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Video: Columbus Public Health
Video: Empathy Experiment Wrap-Up
Video: NBC4 Story
Stoltz's Blog Posts During Experiment
Empathy Experiment Home Page
Capital University senior Jessica Stoltz has been named Ohio Athletic Conference June 2012 Scholar-Athlete of the Month, an indication of her contributions as an outfielder on the Crusader softball team and her terrific grade point average.
But it wasn't just her experiences on the playing field or in the classroom that characterized her final year as a Capital student.
Stoltz was one of nine Capital students selected to participate in the institution's critically-acclaimed Empathy Experiment, a program designed to offer a small group of students the opportunity to participate in a unique social experiment attempting to answer the question, "Can empathy be taught?"
As one of three students working with government-run Columbus Public Health (the other six worked with two other organizations), Stoltz, an Englewood, Ohio, native, was immersed in unfamiliar and unexpected environments to learn firsthand about nutrition, the theme for this year's experiment.
Stoltz estimated she worked with Columbus Public Health three to four times per week for nine weeks. She and two other students visited food banks and pantries, made appointments to become eligible to participate in the WIC program and attended seminars and workshops on healthy meal planning.
"Basically, they just put us in a situation," Stoltz said. "They were vague about what was going on and how to handle things, so that way we could form our own conclusions. Every week, we would meet with the big group and have a discussion about how our week is going and where we go from there."
During one week, the students were given $20 to spend on food from Monday through Friday. On another occasion, the students were assigned to use public transportation to travel to a WIC center, where they were treated as actual clients in registering for the program.
The goal of each exercise was to help students gain awareness and be able to empathize – not sympathize – with others' personal situations.
Stoltz's meeting with a 37-year-old grandfather named Terry at a food bank was a particularly eye-opening experience, she said.
A former college basketball student-athlete, Terry was placed on short-term disability assistance after sustaining a head injury, Stoltz recalled. Being a college athlete herself, Stoltz said that episode hit closest to home for her.
"That put things into perspective for me, because he played college basketball, and I play college softball," Stoltz said. "Anything can happen. To realize we're all really the same, and we're all connected, and we're all people … it was huge for me."
This year's Empathy Experiment theme of nutrition closely aligned to the present and future plans of Stoltz, who received her bachelor's in exercise science on May 5 and plans to attend Tufts (Mass.) University in 2013 to earn a master's in food policy or nutrition communication.
Prior to the Empathy Experiment, Stoltz volunteered at the YWCA and a homeless shelter and spearheaded an initiative to get fair trade coffee on campus. She also visited Haiti with her grandfather, who is helping build a medical center there through his church, and will return with him in June.
"It's funny because my whole senior year has been formed around nutrition and food," Stoltz said. "It's weird because it started out so broad and expanded right into the Empathy Experiment in nutrition … it all formed into social justice in a food setting."
Stoltz wrapped up her four-year career as a Crusader with a .299 career batting average along with eight home runs, 73 RBIs and 24 stolen bases. In 2012, she started all 38 games and helped Capital to a 21-17 overall record.
"Jess is a strong, confident leader with a caring heart on and off the field," Capital coach Nan Payne said. "She lifted the team with her passion for the sport and her emotional presence. Jess is a great example and a role model, and will have great success in the future."
The experiment culminated in a concluding event on April 25, where video recaps were shown and a panel discussion was held, with those who participated taking questions and comments from the audience.
Stoltz missed the closing event due to a conflicting softball doubleheader. Like the other eight participants, it was clear her time with Columbus Public Health and in the experiment had a strong impact on her.
"It's not like we intend to ignore people (in or near poverty), it's just that we maybe bypass them and don't think about the fact that it could have been us," Stoltz said.
