Kennedy participated in the National High School Ethics Bowl on January 14, 2026 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Students senior Adah Feit, and sophomores Jordyn Velitchkov and Annabelle Sprangler represented Kennedy.
State Ethics Bowl is a collaborative competition where teams debate over real-world cases. Students are judged on their ability to present their arguments and how they work with their team.
“It was completely different than anything I’d ever competed in. Most of the time when we do these types of competitions, you’re expecting to compete with the other team and take opposing viewpoints,” Feit said. “They actually encourage and give you points for agreeing with the other team. It’s not me versus them. It’s very much all of us versus the problem.”
Kennedy’s Ethics Bowl team combined with two students from Washington High School to participate in the competition. They began to prepare in November, but were only able to study and communicate with the other school using Google Meet. The morning of the competition, Kennedy and Washington met each other.
“It was pretty amazing. The first round was a little bit rough because we didn’t know what we were doing, but the students picked it up so quickly and figured out how they needed to put it together to work through the next few rounds,” Kennedy PACT teacher Jill Koch said. “Even the judge said it was amazing and that we didn’t even look like the same team from the first round to the team we were in the championship round.”
Kennedy and Washington’s combined team won the semifinals against Pleasant Valley, making it to the fourth round championships, where they lost to Ames by a few points.
“I didn’t go in with any expectations. It was definitely a surprise making it to the final round, and I really cherished the excitement we got after the announcement of a win,” Velitchkov said. “It didn’t fully hit me until we beat the 3-time state champions in the semifinals that we may have had a shot at advancing. I’m actually not sure how many points we lost by, but I do know that the vote was incredibly close. No one could say for certain who they thought won until the judges announced it.”
Kennedy encourages more students to participate in the Ethics Bowl next year.
“I would highly recommend the Ethics Bowl. I thought it was a nice break from the us-versus-them mentality that often comes with speech-related competitions,” Feit said. “I would encourage people to look into the ethics bowl for next year.”
