The deadline for this year's applications is Friday, March 6, 2026.
To be considered for selection as an Ethics Scholar, please submit the online application and the required documentation listed below:
Winners will be honored and formally announced at the Ethics Scholarship Banquet at Weber State University. Scholarship winners and their parents will be informed before the banquet, and are strongly encouraged to attend.
First, gather the following information. If these items are not attached to your application, you may not be eligible for a scholarship.
- High school transcript including current GPA and ACT scores (unofficial copy, such as a scanned PDF is acceptable).
- Verification of high school graduation date by high school administrator, if you are a high school senior applying (e.g., brief letter from guidance counselor).
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Letter of Recommendation (this can be from a faculty member, community member, school administrator, etc.)
- A 500-word ethics essay, double spaced, titled and dated including your name and that of your high school. Please write on ONE of the following topics:
To be eligible, you must include the following statement at the end of your essay: “I certify that I did not use Chat GPT or any artificial intelligence programs in the production of my essay.”
(1) Married couples unable to bear children by themselves often seek the help of a surrogate mother. In this process, an embryo created in the lab from the couple’s zygotes is implanted into the surrogate’s uterus. The surrogate will then carry the baby to term, at which point it is turned over to the biological parents. Some countries, like China, ban surrogacy, either to prevent the exploitation of women or to avoid the legal entanglements that can arise when a surrogate mother gives birth to a disabled child. (One concern is that the couple will blame the disability on the surrogate and seek restitution from her.) Other countries do not have a federal policy on surrogacy, instead relying on a patchwork of laws in different jurisdictions. While some form of surrogacy is legal throughout the United States, two states—Nebraska and Louisiana—do not allow couples to compensate surrogates beyond paying for their medical expenses. Defenders of these restrictions cite the kind of reasons above to protect surrogates. Advocates of paid surrogacy, on the other hand, argue that this unjustly restricts potential surrogates’ liberty and prevents them from a highly lucrative opportunity. (Surrogates can be paid anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000.) From a moral standpoint, should other states follow Nebraska and Louisiana’s lead, or should these two states liberalize their laws to allow for women to become paid surrogates?
(2) In her short story “The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas,” the writer Ursula K. Le Guin describes a city of unlimited happiness, peace, and prosperity. There is no slavery, no hunger, and, we can even imagine, no disease. However, what makes this situation possible is that one child must be kept in perpetual dark, filth, and misery. (We need not inquire too deeply into the causal mechanisms of how this is supposed to work.) Given the happiness experienced by tens of thousands of Omelas’ citizens, is this system morally justifiable? Similarly, would it be morally justifiable to free the child, even though it would throw the entire city of Omelas into poverty, misery, and ruin?
(3) Parts of the ocean floor are covered with nodules containing many of the scarce metals essential for building batteries and other components used in technologies that can help us address the problem of climate change. Without them, for example, automakers could not build electric vehicles that do not produce carbon emissions. However, mining for these nodules would bring with it unknown risks to fragile deep-sea ecosystems. It is feared that, among other problems, nodule mining could produce sediment plumes and change the very chemistry of the surrounding water, harming the organisms that live there, many of which serve as the basis of the ocean’s food chain. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, is it morally worth the risk to mine for these resources, even though we might do irreparable damage to deep ocean ecosystems?
4. ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence systems have the potential to transform all aspects of our economy and lives. One area in which AI has already had enormous impacts—and concerns—is education. Teachers worry that the creation of artificial intelligence has made it possible for students to turn in work that is not their own, leading to unprepared students entering college and the workforce, where they will struggle to succeed. At the same time, however, AI systems can serve as a powerful tool for students to conduct research and complete their work more efficiently. Educational institutions are all grappling with the question of what constitutes an appropriate use of this technology in an educational setting. From a moral standpoint, what are some ways in which students should be allowed to use AI in the completion of their work?
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