NHSEB 2024 Event Recap
On the weekend of April 12-14, 2024, the Parr Center was proud to host the 2024 National High School Ethics Bowl Championship. 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. As teams arrived on campus, they were welcomed to the Carolina Union for check-in by the Parr Center Staff as well as photo opportunities with UNC’s mascot, Ramses. Students went on walking tours of the UNC campus with Parr Center Ethics Scholars, explored UNC’s ethics-adjacent offerings at a curated Student Engagement Fair, and spent time getting to know each other. 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, 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. Stroud also led NHSEB’s participants in thanking the outgoing NHSEB Director for his service to the program as he plans to step down and transition to a new role outside the Parr Center later this Spring. As students got seated for dinner, they were treated to a special performance by The UNC Loreleis, Chapel Hill’s premiere upper-voice a cappella group.
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: Hickman High School, Harvard-Westlake School, Saline High School, BASIS Flagstaff, Princeton High School, Medford High School, Franklin Academy, and Regis High 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 Bowl programming 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, Case Roundtable Discussions, and a Pedagogy Workshop for coaches. On Sunday afternoon, our two Finalist teams met head-to-head in Championship Competition: the Harvard-Westlake School of California faced Hickman High School of Missouri. The cases for the final match were two of our most difficult: Xeno(transplant)phobia, on the ethics of using animal organs for human medical treatment, and Fly Me to the Moon on the practice of firing one’s remains into space after death. An all-star panel of judges included Professors Matt Kotzen, Sarah Stroud, and Michael Vazquez of the UNC 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, Hickman High School came out on top. After the match, we switched gears into the 2024 End of Year Awards Ceremony, where the NHSEB Staff and Advisory Board announced the following awards:
NHSEB National Champion: Hickman High School
NHSEB Runner-Up: Harvard-Westlake School
Third Place Finish: Saline High School
Fourth Place Finish: BASIS Flagstaff
Robert Ladenson Spirit of the Ethics Bowl Award: Franklin Academy
Judges’ Choice Award: Princeton High School
NHSEB Coach of the Year Award: Lynne Lundberg, Pleasant Valley High School
Heely Award—Besties with Ramses: Saline High School
Heely Award—Don’t Judge Me: Campbell High School
Heely Award—Huddle Buddies: BASIS Flagstaff
Heely Award—Platonic Rizz: Medford High School
Student Case Competition
Winner: “Get Into Jail Free Card” by Isabelle Robinson, Edwardsville High School
Honorable Mention: “A Killer Dilemma” by Nina Stadermann, Dougherty Valley High School
Honorable Mention: “The Beauty in the Beast?” by Leonardo Damato, Regis High School
We would like to echo our outgoing Director’s Awards Ceremony remarks and 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 look forward to seeing you next year!