Carrying Your Own Weight

For his civic engagement project, Jake chose to rebuild and restore a Bobcat 371M Skid Steer, which he described as “a small and slow but powerful machine for hauling heavy things”. Jake repaired this machine to help a family friend, who owned a farm and needed the Bobcat for daily chores; he could use a truck to do these jobs, but a truck is significantly more dangerous than a Bobcat due to its lack of safety cages. Jake described the benefits of the Bobcat as “a small powerful safe machine that will also save money on gas when used instead of his truck”. This student worked on repairing the Bobcat for over 6 months and utilized the skills of his friends when he encountered technical difficulties. Jake emphasized the ethical importance of carrying your own weight in a community, “if more people helped each other the way my group of friends does, the world would be a better place.”

Jake explained that his project related to his ethics class by acting in accordance with Kantian principles, “In the end, we all live in small groups of people, carrying your own weight and contributing to the lives of others by treating them as ends and not just means to get what you need is my way of demonstrating ethics.” Jake said this project taught him that, “You don’t need to change the world to be ethical, you only need to treat others with respect.”