Colorado School of Mines is once again sending a student team to the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl National Championship, being held March 7 and 8, in St. Louis. Mines will be one of 36 collegiate teams from around the country competing.
The Mines student team includes Maximillian Diamond, Adyson Meyer, Lillian Moons, Mikeala Streicher and Isabella Walsh. The team is coached by Sandy Woodson, department head of humanities, arts and social sciences, and past team member Anamika Misra ‘24 MS ‘24.
Adyson Meyer and Lillian Moons answered questions on how they got started with Ethics Bowl , how they’re feeling ahead of nationals and how competing has contributed to their Mines experience, sometimes in unexpected ways.
Q: How did you get involved with the Mines Ethics Bowl team?
Adyson Meyer: I got involved in Fall 2025 after hearing about the club through my sister, a Mines alum who competed all four years. I had only been to one competition but was curious about ethics and the cases seemed really interesting. So far, I love it! It’s a great way to learn more about public speaking, teamwork and thinking on the spot while getting to talk about some very tricky ethical dilemmas.
I feel like I’ve grown really close with everyone on the team and we do our best to support each other. Our amazing coach, Sandy Woodson, really brings us together and does an excellent job of keeping us motivated and on task.
Lilian Moons: I got involved after finding their booth at the club fair at the beginning of the year. I met Max [Diamond], who has participated in Ethics Bowl for a few years now, and decided that it looked quite interesting. I started going to weekly meetings and had so much fun talking through cases and learning about different moral frameworks. Lots of the cases are very topical, and it can be quite difficult to reach a conclusion, though the atmosphere that has been curated here is very welcoming and allows us all to share our opinions.
Q: How are you feeling about competing in the upcoming national competition?
Meyer: Going into nationals, I am primarily excited to see what other teams think of some of these difficult cases we’ve spent a lot of time working on. Something I loved at regionals was the diversity in how every team approached each case, and the nationals cases are especially broad and open to a wide variety of interpretations. It’s a little scary to be facing much bigger schools, but I have faith in our team’s ability to try our best and most of all I’m hoping we can have a lot of fun together!
Moons: I am very excited to be going to nationals. I am incredibly proud of our entire team. Winning regionals was quite a shock for us – we aren’t exactly your average Ethics Bowl team. Many have members that major in philosophy or literature, and they tend to be much more well versed in niche philosophers than we are. We played to our strengths when preparing, putting to work the thorough research skills we picked up in our STEM classes and our dedication ended up paying off. Competing against other colleges and hearing their completely different take on a case you have been contemplating for the last two months is always intriguing. Ethics Bowl emphasizes this idea that we aren’t necessarily “debating” a case so much as we’re simply discussing it. This leads to insightful questions from opposing teams and making competing a challenging, yet eye-opening experience.
Q: What have you learned through Ethics Bowl that you’ve applied to other parts of your Mines experience?
Meyer: Ethics Bowl has taught me a lot about effective collaboration and professional communication, two skills which I’ve already had to use extensively in my classes. As a design engineer, many of my major-specific courses are purely group work, which allows me to use my skills of teamwork and compromise that I’ve learned in Ethics Bowl. I’ve also developed my public speaking skills, which I’ve used in presentations for classes like Cornerstone Design and Nature and Human Values. I think that Mines students often struggle with public speaking, and Ethics Bowl is great practice for that.
Moons: Ethics Bowl has aided me in thinking critically about the world around me. It encourages students to forget their own biases and come to conclusions that benefit all people. I have found that I am better at communicating within a group setting, and I can more efficiently work with my peers in classes such as Thorson First-Year Honors and Futures, which aim to cultivate environments focused on teamwork.
When taking Futures, I found that my public speaking skills during our group presentations had improved. Ethics Bowl is a somewhat extemporaneous form of debate in which you research several cases beforehand, but you do not know which cases you will present, or what facet of the cases you will be questioned on. Practicing in this style and attending regionals had made me overall a much more confident public speaker.
About Mines
Colorado School of Mines is a public R1 research university focused on applied science and engineering, producing the talent, knowledge and innovations to serve industry and benefit society – all to create a more prosperous future.
