A2Ethics Youth Council launches its own #MadeYouThink campaign

Ann Arbor, MI – Each year, A2Ethics invites high schoolers with a demonstrated interest in ethics and philosophy to develop projects of their own design for the A2Ethics Youth Council. The intent is “to give high school students the artistic freedom to pursue and create a project of interest related to ethics and philosophy that has a clear purpose and is meaningful to others.” Prior Youth Councils have pursued a range of projects, among them a podcast series.

Most members of the Council also participate in the Michigan Ethics Bowl extracurricular program. The 2020 Youth Ethics Council is made up of five students, all prior Bowl participants and all from Ann Arbor Huron High School:

• Sumayah Basal
• Mary Bashshur
• Nathan Chervin
• Daniel Muenz
• Jasmine Xu

This year’s Council has pursued several projects, most notably through their own spin on the #MadeYouThink campaign, in their Instagram account and on the A2Ethics website. The campaign aims to celebrate philosophy and ethics in posted quotes from the Council’s favorite philosophers, along with a few ask-and-decide dilemmas. Their goal is to invite other students and members of the broader community to select their own favorite philosopher and share one of that person’s most original, striking and memorable thoughts.

The favorite philosopher quote project was such a good idea that the A2Ethics website now features Philosopher Doors, a reframing of the original that takes the project one step further. Each “door” focuses on a particular philosopher and provides an opportunity to learn a little about the doors these philosophers opened and encouraged others to walk through when they lived.

With the completion of these projects, the A2Ethics Youth Council is now passing the tradition on to next year’s students.  Happily, a number of enthusiastic student philosophers are ready to make their own imprint, led by Khushi Patel, Cathryn Wriska and Morgan Butler from Wayne Memorial High School.

Evaluating the 2020 Council’s experience, Jasmine Xu concluded, “I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who’s made EYC possible. Working together, we were able to create posters, a website and an Instagram. Of course, there were lots of obstacles along the way and we weren’t able to fulfill everything we wanted to do fully, so I have high hopes that whoever joins Ethics Youth Council next year will carry on a few of our projects and start their own. Philosophy forever!”