A Look Back and a Look Ahead: A Final Letter from the Director
Dear NHSEB Community,
As we bring the 2023-2024 season of the National High School Ethics Bowl to a close, I wanted to take a moment and write to you as a full community for the last time. As many of you may already know, I will be stepping down as Director of the NHSEB program in May. Effective this June, I've accepted a new position as Associate Director for Content Strategy and Engagement at the Prindle Institute for Ethics at DePauw University, where I'll also join the faculty in the Department of Philosophy this Fall. There, I'll oversee the development of a large and diverse library of ethics education resources across various media, including The Prindle Post, the popular Teaching Children Philosophy materials library, and the Examining Ethics podcast. I will also lead the Institute’s various national engagement initiatives, which as you know likely means that the Ethics Bowl community has not yet seen the last of me.
As I near the end of my tenure at NHSEB HQ, I'm reflecting on what we've accomplished together over the last several years, and gratefully remembering those who have made it possible. Since I began as Director in 2019, the National High School Ethics Bowl has grown in participant population by over 30%. In that time, we have persisted through a global pandemic during which our resilient community still managed to find ways to grow and thrive. We have brought the values of Ethics Bowl to life in classrooms at various levels, and in non-obvious venues like workplaces, retirement communities, and more. We have enjoyed new levels of community and sponsor support. Most importantly, we have brought the project of thinking hard together about our most closely held values to more students across all these contexts than ever before in our history. Today, the National High School Ethics Bowl, in terms of size and impact, is the largest public philosophy program in North America, and likely the world.
This level of impact, unsurprisingly, does not simply happen. I wish to express my gratitude to our community all across the United States who make our work possible, far beyond our (wonderful) home team at the Parr Center for Ethics: the NHSEB Advisory Board, whose counsel makes the Ethics Bowl activity better in deep and measurable ways, our Regional and Divisional Organizers, who work year-round to make our student experience a transformative one, our volunteers, the hundreds of community members working thousands of hours to shape and nurture student discussions, our coaches and teachers who so willingly give of their time and talents to prepare their students for an increasingly complex world, and of course, NHSEB students themselves, who never fail to step up to the hard work that is ahead of them as the inheritors of American democracy. As I often say at events with zero irony, if NHSEB students are the people to whom we are handing our keys, as a society, I think we can rest easy, knowing that we're going to be alright.
Leading this extraordinary program through its formative years has been a pleasure and the honor of my early career. For the last five years, I have come to work newly astounded by our community each day, and with a deep sense of fulfillment when it comes to the importance of the work we do. I am so grateful to you for making my experience a rewarding one, and for making this community my home for so many years. As above, I hope to remain a part of NHSEB for years to come, and I look forward to collaborating with you in new and exciting ways, albeit from a new vantage point. From the bottom of my heart, for all you do, and for all we've been able to achieve together: thank you.
Alex Richardson, Ph.D.
Director, National High School Ethics Bowl
Parr Center for Ethics
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill