Choate Ethics Bowl competes at the Connecticut Regional Competition on January 27.
By Anya Shah ’25
Choate Ethics Bowl has hit its stride this year, winning both the National High School Ethics Bowl Connecticut Regional Competition on January 27 and the Divisional Competition on February 7.
Led by President Ava McClatchie ’24, Ethics Bowl spends its club meetings discussing ethical dilemmas and preparing for cases to be presented in competition. There, teams deliver a five-minute presentation on a dilemma before engaging in a debate-style crossfire that allows the judge and opposing team to ask questions. Each team participates in six rounds of ethical debate, and the judges grant points to teams based on the merit of their arguments. The top two teams then proceed to the final round of competition.
“The point is having the most thorough argument rather than picking one side and dying on that hill [since] a lot of times with moral stances, … they all have their own flaws,” McClatchie said. “So, the point of Ethics Bowl is to entertain and describe how you would apply these different frameworks, which one takes precedence, and how you apply it in the modern context.”
In preparation for the regional competition, where a total of 18 teams competed, Choate students prepared 16 ethics cases on topics such as serial killer shows and nuclear weapons. “All of the cases are extraordinarily relevant. They’re talking about artificial intelligence; they’re talking about true crime; they’re talking about books and arguments that people actually think about daily,” McClatchie said. “So to be able to actually articulate these really interesting ideas I find fascinating.”
After the 12 Choate students arrived at the regional competition at the University of Connecticut and previewed the day’s events, they competed in five rounds of ethical debate, winning consistently until they reached the finals, where they won against Hotchkiss for the first time in three years. “Facing them again, all of us laughed and shook hands because we’ve seen each other before,” McClatchie said. “After winning, it was especially momentous for me and Racquel [Welcome ’24] because we’ve done this three times before.”
Ethics Bowl Junior Officer Mira Gilchrist ’25 shared, “We all put in a lot of work, dedicating about four hours a week before the competition. Having the whole team being really dedicated really helped us perform well this time.”
The divisional competition was held on Zoom, where the Choate team won against a team from Rhode Island. They discussed a case about the property rights of artificial intelligence models. “We prepared for in-person competitions, so we had a week to adapt to the zoom format, which was definitely a learning curve,” McClatchie said. “But, my Ethics Bowl career started on Zoom during the pandemic, so this was a full circle moment.”
The Ethics Bowl’s winning streak in recent competitions results from the time and effort they have put into competitions over the past few years. Next up, a team of six Choate students is headed to the National High School Ethics Bowl Championship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in April 2024.
“I just love the people that I do Ethics Bowl with … I think everyone should do Ethics Bowl,” Welcome said. “The cases we get are super, super interesting; we get to talk about stuff that doesn’t normally come up in casual conversations you’re having with your friends.”
