Ethics and Morality Essay Contest

Winning essays sponsored by The Chynn Foundation's generous endowment.

The Chynn Family

Once again the Academy of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is proud to announce the winners of the Chynn Family Foundation’s Ethics and Morality Essay Contest! The three winners, one from each Middle School class, were chosen out of dozens of entries. Whether writing of the importance of service to the community or sharing their personal faith stories our students embraced the Chynn Foundation’s challenge of living and thinking about ethics in making this a more just and compassionate world.

The essay prompt was “Think about some personal event in your life that happened withing the last few years which has caused you to behave in a more ethical or moral fashion. Explain in detail how reflecting about this event will help make this new attitude more permanent in your future.” We received dozens of personal stories, read the winning essays below!

The Chynn Family Foundation is recognized by the IRS as a charitable organization, and was established in 2005 to promote research/education and morality/ethics. The Chynn Family Foundation has donated $100,000 to fund an essay contest for middle school students at the Academy of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Tenafly, NJ, $10,000 to fund a scholarship for high school students at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, NJ, $100,000 to support the School of Social Work at Fordham University (where Mrs. Chynn received her MSW), $100,000 to support research by radiology residents at Columbia University’s Department of Radiology (where Dr. Chynn is Clinical Professor of Radiology Emeritus), and $100,000 to support research in neuro-radiology with the Radiology Society of North America (RSNA).

The 2019 Winning Writers

8th Grader Danielle on Helping Women
Danielle writes about Blanca's House
8th Grader Danielle on Helping Women
Society is overwhelmed by the desire to have material items. Many believe having the most beautiful house, all the new gadgets, and the best paying job will make them happy. They give little thought to the privileges they obtain naturally such as basic needs, healthcare, and family members. Blanca’s House, an organization that provides medical services to poor and underserved countries, recognizes that many people do not have the same benefits we have. Blanca’s House offers medical assistance to individuals across the world. For the last two years, I have participated in helping this organization by going to their warehouse in Long Island and packing supplies for medical missions. While packing the supplies, I have listened to the stories from others who have gone on these missions, and these stories have inspired me to continue helping Blanca’s House, with the final goal being to go on a mission as a junior volunteer when I am old enough. This experience changed my behavior ethically and morally for the following reasons: It taught me gratitude, appreciation, and not to waste resources.
After assisting Blanca’s House, I felt gratitude and determination. I was eager to perform this type of action more often. From my mother’s and sister’s experiences, I was able to see photos of people using the supplies I packed. After seeing the images, I felt like I played a part in truly benefiting others. Other community service trips did not provide the same emotion that I felt when I was volunteering for Blanca’s House. From then on my behavior and attitude changed and I started to do more community service. Even if it was as small as doing peer mentoring at my school, I was spreading the same gratitude and joy I experienced.
My act of community service also taught me appreciation. I realized how fortunate and lucky I was to have various privileges many others do not have access to. My appreciation and gratefulness were not for material items, but food, water, and shelter. We are always aware of this issue from a young age, but visually seeing it gives an entirely different realization.
After seeing photos and physically experiencing volunteering at Blanca’s House, I was intent on not being wasteful and to conserve resources. The photos showed me that I was given opportunities and privileges that not all individuals have. I was not going to waste my opportunities. Instead, I would make use of all my advantages. Since my work at Blanca’s House, I have been more economical and conservative toward my necessities. Instead of throwing out food that I did not eat, I would wrap it for lunch or dinner.
In conclusion, Blanca’s house was a fantastic experience that I would recommend to everyone. Volunteering at this nonprofit charity taught me gratitude, appreciation, and determination to be conservative. With these new lessons in my knowledge, my behavior has become more mature. From my experiences, I have acted more ethically, by doing more community service and not being wasteful. Overall, Blanca’s House has taught me so many essential morals, and I intend to assist them whenever I can.
7th Grader Jack on the Importance of Community Service
Jack writes about his experience in a Soup Kitchen.
7th Grader Jack on the Importance of Community Service
Experiences can change your life for the better and the worse. Throughout the entirety of my life experiences have made me see people in a different perspective, and I use experiences as life lessons for myself to ponder on my past decisions. Experiences can help people gain wisdom about decision making and how to act in a certain situation. However, experiences are not always for the betterment of a person, they can also affect a person in a negative way. Experiences of a lost family member or friend can traumatize a person forever.
When I went to the Hoboken soup kitchen to help and serve people in need, I was scared at first, but then I realized that it felt good serving my community and helping people that need aid. People always talk about how bad the Hoboken soup kitchen is. However, I think otherwise. The soup kitchen is a great place to rethink your past decisions and also do service for people that are not as privileged as you. In addition, these people were not given the opportunity that some people are born with. To begin with, the first thing I did when I arrived at the Hoboken soup kitchen was set out utensils and plates on each of the tables. Afterward, I sorted the sandwiches and snacks that a local school in Hoboken donated to the soup kitchen. Next, I sliced the bread that people provided for the soup kitchen and I washed all the dishes to prepare for the afternoon serving. Then, I filled eleven liters with water and put them in the fridge. Finally, once we were ready to serve the food to the people, I started by going around and offering people snacks. In addition, I also set out plates and delivered all eleven liters of water to every table.
In conclusion, I learned a lot throughout this experience and I talked to a lot of the people at the Hoboken soup kitchen. It made me see these people from a different perspective and mindset. Going through this experience has helped me realize how lucky I am and how people are not always born with the privileges I have. I want to help these people more often and serve for the betterment of these people. I’ll definitely be back there again to help and serve at the Hoboken soup kitchen.
6th Grader Sebastian on a Mother's Example
Sebastian writes about acting globally!
6th Grader Sebastian on a Mother's Example
Have you ever thought of people that do not have what you have? Your parents talk about it all the time saying, “Do not play with your food” or “Eat all of it” or “Do not waste food.” But have you ever stopped and actually thought about it? There are many people in the world that do not have enough food or have to walk miles to just get water, and it is not even clean! I want to talk about a place called La Guajira, Colombia.
I have not actually been to La Guajira but my mom has. My mom’s friend has a group of people that every year travel to La Guajira for a week. They buy one thousand bags of groceries with about one week’s worth of food. After that, they travel to the families that they can and give them a bag of groceries. Buying food is not the only thing we do. We also buy new clothes for them. We also get them new shoes—most of the people are barefoot, or they put strings on plastic bottles so they can put their fingers in the strings and make sandals. The school in La Guajira is outdoors and there are not many desks, so most of the kids sit on the floor. We also get them new school supplies. We also give the kids toys. Kids there can barely afford clothes or the necessities of life. How are they going to buy toys to entertain themselves? We buy them new toys and we also ask friends if their kids have any toys that they do not play with anymore. I have also given kids from La Guajira toys. Many were still in perfect shape that I did not use anymore. When my mom came back, she showed me pictures of how they live and how they reacted to all the toys and clothes they got. They were very grateful. Some even cried when my mom left. With this experience I have learned to be grateful and to value what I have more.
I think that this experience is very important to me because I have learned to value what I have more. Also, that there are many people on this Earth that do not have the necessities they need to survive. And that happens everywhere in the world, not just La Guajira. I have also learned from this because there are kids who want to go to school but cannot. I am very lucky to be at this amazing school. I think I have made a difference in people's lives because they can learn with new supplies and could get the feeling of a full tummy. I hope more people do things like this. We have to remember, be grateful, not all people have what you do.

Promoting good education and religion for the community.

- The Chynn Family Foundation Mission

Ethics and Morality Essay Contest

The 2019 Winning Writers

8th Grader Danielle on Helping Women

7th Grader Jack on the Importance of Community Service

6th Grader Sebastian on a Mother's Example

Meet Dr. York Chynn and Mrs. Marie Noelle Chynn

A Family's Example of Service: Dr. Emil Chynn's 9/11 Heroism

Ethics and Morality Essay Contest

The 2019 Winning Writers

8th Grader Danielle on Helping Women

8th Grader Danielle on Helping Women

7th Grader Jack on the Importance of Community Service

7th Grader Jack on the Importance of Community Service

6th Grader Sebastian on a Mother's Example

6th Grader Sebastian on a Mother's Example

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Meet Dr. York Chynn and Mrs. Marie Noelle Chynn

A Family's Example of Service: Dr. Emil Chynn's 9/11 Heroism