Ethics Bowl team honored
This year’s Ethics Bowl team (shown here at a special lunch with University President Michael Engh, S.J., earlier this year) was awarded the Markkula Prize, the Center’s highest honor for students, by Executive Director Kirk Hanson. The award was presented at the Center's Annual Graduation Lunch on June 15, 2018. Santa Clara University’s four-member team prevailed over 200 other colleges and universities to win the 22nd annual Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl championship. The winning team comprised Miles Elliot, ’19, a philosophy major and computer science minor from Lafayette, California; Connor Holttum ’18, a philosophy major and religious studies minor from Mukilteo, Washington; Jeffrey Kampfe ’19, a philosophy and economics major from Manhattan, Montana; and Daisy Koch ’18, a philosophy major and political science and history minor from Granite Bay, California.
This is the first national championship win for SCU and is also the first time a California team has ever won the nationals. For the national championship, the Ethics Bowl competitors received 15 case studies with details about political, business, medical, or other ethically challenging scenarios. They had two months to prepare ethical analyses and arguments for each case and to prepare for questions. During two days of round-robin competition in Chicago, they were judged on their ability to 1) understand the facts of the case; 2) articulate the ethical principles involved; 3) present an argument for how the case should be resolved; and 4) respond effectively to challenges posed by the opposing team and judges.
“Throughout the competition, the judges consistently said Santa Clara’s team excelled in their critique of their opponent’s arguments and in their ability to work seamlessly and effectively as a team,” said Assistant Professor of Philosophy Erick Ramirez, who coached the team along with head coach Erin Bradfield, a lecturer in philosophy, and Brian Green, adjunct professor of engineering and Ethics Center director of Technology Ethics.
The Annual Markkula Prizes were established by the Center's Advisory Board in honor of the board's first chair, A.C. "Mike" Markkula Jr., who, with his wife Linda, gave seed funding for the Center and continues to support its efforts.