The Chynn Family Endows $100,000 for Prize in Ethics

Dr. K. York Chynn and M. Noelle Chynn, GSS '60, have made a $100,000 gift to the Center for Ethics Education to endow an essay prize that asks undergraduate students to delve deep into their personal experiences to find moments that taught them about moral choices.

By creating a prize that stimulates self-examination on morality and ethics, the Chynns’ generous gift “reflects the larger mission of the University, which emphasizes moral development in tandem with intellectual development”, said the Center’s Director, Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D., Marie Ward Doty University Chair and professor of Psychology.

Fisher added that the prize has a trickle down effect, in the best sense of the term: No one loses a contest that challenges one to answer questions like, “What personal characteristics are essential to a moral life?”

The University wide prize sprung from an initial contest this past spring where more than 100 students submitted essays on ethical and moral issues and dilemmas they encountered personally or as a concerned member of society. Three students won prizes of $300, $500, and $1,000.

Those winners (and their essay titles) included, Ariadne Blayde Baker-Dunn, FCLC '12: Alex; Patrick Kelly, a Fordham College at Lincoln Center senior: Ecuadorian Oil: A Reason to Re-Examine My Consumption; and Kevin Coughlan, a Gabelli School of Business junior: Ethics and Morality Leading to a Happy Life. Deadlines for the 2013 prize are December 12, 2012 and March 15, 2013.

--Tom Stoelker