NHSEB10 Recap: the 2023 National Championship
On the weekend of March 31-April 2, the Parr Center was proud to host NHSEB10: The 2023 National High School Ethics Bowl Championship. This event was a special one, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the NHSEB program’s founding in the 2012-2013 academic year. It was a resounding success, bringing 24 of the best High School Ethics Bowl teams from all around the country to Chapel Hill for an intensive weekend of dialogue and discussion over tough moral issues that matter.
The weekend began on Friday, with a beautiful Carolina Spring afternoon, despite some on-and-off rain showers. As teams arrived on campus, they were welcomed to the Carolina Union for check-in by the Parr Center Staff as well as Ramses and RJ, UNC’s mischievous mascots. Students went on walking tours of the UNC campus with NHSEB Fellows Elijah Parish and Susanna King, explored UNC’s ethics-adjacent offerings at a curated Student Engagement Fair, and spent time getting to know each other at the NHSEB10 photo booth (full album here). Coaches were welcomed to campus over drinks and appetizers in a reception with the NHSEB Staff and Advisory Board in the Campus Y’s Anne Queen Lounge. After these events, everyone came together in the Carolina Union’s Great Hall for a formal welcome to Carolina, and to the NHSEB event. There, students heard from Governor Roy Cooper, Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, NHSEB Director Alex Richardson, and Parr Center Director Sarah Stroud—all of whom emphasized the democratically crucial nature of the students’ work, and celebrated their dedication to the Ethics Bowl activity.
Saturday morning began bright and early with some announcements from NHSEB Staff, and kicked off the competitive event with Preliminary Rounds. All 24 teams were randomly paired for head-to-head matches throughout the day, and their scores were tabulated for preliminary competitive ranking. Saturday’s matches were evaluated by over 50 volunteer judges from all walks of life—academics of various disciplines and interested community members alike. All of our judges had one important thing in common, however: they reported feeling truly impressed with NHSEB students’ incisive commentary on an exciting set of national cases.
That said, some teams’ performance did rise above the rest. As the rain clouds cleared, we ended Saturday together outdoors to celebrate NHSEB’s own “Elite 8”—those teams which would advance to the second day of Competition, beginning with Quarterfinals on Sunday morning. Those teams were: Skyline High School, Regis High School, Chapel Hill High School, Medford High School, Arlington High School, Tigard High School, Little Rock Central High School, and Doral Academy Preparatory School.
Sunday morning kicked off with two tracks of student activity—NHSEB’s Elimination Rounds for those teams which advanced to Quarterfinals, and an exciting slate of Beyond the Bowlprogramming for those teams which had been eliminated from an exceedingly tough competition. Whilst the “Elite 8” competed to become a “Final 4,” and eventually two Finalists, other teams attended student and coach focus groups with the NHSEB Staff and Advisory Board, workshops on Coaching Strategy and the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, Case Roundtable Discussions, and a Pedagogy Workshop for Coaches, featuring the Center’s partners at TED-Ed.
On Sunday afternoon, our two Finalist teams met head-to-head in Championship Competition: Skyline High School of Michigan faced Regis High School of New York. The cases for the final match were two of our most difficult: A Random Sample, on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in social science, and An Honest Chat on the rise of LLM chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. An all-star panel of judges included Professor Doug MacKay from UNC’s Department of Public Policy, and Professors Matt Kotzen and Sarah Stroud of the Department of Philosophy.
Both teams had a tremendous performance in the face of tough issues and probing questions from each other and from judges. By a razor-thin point margin among their votes, Skyline High School came out on top, with a score of 2.5 to 0.5 judge votes. After the match, we switched gears into the 2023 End of Year Awards Ceremony, where NHSEB Staff announced the following awards after a short but rousing welcome from Associate Dean Elizabeth Englehardt.
NHSEB National Champion: Skyline High School
NHSEB Runner-Up: Regis High School
Third Place Finish: Chapel Hill High School
Fourth Place Finish: Medford High School
Robert Ladenson Spirit of the Ethics Bowl Award: James River High School
Judges’ Choice Award: Tigard High School
NHSEB Coach of the Year Award: Pam Antos and Merry Guerrera, Hilliard School District (Ohio)
Heely Award—Chapel Thrill: Tigard High School
Heely Award—Besties with Ramses: Maryville High School
Heely Award—Ethics Droll: Campbell High School
Heely Award—Huddle Buddies: St. Ignatius Preparatory School
Heely Award—Platonic Rizz: Hickman High School
Student Case Competition
Winner: “Frankenstein Child” by Sasha Bauhs, The Pingry School
Honorable Mention: “David Rohde” by Katheryn Plotner, Skyline High School
Honorable Mention: “Is Hockey for Everyone?” by Bella Fritz, The Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences
We would like to thank our community of students, coaches, organizers, and supporters all across the United States—without whom none of the NHSEB program’s impact would be possible. We’ll see you later this Fall for year 11!