Kent Place School Ethics Internship Challenges Teens

The Ethics Institute at Summit's Kent Place School  welcomed 15 incoming 10th through 12th grade students from across New Jersey for the first-ever Ethical Leadership in Business Summer Research Internship, which ran June 17-21.

Organizers say the program provided students a hands-on opportunity to study ethical leadership through creating business plans that modeled ethical leadership. 

“I learned so much from this program," enthused Laura Whelan of Summit, a sophomore at Kent Place School. "I now understand a business plan and how to put one together. I understand what being in business means, and I gained a whole new perspective on what leadership in business is and how important it is to be ethical in a leadership role.”

“One of the most significant takeaways I got from this program was the fantastic and ample knowledge about business ethics," said Arnob Dam, a sophomore from the Peddie School in Hightstown. "Putting it to use probably made me a better person.” Sophomore Laura Whelan (Kent Place School, 

Participants studied issues associated with 21st century American business such as product lifecycle, workplace culture, ecological footprints, financial cost-benefit analyses and relationships between business strategy and ethics.
Concentrating on the leadership roles of CEO, COO and CFO, students learned to create and read financial statements and supported their learning with contemporary case studies. The teenagers also were able to speak face-to-face about ethics with leaders from companies including Montblanc North America, Deutsche Bank, Endo Health Solutions, Celgene, Prudential, Alcatel-Lucent and others.

After developing their business plans, students presented their work to a panel of judges and engaged in discussions about strengths and challenges associated with their business.
“The key was to provide students with enough information so that they could identify ethical issues associated with business management and to provide a ready context for application,” said Ethics Institute Program Coordinator Kimberly Coelho. “The plans, which required a great deal of 
research and ethical decision-making, proved to be an excellent part of the program.”

Students came from the Peddie School, St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark,  Edison's Wardlaw-Hartridge School and Kent Place School of Summit.
“With the overwhelming success of this year's program, we are already planning an expanded version for next summer that will allow us to offer this unique and exciting program to even more students from across the region," said institute Director Karen Rezach.

"One can only speculate on the profound impact that this program will have on the students who participate and on the greater society who will benefit from the ethical leadership that these young women and men will provide in the future.”