Ethics Bowl Team Gears Up for Competition

The Upper School Ethics Bowl team is looking forward to the New Jersey Ethics Bowl. The 14 students — plus two alternates — will head to Princeton University for the annual competition on January 31. 

Members of the team, led by captains Ava Builione ’26, Olivia Zhang ’26, and Madeline Mon ’26, have been building their ethical case studies from the National High School Ethics Bowl’s case set since the early fall. Among this year’s topics are the ethics of germline engineering, prison safety, the ethics of professors using AI to grade students’ work, and ethical issues surrounding GLP-1s. 

Kent Place is bringing two teams, and five students will participate in each round. During every round, the team will have one chance to present a case and a chance to respond. 

“Our team has poured incredible energy into this season, and I’m excited to see how our reasoning develops through conversation with other teams,” said Olivia. 

“Our KPS team has been working hard at identifying the key ethical dimensions of each of the 16 cases presented in the New Jersey competition,” said Karen Rezach, Director of the Ethics Institute and the team’s coach. “The goal is to regain the state championship as the first step in returning to the Nationals at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in April. I’m confident in our team’s ability to achieve it.”