Upon arriving to UCF on Saturday at seven o’clock in the morning, I was tired, my palms were sweating, and I had no idea what to expect. This was my first intercollegiate Regional Ethics Bowl, and I was so nervous, I thought that my breakfast was going to end up all over the judges’ table.
There was a grand total of thirteen of us that made the trek to Orlando, by far the largest team that registered for the event. There were four rounds of the bowl, each one consisting of two teams with no more than five students on each side. There were also three judges in each room- chosen randomly as professors from all over the place, as well as a moderator who kept the time and read out questions for each team to answer, depending on the case that was called.
On preparing for the ethics bowl, we met in class every Monday afternoon, and dissected these cases that the organization provided; it was the same group of cases for all participating schools. The twist is, that you don’t know which case is getting called, or when it’s getting called until both teams are sitting up on the panel. To say the least, everything from the practicing to the final minute of round 4 was an intense experience.
“I had a great time,” says Jacob Kusiak, a sophomore on the team. “I one-hundred percent plan on participating next year. It was exactly what I expected, but sadly, we didn’t do as well as I expected. As far as the process goes, “stressful” is the first word that comes to mind, and even though we got mopped, it was still a rewarding feeling.”
Marcus Rubenstein, a sophomore on the team for his second year, says, “Even though I got crushed in every one of my cases, my favorite part was seeing the improvement from last year! Both as a team and an individual, I feel as if we improved an incredible amount,” he says. “Since I [participated] last year, I got exactly what I expected, and also felt as if it was a rewarding process. I never come out of that competition feeling like I didn’t gain something,” says Marcus.
“It was a great experience for my first ethics bowl, not because we crushed the competition, but because I learned so much,” says Annie Schneider, a sophomore on the team. “I think I would rather have had a “losing” ethics bowl where we didn’t succeed, but learned where our room for improvement lies, rather than one where we keep winning and don’t gain much,” says Annie.
I also have to agree with my colleagues, in which they all agreed that it was a challenging process, but the most impressive and important part is that we came out at the end of the tunnel as a team, excited and determined to bring our “A” game to the table next year as well. Although ethics is a tough subject to dissect, it is one that brings critical thinking into play, and that is an important part of being a college student. I as well look forward to the future, and someday hope to ultimately bring home that win, just to prove that we can do it, because I believe the payoff will be amazing.
HC XOXO
Hayley Garron