On January 10, 2026, Academy of the Sacred Heart won second place in the Regional Competition of the National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB) at Tulane University. Through the Honors Program Independent Study curriculum, the Academy team worked for months preparing to present their claims and reasoning in ethical dialogue about various cases related to real-world moral dilemmas.
In the final round, Grayson Benhard (captain), Annabel Capps, Arieanna Guilbeau, Emma Hargrave, and Victoria Henry faced the competition's other top team at the end of the day, our own Berchmans Academy boys. Berchmans won that competition by a slim margin, advancing them to the Divisional Playoffs in February.
Recently, the ASH Ethics Bowl team was invited to participate in the Pan Atlantic regional competition for the International Ethics Olympiad. The team is excited to build on its success in NHSEB and to explore a new avenue of academic competition.
Read on to learn more about the NHSEB experience from the students who participated, and stay tuned to hear about how the girls do in the International Ethics Olympiad.
WHY DID YOU JOIN ETHICS BOWL THIS YEAR?
GRAYSON - I joined Ethics Bowl this year because of the fulfilling experience I had doing it last year. Last year's seniors inspired and influenced me to become more confident in myself and in my knowledge. I wanted to hopefully help build others up as a senior member. I also thoroughly enjoyed the academic discourse skills and learning I gained last year and wanted to further develop those skills before college.
ANNABEL - I joined Ethics Bowl to educate myself on current ethical matters in our lives today, along with bettering my deep thinking and public speaking skills.
ARIEANNA - I joined Ethics Bowl to practice more public speaking, but also to branch out in my knowledge about things that happen everyday that I never truly paid attention to.
EMMA - I joined Ethics Bowl this year because I enjoy discussing topics that are both complicated and morally gray; I also wanted to hone my discussion and argumentation skills.
VICTORIA - I joined the Ethics Bowl team because it sounded like a fun experience. I also wanted to practice public speaking and be able to hold a better conversation with people from different backgrounds with different opinions.
HOW DID YOU AND THE TEAM PREPARE FOR COMPETITION?
GRAYSON - To prepare for the competition, the team worked together discussing each case and researching points of view that we, as a team, were unfamiliar with, and implemented them into our stance and understanding of each case. We met at least once a week to go over cases and help build general claims, reasoning, and counter arguments for every case. As we got closer to the competition, our practices were dedicated to running through each case with Mrs. Guillory in the way it would be at the competition.
ANNABEL - My team and I met consistently to discuss our research of the cases and practice running them to be able to see them from every angle possible.
ARIEANNA - We would meet together not only at school but out of school as well. During finals week we would meet in the library whenever we were free or at the Hive. We’d also meet at CCs on the weekends.
EMMA - The team and I prepared by researching all of the cases presented to us, having thorough discussions about each case, coming up with claims relating to the dilemmas presented to us, and eventually meeting in and out of school to run the cases in the style of an actual match.
VICTORIA - In order to prepare for the competition the team and I read through all the cases together, and we were each assigned three cases to research in depth. Once we looked over all the cases, we created a bare bones document and wrote our claim, reasoning, and counter claim for each case. Once our bare bones document was completed, we would meet up at CC’s coffee and go over cases and rehearse practice questions such as we would answer at the competition.
WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF COMPETING LIKE FOR YOU?
GRAYSON - The experience of competing is honestly refreshing compared to similarly structured sports competition. Ethics Bowl competition doesn’t generate the same heated competitive nature in people as sports does, and it really helps to emphasize the importance of what you're doing and not why you're at the competition. During the competition I could focus on concentrating on the cases instead of worrying about winning because of the calm structure.
ANNABEL - To be able to compete was the highlight of Ethics Bowl to me as a whole. I had so much fun being able to articulate our thoughts on the cases in an organized and interesting way. Having the discussions with other schools who shared and opposed opinions with us was also a fun experience.
ARIEANNA - It was a super great experience. I enjoyed hearing everyone’s opinions on the cases we studied and seeing their own thought processes.
EMMA - The experience of competing was exhilarating for me; I found that the high stakes environment sharpened my senses and reason, and I truly enjoyed getting to be a part of the competition.
VICTORIA - Once we got to Tulane and learned how the day would go, we went to the room where our first case would be discussed. For the first case, I was nervous and didn’t speak much, but after that I got more comfortable speaking and found myself contributing more in conversations.
HOW DID YOU GROW AS A STUDENT, LEARNER, INDIVIDUAL, AND WORLD CITIZEN?
GRAYSON - I grew as a student because as captain I had to learn how to guide and help others while also acknowledging my own room for growth, and an effort for our team to grow together as one. As a learner I grew in the way that it is so important to fully value the opinions of those around you. Even if they seem mundane, or unimportant, valuing that opinion brings a new level of depth and global perspective to your knowledge. As an individual, this year on Ethics Bowl helped to grow my organizational and leadership skills; I had to learn to work with a diverse group of schedules and availability to ensure our team had ample opportunity to prepare for regionals. I believe Ethics Bowl has shaped me to be a more sympathetic, understanding, and connected world citizen. I am aware of the struggles of those around me, I understand that in every situation there is so much room for ethical imperfections, and I can connect to those around me through my global knowledge.
ANNABEL - I grew in all of these aspects by having a true interest and desire to learn about these cases, the ability to understand all points of view of the issues, and having the main goal of helping as many individuals as possible without conclusions.
ARIEANNA - It definitely made me a better listener since it’s a team building activity which prepares us for hearing different perspectives since no one in the real world is going to automatically agree with you. It also made me a little more confident in expressing my ideas instead of not voicing my opinion at all.
EMMA - I feel I grew in my ability to have mature, proper discussions without getting emotional; the more we discussed, the more heard and understood I felt by my peers, and down the line, this led to me feeling more confident and capable as we presented our claims and rebuttals.
VICTORIA - By participating in Ethics Bowl I grew in my knowledge about problems that apply to the real world and formed my own opinions on them so that maybe I can make an impact based on what I believe in the future.
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THE EXPERIENCE TO OTHER STUDENTS AND WHY?
GRAYSON - I would recommend an experience like this to any student, especially at our small school. We are very unintentionally sheltered from what injustices and hardships go on in our world, but our upbringing through the Goals makes us very susceptible to understanding and standing up for those facing these hardships. I think Ethics Bowl can be a very inspiring and maturing experience that can help educate students on things that aren't taught in school. Our students are who the world needs to understand these issues, but we can be blind to them.
ANNABEL - I would definitely recommend this experience to other students who have an interest in current events and enjoy having thoughtful conversations. This experience has helped me grow in my confidence for public speaking along with helping me be able to organize my thoughts and express them clearly with my team. Anybody looking to grow in skills like these would definitely benefit from joining Ethics Bowl.
ARIEANNA - I would definitely recommend this experience to people. It’s good for people who love public speaking and for people who aren’t a huge fan of public speaking. I think that being in a small group of people to practice speaking about my opinions really prepared me for the competition, and it could help people start small, too. It’s also just a great way to get a simple idea of huge issues in our world. All the cases are small snippets, but it really gets you thinking about everything happening because all the cases are real things that have happened, and it’s important to take notice of these things in any way we can.
EMMA - I would absolutely recommend the experience to other students; being a part of the team is an opportunity, not only to become more knowledgeable, but also to become a more empathetic person. Ethics Bowl is a massive opportunity to embrace the Goal 4 lifestyle.
VICTORIA - I would recommend this experience to other students because it is a great opportunity to learn about issues going on currently. Not only is this good information to know about, but it's also good to practice public speaking and a really fun experience.