Mylan Engel Jr.

Mylan Engel Jr. is Presidential Teaching Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Northern Illinois University. He specializes in epistemology, ethics, and practical ethics, especially animal ethics, environmental ethics, global justice, and the philosophy of food.

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Why do you choose to ask students to do civic engagement projects? What do you like about teaching this way?

My teaching motto is “Philosophy Matters!” I want my students to understand and appreciate the value of philosophy, its personal and practical significance, and the role it plays in helping us to live more authentic, meaningful lives. Moral problems, like global and local food insecurity, aren’t just abstract problems; they are practical problems with practical solutions. It’s important not just to present students with the problems, but also to empower them with real-world actions they can perform to help alleviate these problems.

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Which of your courses get students out of the classroom? What types of civic engagement work do your students engage in?

The students in my “Philosophy of Food” course are expected to complete at least 21 hours of community-engaged service during the course of the semester. Service activities include:

• Volunteering at Feed My Starving Children

• Planting seeds in NIU’s greenhouse

• Working in NIU’s Communiversity Garden

• Preparing and sharing a vegan dish at the end-of-the-semester Sustainable Supper

In addition to the above activities, which we all perform together as a class, students are expected to identify a food-related issue/problem they are passionate about and spend at least 5 hours working on a project designed to address that problem. This one-minute NIU video of my students working in NIU’s Communiversity Garden includes short interviews with some of the students.

I also incorporate service-learning community-engagement activities in my “Animal Ethics” and “Environmental Ethics” courses.

Give an example of a successful project. 

Here are two: 

At Feed My Starving Children, my students hand-pack rice, soy, dried vegetables, and a nutritionally complete blend of vitamins and minerals into bags, which are then sealed, boxed, placed on pallets, and shipped to the neediest children around the world. In their 1.5-hour shift, my students, along with a few other groups of volunteers, packed enough food to feed 83 children for a year!

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The produce grown in the Communiversity Garden is donated to NIU’s Husky Food Pantry, which provides food and fresh produce to food-insecure NIU students. The first year my Philosophy of Food students volunteered in the garden, over 1,500 pounds of fresh produce was donated to the Husky Food Pantry.

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What do you think students gain from doing this civic engagement?

They gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the practical significance of philosophy. They also gain a sense of empowerment. Students in my philosophy of food course learn about the dark realities of:

• absolute poverty and global hunger (viz., that 800 million people live on less than $1/day, and that over 17,000 children die from starvation and hunger-related disease each day);

• factory farming (viz., that each year in the U.S. over 10 billion farmed animals are forced to live miserable lives in massively overcrowded sheds, are mutilated without anesthesia, and are slaughtered inhumanely at a fraction of their natural lifespans); and

• the environmental impact of our current agricultural practices (viz., that our current animal-based agriculture is unsustainable and is one of the leading contributors to our current climate crisis).

My students react to these realities with deep sense of empathy, understanding, and concern for starving humans and farmed animals, along with fear for the future of the planet. This empathy and fear is often coupled with a sense of despair and impotence: “These things are awful, but what can I do?” The right kinds of community-engagement activities (e.g., growing food in NIU’s Communiversity Garden and packing food at Feed My Starving Children) can replace this despair with a sense of empowerment and awareness that their actions are helping to reduce hunger both in DeKalb and around the world.

They also gain a sense of community. There’s an old adage: “If you want to build a community, plant a garden.” I think this adage is true. When my students work in the garden, they genuinely have fun together and begin to feel a greater connection with each other and to the local community, and something pedagogically amazing happens. While they’re kneeling in the dirt weeding or planting, you can hear students (in slightly muffled voices) discussing the course material and the changes that they are making to live more sustainably. How cool is that!

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What does the civic engagement project offer to wider communities?

My community partners depend on volunteer support for the successful completion of their missions. NIU’s Communiversity Garden is maintained by a volunteer network of students, faculty, staff, and local community members. My students play a vital role in prepping, planting, weeding, mulching, and tending to the garden throughout the spring semester. They also assist with harvesting and cleaning the produce that is donated to the Husky Food Pantry.

Feed My Starving Children depends entirely on volunteers to pack their nutritionally complete food packets for shipment to 60 countries around the world. I bus my entire class to one of the packing stations. Many of my students find that experience so rewarding that they bring their friends and volunteer again during the semester.

How do you motivate reluctant students when you do civic engagement work?

On the first day of class, I tell the students: “If I think a service-learning/community-engagement project is important enough to expect you to perform, it’s important enough for me to perform.” I do all of the same service work that I expect them to perform right alongside them.

What civically engaged project(s) or work do you do with students outside of class settings? What is your role?

I’ve served as Faculty Advisor of NIU’s Vegetarian Education Group [VEG] since 1996. VEG seeks to educate NIU students and the local community about the myriad benefits (to health, Earth, and animals) of vegan diets. As Faculty Advisor, I regularly serve as a liaison helping VEG bring leading experts to campus to speak. Past speakers include Prof. Tom Regan (twice), Carol J. Adams (twice), Prof. T. Colin Campbell (twice), Dr. Michael Klaper (twice), Brenda Davis, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Prof. Kathie Jenni, Prof. Peter Wenz, Howard Lyman, and many others. I have also regularly arranged for VEG members to conduct vegan cooking demos at the local food cooperative, which benefits the coop and its customers. In return, the coop often donates food to VEG for on-campus vegan cooking demos at NIU.

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Give an example of a successful extracurricular project.

In 2005, when TAILS Humane Society opened a state-of-the-art no-kill animal shelter in DeKalb, a number of VEG students wanted to do something to raise funds for the shelter. VEG decided to sponsor an annual “Trails for TAILS” bike-a-thon (followed by a vegan cookout for all riders) to raise money for TAILS. VEG held the bike-a-thon for four consecutive years and raised over $20,000 for TAILS over that four-year period. 

LIGHTNING ROUND:

If someone wanted to do these projects at their own institution, what steps or resources would you recommend?

Check to see if your university has an Office of Student Engagement and Experiential Learning. If so, reach out to the staff there. They are extremely knowledgeable about the kinds of community-engagement activities being conducted at universities around the country and are an incredibly valuable resource.

How does your department or institution support your civic engagement work?

I was fortunate to receive an NIU Service-Learning Faculty Fellowship that provided funding that helped me design my service-learning course on the Philosophy of Food. Michaela Holtz, who oversees the fellowship program, helped me in designing my course every step of the way. It wouldn’t be the success that it is without her help and expertise. Thanks, Michaela!

What is your favorite quote? 

Be the change you wish to see in the world. 

Student Consensus:

A delicious last supper sure beats a cumulative final exam!

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