Members of the Ethics Bowl team competed at the annual Southern California High School Ethics Bowl at Chapman University Feb. 4. The team made it to the final round of the tournament and scored in second place out of all the teams who participated. The club argued various ethical dilemmas in front of a group of judges.

Ethics bowl co-leader Neha Tummala ’23 said the team had a long preparation process leading up to the tournament.

“Our team has been preparing for this tournament since late September,” Tummala said. “For the first couple months of prep, we had large club-wide discussions about specific ethical cases given to us by the National High School Ethics Bowl. Our initial meetings aimed to debrief each case by discussing its nuances and important situational distinctions. We spent the last month of prep simulating competition rounds and practicing speeches.”

Tummala and Editor-in-Chief Natalie Cosgrove ’23 were chosen to be leaders of the club during the end of last year. Tummala said she wasn’t sure about the structure of the club this year since less upperclassmen would be on the team.

“After being chosen by the departing seniors to be a leader of the club last spring, I was a little unsure of what the club would look like this year,” Tummala said. “Our team last year was pretty senior-reliant, and it was an intimidating thought that they’d all suddenly be gone. Our success in the tournament and as a club this year completely negates my initial uncertainty.”

Along with Tummala and Cosgrove, the team had seven members who traveled to the tournament. Maya Ray ’25, who competed at the tournament, said she didn’t anticipate winning second place in the tournament.

“We were really surprised to get to the final round because a lot of us haven’t competed in a high school ethics bowl tournament before,” Ray said. “Only two people on our team had actually done it which meant that a lot of us weren’t familiar with the way it was structured so I’m honestly surprised we made it as far as we did.”