I feel as though my experiences at UMass have both prepared and allowed me to achieve the Social Responsibility and Ethics outcome. I understood this outcome to be a reflection of the Cultural Awareness and Diversity one, in that the latter was directly influenced by other. I see the Social Responsibility outcome as being contingent on first having accomplished the Cultural Awareness and Diversity requirement. The courses I have taken in political science, religion, history, literature and art have lent themselves to the less concrete and harder to define concepts in ethics and social responsibility, as diversity was an inevitable topic that was explored at great length and detail. Knowledge from these courses has been extremely beneficial and has (perhaps subconsciously) altered my views on what ethics and social responsibility are as a whole and how I should apply them on a personal level.

The professors that I have had for these courses always emphasized the importance of having an open dialogue when it comes to such discussions. Their guidance has been instrumental in my being able to look at situations and events while putting them into a larger historical or societal context. I have taken the information I have learned and developed not only a sense of knowing “right from wrong”, but have translated it into my own code of morals, ethics, and conduct.

Aside from the coursework I have completed, interacting with other students from all over the world that are studying here at the university has also resulted in my fulfillment of the expected outcome. It is difficult to not adapt your own beliefs accordingly after being exposed to new people and new things.