I’d worked with the NHSEB before starting as the new Director, and in joining the event I looked forward to learning more about how things are done at the collegiate level. There are some slight differences in the timing structure between the High School and Collegiate events and I enjoyed reflecting on how those differences might affect the student experience with some of the other attendees. It was powerful to hear some of the educators share their experiences of bringing the activity into the classroom. It was great having the pedagogical impact of Ethics Bowl exemplified so personally. The work that high school and collegiate students of Ethics Bowl do to prepare for the bowl in classrooms before the events, I believe, is the most impactful and transformative part of the exercise. Thinking about how IEB and NHSEB differ helped me see where each program’s strengths lie and I hope that there will be some really great partnerships that can come out of that space.

Most of all, the event was really fun! I look forward to the next one and can’t wait to attend.

You've recently taken the helm of the National High School Ethics Bowl. How can APPE members get involved with the NHSEB as volunteers?
There are many volunteer opportunities with NHSEB depending on how much time APPE members would like to contribute.

We are continuing our research initiatives from previous years to show the positive impact of the program, and our impact study research could always benefit from having more students involved. If you are a coach or teacher who has worked with an NHSEB team and can facilitate the delivery of surveys to a few distinct student groups at your school, we would be very interested in hearing from you!

Similarly, our regional organizers are always looking for volunteer moderators, judges, and staffers to help run the events. If you want to commit some time on a weekend to helping and seeing some incredible conversations, this is a fantastic place to start. We run all sorts of training for these events, so there no prior experience is necessary. To get started, you can check our website for your closest regional!

During the APPE Summer Ethics Bowl Workshop, there were some fantastic conversations around using Ethics Bowl in the classroom. I can speak firsthand to the transformative power of Ethics Bowl and I think it's a great way to facilitate ethics education. APPE members who want to use Ethics Bowl case writing as an assignment in an undergraduate course can reach out to us about the possibility of submitting those cases for consideration in our NHSEB case set. Contributing to our case set helps us out and it's a chance for college students to have their ideas published for our high schoolers to learn from.

If you want to be even more involved, and your organization can handle it, you might consider applying to host a regional competition for your state. If you have any questions about what this might entail, you can reach out to us at ethicsbowl@unc.edu. 

You have an interesting background, which includes being a video game developer. How did you make the jump from philosophy to video games?
The Jump actually happened the other way around. My first degree is in programming for simulation and game design. I worked in the game dev world for a while and tried out a few different roles before I decided that programming wasn’t fulfilling me. I originally returned to school at UNC-Chapel Hill for a degree in philosophy as a way to break into the video game design/writing space. I was tired of working to bring other people's ideas to life and, instead, I wanted to craft the worlds and stories in my games myself.

Studying philosophy was eye-opening in a lot of ways, but finding my love for teaching was the greatest discovery. As a student, I volunteered with the NHSEB as a virtual coach for teams around the country and I never looked back. I’ve been in educational spaces ever since, working as a teacher in a hybrid hearing / deaf classroom, for a company developing E-Learning software, and now as the Director of the NHSEB.

Are you a video game player? What are your favorite video games (historically and/or right now to play)?
I don’t play video games as much as I used to, but I have always loved games in general. Games are a fantastic way to connect with people and engage in some shared (or solo) brain work. For video games, I have always been a big fan of strategy and puzzle games, but I will play almost anything. My favorite games usually “do something new”, make me think, or are aesthetically unique. Generally, this means I am happiest playing games created by independent developers. Though perhaps, with my background as an indy dev myself, I am biased.

In the “real world”, I play a variety of card and board games with my friends and enjoy some fierce competition. Also, I’ve fully bought into the Pickleball sport craze and I play whenever I can. By the end of the school year, I anticipate that I will have successfully roped my colleagues at the Parr Center into the activity with me.