Ethics-Finding Your Moral Compass
Elizabeth Stoltz
28 February 2014
College Virtues The life of a college student is a very unique, fast paced lifestyle filled with lots of excitement. It is a time period where kids learn a lot about themselves as they become young adults. Parents are no longer by their side helping them with decisions or assisting them in becoming a better person, it all relies on the character and determination of the student. Naturally, there are an abundance of actions that could benefit college students but it all comes down to the thought process of these students. The ability to think of an end goal and assess how to get there would benefit a vast amount of college students. The ability to have a prudent mind about what is right while deliberately thinking can separate specific college students among others. Prudence is the action of thinking about what is good for someone that promotes living well. It something that promotes excellence in the end but the means of how to get there are unknown. One can acquire prudence by taking a step back and really think about a situation. It starts on a small scale realizing what is good and right for oneself, and if the situation is on a large enough scale what will benefit human beings in general. A type of person who thinks in a prudent mind stands out among people, especially in college students. They are not someone who acts in the light of everyone else, they are aware of what they are doing and are not phased by other peoples pressure. They know what is good or bad for them, and their actions are made to promote what is good for them and their classmates. For example if a group of students are planning to go out for some fun, but a prudent person has lot of work to do he will be aware that he needs to complete it because it promotes excellence for him and his classmates by default. It promotes excellence for him because he will gain knowledge studying which helps make him a better person. His decision to do schoolwork also benefits his classmates because he sets an example for his friends. A message is sent that he is a determined to be a good student even though his best friends are going to go have fun together. This trait, although not praised enough by college students, is noticed and in fact admired even if it is not said aloud. That being said, it does not mean that prudent people do not like to enjoy themselves. For if friends are all going out in town a prudent person can still join them even if he has a lot of work to do, he will take easy with his friends because he is aware that he needs to have a clear mind the following day to promote excellence. A prudent person who acts this way is also a strong person, for he is able to live his life the way he would like to without the influence of pressure from his friends. The definitions of a prudent person and a deliberate one are similar but deliberation has to do with what is right, and taking the right steps to get there