellows program aims to create high-quality professional learning communities that provide school students with enhanced opportunities to succeed and thrive.

The Fellows for Inclusive Excellence program was made possible by donors who wish to remain anonymous.

Students in the UNC School of Education’s Master of Arts in Teaching and Social Counseling programs will work with teachers and counselors in Chatham and Person counties’ Title 1 schools.

Once graduated, those teachers and school counselors will have the opportunity to return to those schools as new school professionals and receive professional development opportunities to help them thrive in their profession. Combined with district funding, they will also receive a generous graduated bonus, earning more money over a 3-year period if they choose to continue working in their school.

“I do not know of another program like the Fellows for Inclusive Excellence,” said Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, dean of the UNC School of Education and Alumni Distinguished Professor. “One that takes a comprehensive approach, beginning within an educator preparation program and engaging nearly every level of school personnel, to create the highest quality professional learning communities.

“The best education begins with investment in educators. The Fellows for Inclusive Excellence program exemplifies that.”

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    string(1769) "Medical personnel put their hands together in a huddleThe UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Center for the Business of Health (CBOH) and Acadia Healthcare have announced a partnership to fund a two-year project to create an adaptable opioid settlement playbook for state, municipal and local governments to effectively address America’s opioid epidemic.

The project’s goal is to review the opioid epidemic’s deep impact, address untested or under-researched treatment and prevention approaches, and develop best practice recommendations tailored to individual communities.

The partnership with Acadia Healthcare comes as thousands of communities across the U.S. are receiving money to support opioid recovery efforts, the result of legal settlements with opioid manufacturers and pharmacy chains. North Carolina has already received about $30 million in settlement funds of the nearly $758 million coming to North Carolina communities through 2038.

“States and municipalities are receiving these funds without any guidance on how best to deploy them,” said Professor Brad Staats, CBOH faculty director and senior associate dean for strategy and academics at UNC Kenan-Flagler. “As settlement funds flow into communities across the country and North Carolina, we hope a playbook will help guide policy and other decision makers as they allocate resources.”

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Kristina Hefferle ‘24 and Leah Morrissey ’25 spent the fall 2022 semester looking for elusive male Blue Ridge two-lined salamanders ― bright orange 6-to10-centimeter-long amphibians about the thickness of a pencil, known to hang out around the streams and lakes of the southern Appalachian Mountains.

Stumbling through mountainous terrain in the dark for hours on end, turning over rocks and leaves in muddy creek beds, and looking for an animal the size and color of a baby carrot makes having a reliable research partner crucial.

“I cannot, for the life of me, spot a salamander — but Leah can. And she might miss it when she tries to catch it, but I’m there to back her up if she needs it,” said Hefferle.

It’s the kind of teamwork that develops after a semester of close collaboration at the UNC Institute for the Environment’s Highlands Field Site — a program for a small cohort of UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduates to live and conduct research at the Highlands Biological Station in western North Carolina.

That semester, the duo gathered data on 105 salamanders, three times the number of last year’s survey. Both credit their success to their partnership.

The data compares the genetic makeup of males, their reproductive behavior and how they may change over a lifetime.

“Getting out on the trail, looking for salamanders, just really sparked that childlike curiosity about nature,” Morrissey said. “This program has convinced me to switch my major to science in the hopes of more fieldwork either during school or in a future career.”

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Advancing Rural Education

Planning State Opioid Settlements

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