UCI political science Distinguished Professor Kristen Monroe never intended to establish a mentoring program. The way she tells it, the UCI Ethics Center Mentoring Program grew on its own. In the past, students who admired her work, and the mission of the UCI Ethics Center, reached out to her seeking research opportunities. They were interested in research, but they were also interested in exploring questions about humanity, morality, and the purpose of life. As the number of students who contacted her grew, Monroe realized she simply couldn’t accommodate them all and an official mentoring program was born.

Modules and mentors

On July 17, the UCI Ethics Center Mentoring Program launched its 13th cohort. What began in 2010 with a handful of students in-person has grown exponentially into a 450-student four-week online program focused on university-level research and data analysis techniques under the careful mentorship of a faculty member or graduate student. The program doesn’t advertise and relies strictly upon reputation and word of mouth to attract top applicants each year.     

According to Monroe, part of the program’s success and explosive growth tracks back to a change she hadn’t anticipated. After several successful years of an in-person mentoring program, the Covid-19 pandemic hit and Monroe shifted activities online, a move she feared would hurt the program. Instead, the opposite happened. The online format broadened its reach. While most of the participants are from Southern California, there are students logging in from throughout the world.

The program is free and provides high school, college, and graduate students with a unique opportunity to gain hands-on research experience while contemplating ethical questions and challenges. This year’s program offered 13 modules which cover a wide range of topics from the usage of social media to combat hate and foster tolerance, to when pricing is unethical and/or illegal.

“A couple of modules were so popular, two additional sections had to be taught in order to accommodate the interested students,” says Monroe.

Mentors consist mostly of graduate students and faculty, but also include others like KUCI Radio Public Affairs host Claudia Shambaugh, and UCI alumnus and donor to the Ethics Center David Rosten, who is leading a module on ethics in business. Rosten brought in several guest speakers, including a congressman. Next year, Monroe says, the program will experiment with adding senior faculty from around the world as online mentors.

Students meet in groups of 15-30 twice a week to engage in lively discussions online. They gain practical skills like library research, data analysis, and how to use Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software for statistical analysis, data management, and visualization.

Whenever possible, Monroe says, students receive professional recognition for their work. One year, she wrote a book titled, “A Darkling Plain: Stories of Conflict and Humanity during War,” based partly on work completed in one of her modules. She credited the students by including their names in her publication. The book ended up winning a Choice Award and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Occasionally, students suggest module topics themselves. In 2020, a group of students were interested in the implications of Covid-19. The work they contributed that summer resulted in a book chapter in a forthcoming publication on science and ethics. Students this past year are working on a book on moral courage about Republicans who challenged Trump; they interviewed people like Rick Wilson and Anthony Scaramucci.

Ethics into action

“Most of the participants are in high school and they’re trying to understand the world and their place in it. They're great kids to work with. They're smart, idealistic, and they work hard. You can imagine a high school student who seeks this out. It tells you a lot about them,” Monroe says.

After participating, students are eligible to become junior mentors (who function like teaching assistants) in subsequent years. This was the case for program alumna Sienna Shah, a rising junior at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.     

“We learn to understand these principles and see them in our everyday experiences. The program helps me see things from different perspectives and understand why others may act in certain ways based on their values,” she says. “This program has made me reconsider my decisions and ensure that whatever I do aligns with my own level of morality."    

Program alumnus Max Razmjoo, who will begin his senior year at Sage Hill High School this year, was motivated to apply to the mentoring program after seeing the destruction caused by the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol.    

“Learning about moral people and the values that impact their decision-making has inspired me to think about my own role within society,” he says. “I now appreciate the value of individuals who go ‘against the tide’ and the tremendous consequences they face because of their actions.”

Motivated by the program's teachings, Razmjoo translated his knowledge into action by organizing school-wide symposiums on ethical dilemmas at his high school.

Paying it forward

When the college-age son of a friend was staying with her, Monroe realized the big issues he was pondering as a young person (e.g., what’s important in life) were the same issues she was pondering as a person in her 60s.

“I want to think about what's important to me and what I’m leaving behind. Those are the same issues that young people are thinking about. I feel like we have a lot to learn from each other,” she says.

As students gain knowledge and experience, they become better equipped to make ethical decisions, effect positive change, and leave a meaningful legacy in the world. Hopefully, they will follow Monroe’s lead and pay it forward.

“The students are wonderful. They’re anxious to change the world and want you to help them figure out how best to do it,” Monroe says. “What could be better for a teacher?”

Discover more at: https://www.ethicscenter.uci.edu/awards/summersinternship.php  

-Jill Kato for UCI School of Social Sciences
-pictured top to right: Ethics Center Mentoring Program students participate in an online Zoom discussion session. Kristen Monroe, UCI Distinguished Professor of political science and director of the Ethics Center Mentoring Program.