World Awareness Club
This civic engagement project centered on starting a club on campus that would focus on global justice issues. To jump start the club, they organized an art show and auction to raise awareness on global hunger and raise money for Action Against Hunger–an organization that focuses on ending child malnutrition by providing clean water and sustainable food solutions. Continue reading
The Ethics of Psytrance
“This project allowed me to see how ethics can be applied in everyday life. I was able to see how working together with other people to do good things, even if they are small things, is a step in the right direction to making the world a better place for all to live in.” Continue reading
Hemp and Marijuana
This project focused raising awareness about the difference between hemp and marijuana, demonstrating the benefits of hemp, and aiding efforts to legalize marijuana. The student doing this put in over 80 hours of work, organizing multiple forums, movie nights, hemp jewelry making demonstrations, and information tables. Continue reading
Palestine
One part of this project organizing a panel discussion with a political science professor, a philosophy professor and two community activists–one Jewish and one Palestinian–discussing the political situation in Palestine. The second part was an art project for which students painted and then displayed a “wall” to raise awareness about Palestine. Continue reading
Art with Kids
Three students worked together to raise money and art supplies for the kids in Banks School. They also taught three classes in the school; after preparing lesson plans that met with the local teacher’s enthusiastic approval, they taught the little kids some drawing, composition, and coloring techniques. Continue reading
Animal Ethics Club
The Animal Ethics Club, now in its 6th year of operation, started as a civic engagement project. Four students created the club, organized work parties at a local farm sanctuary and a clinic for homeless people and their animals, educated students about vegetarian and vegan food, served free vegan food, and raised money for local animal groups. Continue reading
Logical Fallacies
In two separate semesters, philosophy majors at Pacific University taught high school students some critical thinking skills by focusing on logical fallacies. They contacted local teachers at different high schools, did research on philosophy for kids, prepared lesson plans, and taught the classes by themselves, receiving rave reviews from both students and teachers. Continue reading