Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder: Developing Ethical Leaders

During the summer of 2024, Sophia Linfield '26, Zarah Rizvi '27, Mackensie Wolfson '25, Ana Gonzalez '26, Chloe Coulson '25, Alexandra Russoniello '26, Sara Cooper '26, McKenzie Connell '26 and Margaret Seabrook '26 traveled with SStS on separate trips to the Peruvian Amazon, Peruvian Andes, Panama, San Diego and Tijuana, and Nepal, and Director of Environmental Sustainability Kelly Jackson served as a trip leader for the SStS experience in Costa Rica. Many SStS sites are remote; some are accessible only by boat. Students camped, stayed in hostels, cabins and rustic lodges, and were pushed out of their comfort zones using outdoor showers and sleeping under mosquito nets.

During all of these trips, students worked alongside local non-governmental organizations to “learn service.” Their activities ranged from pitching in on earthquake recovery efforts, to doing farm work like composting and tree planting, to helping with the installation or upkeep of sustainable infrastructure such as community water towers, to supporting the education programs in local elementary schools. As Gonzalez noted, SStS students are encouraged in these experiences not to “position themselves above” others, but rather “position themselves with” those they are serving, becoming effective and ethical leaders by “building compassion and empathy.” 

Each evening, SStS students gathered with trip leaders to reflect on their experiences, and on the concepts of service, leadership, and ethics.  “We talked a lot about ethical leadership not being about wanting to change, but about wanting to support,” Wolfson said.

The students also visited rain forests, led llama caravans, and snorkeled through coral reefs. They learned to prepare local cuisines, took part in traditional celebrations, and appreciated how effectively many of the communities they visited “live harmoniously with nature.” Linfield, who traveled to the Peruvian Amazon, said she learned to suspend her assumptions and “developed valuable communication skills, like active listening, and learned to be courageous in asking questions.” The RE students agree that they were all impressed by the “empathy and compassion” they observed in communities that “build strong relationships and stay together through thick and thin.”

Upon returning from their SStS field experiences, at least two students plan to pursue the Applied Ethical Leadership certificate this year. Linfield plans to develop a project related to juvenile justice. Russoniello, who was impressed by the diversity of individual stories she encountered in shelters along the U.S./Mexico border during her summer field experience, will deepen her understanding of the challenges facing immigrants from the Caribbean in Miami.

In summer 2023, English Department Coordinator Matthew Helmers served as a SStS trip leader, and Varun Raju '24 participated in the New Orleans SStS field experience, inaugurating RE's partnership with SStS. As part of this experience, Raju observed first hand the ways that the legal system can be inaccessible to underserved members of a community. He extended his thinking about ethical leadership throughout the school year by earning a SStS Applied Ethical Leadership certificate, working with SStS mentors and receiving feedback from other AEL students around the country, on a project studying pro-bono legal work in Miami.

For more information about Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder, and Summer 2025 Field Experiences, please visit the Students Shoulder-to-Shoulder website, or contact John King, Director of the Holzman Center for Applied Ethics and Associate Head of School.