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JAMES CUDJO, MLA ’05 James Cudjo sees our technologically advancing society as rife with new ethical concerns. Combined with age-old philosophical questions, these concerns imbue his study of ethics and his day-to-day life with meaning. Intrigued by his Ethics and Community class, he’s currently studying the role of churches in shaping the social, political and ethical values of the African-American community. Cudjo, the father of an autistic child, plans to pursue a PhD in Philosophy and to teach at the college level. Watching his son thrive through encouragement to never give up, he keeps himself motivated in both his academic pursuits and wide-ranging artistic hobbies — painting, writing, black-andwhite photography, and jewelry making. And Cudjo tries to pass on to his son a fundamental principle of ethical decision making: “Always do what is right not for the expectation of reward but because it is the right thing to do.”
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photographed at Scarborough-Phillips Library
SHOPPA, ’05 8 CLAYTON As editor of Arete, the student-produced academic journal, Clayton Shoppa enjoys seeing what topics students in other disciplines are pursuing. Philosophy, he believes, has applications in many of these fields. He also finds significant value in practicing philosophy, naming the desire for truth as a necessary ingredient in a person’s flourishing. For Shoppa, a member of the Honors Program, this desire is “more centrally significant to the value of philosophy than any claim of its mere utility.” When he’s not pondering philosophical questions, he’s reading modern literature and listening to experimental hip-hop music. But it’s philosophy that he loves. In his classes, he delights in the free flow of new ideas as well as exposure to enduring ones. After graduation he plans to pursue an advanced degree in Philosophy. “One great thing about studying philosophy is that there is no shortage of intellectual heroes.”
LAWRENCE, ’04 8 DIANE Diane Lawrence is a Computer Systems Management major and Professional Ethics minor whose professional interest is computer security. She also is a Christian who believes that ethics should underpin all personal and professional endeavors. Hers are diverse. She is in the McNair Scholars program, which serves undergraduates interested in pursuing PhDs who are underrepresented in their fields. Lawrence traveled to Notre Dame as part of the program last summer to study an opensource network intrusion detection system. The three biblical Hebrew courses she has taken were her own doing — she and her peers petitioned the dean to create the classes. Lawrence is a member of the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society for adult students and plans to pursue graduate study in CSM or Professional Ethics. Whichever she chooses, she aspires to teach college. “The study of ethics is enlightening and life changing. One cannot emerge from this exposure unchanged.”