Can PV’s Ethics Bowl team achieve the same success as seen in previous years?
Every year, sports teams, clubs and other activities lose senior members due to graduation. Seniors pass down valuable knowledge to the future team but also leave behind big shoes to fill. Last year’s nationally ranked Ethics Bowl team consisted of seven seniors and one junior.
After losing seven senior members from the class of 2023, PV’s current Ethics Bowl team is ready to step up and achieve the same success.
National High School Ethics Bowl is a series of events in which students from across the country collaborate with teammates in competition over real-world ethical issues. In a typical competition setting, teams will go head-to-head analyzing case studies and answering questions from a panel of judges. The competition allows teams to defend ethical positions, differing from debate.
In 2021, English teacher Lynne Lundberg, known to her students as Dr. L, founded PV’s very own Ethics Bowl team. Lundberg offered an opportunity for students to explore ethical foundations while practicing intellectual competition.
In just 2 years, PV’s Ethics Bowl team has participated multiple times in the Ethics Bowl National Championships, which is held at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The team holds meetings numerous times a week, with practice every day as the competition gets closer.
After copious amounts of practice, it’s no surprise PV’s Ethics Bowl team has seen remarkable success over the past couple of years.
With almost a completely new team, Lundberg’s expectations for this season stay high. “I went into the season 2 years ago without knowing what kinds of expectations I could have, but those kids who had never done it before won state, won regionals, went to nationals. My expectation is that all that is possible this year too,” Lundberg stated.
Lundberg explains that having members who can rise to the challenge and become leaders will be one of the biggest factors in the team’s success this year. “We’ve had students that have stepped up and said we’ll be leaders and take that role. I know we’ve got good leadership,” she said.
A team of seniors graduating means new leaders will need to occupy those empty positions, in order to maintain the successful state of the team. Senior Margil Sanchez Carmona is one of the leaders who has stepped up into the role.
By passing on skills and knowledge on ethics learned from competing for last year’s nationally ranked team, Sanchez Carmona understands the importance of leadership for this new team. “I was the only one who stayed for nationals prep, so I knew back then I needed to start preparing to lead the team for this year,” he said.
As for what the team is looking forward to this season, Sanchez Carmona is excited to share his passion for ethics with his teammates. “It’s a passion that drove my respect for my peers and my attention to the ethical issues. I’ll make sure this year to maintain that passion and share it with the new team,” Sanchez Carmona stated.
Although Sanchez Carmona is the only returning member from PV’s national team, Senior Ashwin Parab competed in both the state and regional tournaments last year. The two seniors have taken the role of leaders of Ethics Bowl at PV, after building up experience from the past year.
While the ‘start-from-scratch’ concept may seem difficult to conquer for a team with new members stepping into unfilled roles, Lundberg sees it as a benefit. “I think that open-mindedness that can come from having new folks can be really great…you get new energy from new people,” she said.
One returning member from a previous nationally ranked team means other students will need to fill the hollow roles left behind. As rising seniors step up as leaders, they inspire underclassmen to do the same, cementing the legacy of Ethics Bowl at PV for years to come.
