Ethics Olympiad champions

By Emma Siwei Huang, Year 10 and Mr Nick Ewbank, Director of Oratory

How should we live? This is the foundational question of most ethical dilemmas, many of which our students engaged with in the recent International Ethics Olympiad.

Radford has been participating since 2019, and this is the first time that the College has won the international competition.

The Ethics Olympiad is a competitive yet collaborative event in which students analyse and discuss real-life ethical issues. It differs from a debate in that students are not assigned opposing views; rather, they defend whatever position they believe is right and win by showing that they have thought more carefully, deeply, and perceptively about the cases in question.

The event encourages and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking skills, civil discourse, international engagement, and an appreciation for diverse points of view.

The Olympiad and its predecessors in Australia have been running since 2007, with the first Australian-wide competitions first being conducted in 2011.

The four participants from Radford were Emma Siwei Huang, Kruni Sivaharan, Keren Zhang and Simon Wu. Schools from all around Australia participated in the preliminary rounds last year and we had two teams go through to the next stage. The Final was international, involving 32 schools from Australia, Singapore, India and New Zealand.

The students wish to thank Mr Cameron Brown, for his support and coaching, their parents, and the community.

So, speaking as an international winner of the Ethics Olympiad: How should we live? I have only one quote to answer it: "The unexamined life is not worth living" (Socrates)'.