GMC Columbus professors Carrie Holzmeister of Phenix City, AL, Amanda Bond of Columbus, GA, and Vernon Humphrey of Mauk, GA, were selected to receive first, second, and third place respectively in GMC’s 2014 Ethics Across the Curriculum Faculty Initiative, which is an institutional program intended to increase the ethical reasoning skills of our students.

Carrie Holzmeister was awarded the first place prize for the Ethics Discussion activity conducted in the remedial English courses she teaches. Holzmeister’s activity presents students with “ethical dilemma situations” involving various characters in calamitous scenarios and asks students to discuss the repercussions of each possible action in each scenario. Holzmeister stated the activity “familiarizes students with very basic concepts in ethics, including consequentialism and utilitarianism.” 

Second place winner Amanda Bond utilizes a similar activity entitled “The Heinz Dilemma” to teach ethics in her Critical Thinking and Character Development course. In this activity, students are required to “answer a series of questions . . . that forces them to examine their values, morals, and personal ethic,” according to Bond. One of the objectives of the activity is for students “to be able to apply their own set of values to the scenario while understanding how the values of other students may prompt a different opinion of the dilemma,” Bond stated. Upon receiving her award, Bond said, “Winning this award means more to me than merely recognition of good work; this award lets me know that the work I do to teach students the value of morals and the application of a personal ethic is important.”

Vernon Humphrey placed third for having his students conduct an “Ethics Scavenger Hunt” in which students search for and discuss both ethical and unethical messages in the media and culture at large. “GMC takes great pride in the ethical standards held by their students, faculty, and staff,” Humphrey stated. Humphrey said he is “proud . . . [to be] able to develop something to help students use critical thinking to discern between the ethical and unethical messages they are confronted with daily.” Humphrey added, “It is not my job to tell them right from wrong, but to provide them with the tools to decide for themselves.”  

Georgia Military College, the only public liberal arts junior college located in Columbus, is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate degrees. Enrollment for the Winter 2015 term is currently underway at our new campus. For further information, visit the campus at 7300 Blackmon Road, contact admissions at 706-478-1688, or visit our website at www.gmc411.com.