I have struggled a great deal while I have been a philosophy student at Boston University. While basic arguments regarding socioeconomic position, motivation, or a basic indictment of academia may be leveled here, I believe my major issue during my time at BU has been the rather abstract nature of my education. In each and every one of my classes the question always arises, “Why does this matter, really?” I have now spent years engaging the basic arguments as to the importance of understanding the ideas which lay at the foundation of societies, and particularly their importance in relation to my personal growth. Nothing concrete, however, has surfaced from this engagement; I have yet to discover something which I can take back to my community in Atlanta, Ga. to help the people who suffer significant crises every single day. I have come to understand that my primary concern has always been, “How will my education enable me to help people?”  This concern has translated itself into deep and sometimes antagonistic engagement with my courses, professors, and a range of ethical and political theories I have encountered at BU.

Recently, I had a breakthrough while working on a paper in which I bring into conversation Rousseau’s Social Contract Theory and Howard Thurman’s Theory of Common Ground. Thurman’s The Search for Common Ground details the inner workings of the human circulatory system in order to argue that harmony (“community” in his language) is the telos characteristic of all life. While such thought is not new, it did represent a methodology which I had not previously considered. After I learned of this fellowship, I heard the words of Gilgamesh echoing from freshmen year, “Study the brickwork,” I wish to take this opportunity to study the very foundations of the human body and then learn how it must be cared for in times of crisis. My hope is that such exploration will synthesize with the philosophical foundations I have acquired at BU to produce a deep understanding of how I may better serve the larger body of my community which finds itself in crisis.

More specifically, my proposal may be broken down into three sections: 1) I wish to enroll in an intensive Emergency Medical Technician Course for two months during the summer 2) I wish to take the EMT certification test in MA and 3) for the remaining month and a half of the summer I wish to serve as a volunteer EMT in Boston with the Boston Medical Reserve Corps.  The intensive two month course will be 4-6 hours, six days a week and will include 12 hours of ER observations and ambulance ride-alongs. The course will cover the following topics: Medical, Legal, and Ethical Issues in EMS, Anatomy & Physiology, Pharmacology for the EMT-B Respiratory Emergencies, Cardiac Emergencies Endocrine Emergencies, Environmental Emergencies, Neurological Emergencies, OB/GYN Emergencies, Medical Emergencies, Traumatic Emergencies, Ambulance Operations, and Pediatric & Geriatric Emergencies.

This course represents a significantly more concrete set of skills to learn which will allow me to adjudicate internal epistemological disputes in a way my courses have not done, particularly as the course content is directly related to the care of others. Further, the content provides a rich opportunity for engagement with basic questions of ethics and ontology.  The certification examination, which is not required, but is preferred for the volunteer program, provides me with the opportunity to attain a concrete representation of my ability to attend to a subject (in a Murdochian sense). This both allows me to solve deep personal issues surrounding epistemology and self-worth, and also provides me with a potential occupational direction after I am done with my two-year post-grad internship.  Finally, the volunteering opportunity will provide me with hands-on experience helping people in crisis, potentially leading to significant revelations as to how to restore the broken harmony I identify both in my own community (racial, geographic, economic) and in the larger American community, as underlined by my political philosophy interests.