Belmont’s Students in Free Enterprise team (SIFE) recently launched its Third Annual Ethics Essay Competition with scholarship money totaling $2,000. The competition targets college-bound high school students who must respond to an ethical prompt with an essay or video detailing how they would react in the event of a specific ethical dilemma.
Assistant Professor of Finance Dr. John Gonas, who serves as a Belmont SIFE Advisor, said, “I am continuously impressed and inspired by the creative and innovative community projects that our SIFE students are developing and sustaining. Many of our partnerships will grow and be fruitful learning opportunities (for both the community partner and the Belmont student) for years to come.”
This year’s prompt revolves around the CFO of a clothing distributor who is tempted to share confidential information with a chief investor in order to prevent him from selling off all of his shares at a critical time in the company’s history. Students entering the competition must provide a solution to this ethical dilemma in a detailed essay or a creative video, describing their course of action if they were faced with a similar issue.
Tim Harms, senior accounting and finance double major and Belmont SIFE President, said, “Belmont University’s emphasis in ethics within the business realm has shown me just how essential it is to start a dialogue about the ethical implications of decisions made in the workplace. It is out of this spirit that Belmont SIFE wants to expand this discussion beyond our campus and into the halls of high schools around the country.”
Entries will be judged on their originality, creativity, and overall quality. The competition, which has an entry deadline of March 31, is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual and Belmont University’s SIFE Program. For more information, visit www.belmontethicsessay.com or email info@belmontethicsessay.com.
