Ethics Bowl Team Takes 2nd at City Meet

NCS students took second place Jan. 20 in the sixth annual DC Area High School Ethics Bowl at American University and won a judge's award for providing the strongest responses during question-and-answer periods.

 

Judy Ahn '19, Bilena Dabalen '21, Helena Getahun-Hawkins '21, and Sophia McNicholas '20 were the first NCS team to qualify for the Ethics Bowl finals, and they competed strongly against eventual champion School Without Walls before taking second place.

 

The Ethics Bowl differs traditional debate competitions in that it requires teams to engage in a discussion with each other, identifying moral dimensions of current issues and consideration of different viewpoints. The goal is to win the argument by demonstrating breadth and depth of thinking about difficult and important ethical situations. Fifteen high schools were represented at this year's DC tournament.

 

NCS team members met weekly since the start of the school year to study issues such as driverless cars, animal breeding, school choice, employment policy, gentrification, and patriotism. They also studied introductory moral philosophy, led by an American University student majoring in philosophy. With 17 Upper School students participating, the Eagles were able to field three teams at American University. Katherine Boggs ’18 and Katherine Leahy ’19 are the team captains, with Ms. Mumford and Mr. Sahr as sponsors.

 

Congratulations to all on such a satisfying showing!