Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.
Volunteer your time and energy to a group that makes the world better (either by doing charity, seeking justice, or working on an election related activity).
You are asked to volunteer a minimum of 4 hours in total. You can choose 2–3 different volunteer opportunities or do one that takes 4 hours. If you are currently volunteering somewhere, please speak to me about whether or not this would work for our class.
Very Important!
YOUR SAFETY IS A PRIORITY! Please make sure you pick a way to volunteer that keeps you and others safe.
Examples
Here are some examples that other students have done for their volunteer activities:
- Packing food at the local food bank.
- Gathering signatures for a petition initiated by a non-profit.
- Planting trees with a local group.
- Donating blood.
- Volunteering at their place of worship.
- Walking dogs at animal shelters.
- Registering people to vote.
You can find a wealth of opportunities through VolunteerWNY.
In addition, UB’s Community & Civic Engagement team is glad to help you find volunteer hours. Schedule a meeting with them on Navigate.
I have also marked on the course schedule some volunteering events organized by Community & Civic Engagement. Space is often limited for these events, so be sure to RSVP on UBLinked at least 2 weeks in advance.
If you are unsure of what counts as volunteer hours for this activity, please consult the University at Buffalo Community Service Guidelines.
Here’s What I Want You to Do
While you are volunteering, try to get pictures and/or video of your experience that make it clear what you did. For example, if you volunteered with a lake clean up, don’t just take a picture of your smiley face at the beach; take pictures of yourself gathering trash and a final picture to show what/how much you collected. This is probably the easiest—and dare I say, most fun—way to document your volunteer hours for your volunteer activity report (see below). Just be sure you have permission to take pictures on location and that you respect the rights of others (especially children and vulnerable adults).
When volunteering, be sure to also get the name and email of your supervisor/organizer. This is also important information for your volunteer activity report (see below).
As you complete your volunteer activities, log your hours on UBLinked. Here are instructions for how to do that:
- Go to UBLinked and log in using your UBIT login and password.
- Click your profile icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Service Hours”.
- Click “Add Service Hours” (you must be a member of an organization on UBLinked for these hours to appear as an option).
- Use “Student Engagement” as the organization if your organization is not listed an option.
This video will show you how to log your volunteer hours into UB Linked.
For even more details, check out these instructions for logging volunteer hours in UB Linked provided by UB Student Life.
Once you have completed your 4 hours of volunteer work, do the following:
- Download a blank copy of the Volunteer Activity Report.
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Fill out that report. In particular, be sure to include all of the following evidence of your volunteer activity:
A. A log of hours done, with the date(s) and time(s) you did them, the location(s) where you did them, the activity you did during those hours, and the name and email of your supervisor/organizer. (I will also verify this information on UBLinked.) B. Documentation that verifies you have completed your volunteer work. Do not forget to do this. This documentation can consist of: pictures, videos, and/or signed confirmation by your supervisor/organizer. You need to turn in documentation for each volunteer activity that you want to count towards your 4 hours. C. A short reflection that connects what you did to course concepts. Recall that (as Socrates understood it) philosophy is supposed to be a force for social good in our communities. So I want you to reflect on how the activity of philosophy connects to your volunteering experience. For example, did course concepts help you better understand the impact of your actions? Or perhaps your actions gave you a better understanding of course concepts? This reflection should be 300–400 words (not longer). - Submit your completed report to UB Learns.
Here’s Why I Want You to Do It
I am having you perform this volunteer activity because it has you…
- Differentiate between the impact of volunteering for an organization (charitable action) and that of organizing an activity of your own (justice-focused action).
- Connect local events to the activity of philosophy.
- Reflect on how your actions may directly contribute to tangible positive change in our communities.
In doing so, this volunteer activity will help you achieve these learning outcomes for the course:
| 3. | Apply important philosophy concepts and theories to various hypothetical and real-world situations. |
| 5. | Connect philosophy with your own lived experiences. |
| 6. | Put philosophy into action. |
| 7. | Reflect on your own assumptions and form more considered judgments on how you may address social issues. |
Here’s How You’ll Earn Philosophy Experience Points
This experiment in philosophy is worth a total of 1,000 philosophy experience points and will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Documented evidence.
- Reflection on and use of course materials.
- Extremely polished (no grammatical mistakes, no typos) and college-level writing.
- Crystal clear organization.
- Word count.
Using Philosopher’s Stones
You may exchange 1 philosopher’s stone for a 24-hour extension for completing this experiment in philosophy. Please note that this extension begins immediately after its original due date/time. Additional stones may be used for even longer extensions. Email me if this is something you would like to do.
Collaboration & Academic Integrity
Feel free to volunteer with your classmates. That will definitely make this a truly memorable experience!
However, I expect you to write your volunteer activity report on your own without resorting to artificial intelligence (AI) tools to write it for you. (Perhaps not too surprisingly, AI tools do a pretty bad job in completing this sort of report.) After all, I am primarily interested in how you are thinking about how your experiences connect to the activity of philosophy and other course concepts!
As a result, I expect you to put together and write up your own volunteer activity report. It is not a group activity. Let me know if you are struggling and I’ll gladly help!
Above all else, please be honest if you do receive any outside assistance or use the ideas of others. This includes using AI tools. In any of those cases, be sure to let me know what assistance you received, and I will let you know how to properly acknowledge that assistance in accordance with standards of academic integrity.
Image: Chatterina / ChatGPT.
Acknowledgment
This “Experiment in Philosophy” is based upon a similar “Experiment in Ethics” from Ramona Ilea and Monica Janzen. I highly encourage you to visit their website on Engaged Philosophy for much more!