Ethical approach leads to Olympiad silver for Christ’s College
03 Jun 2025
Year 12 students Marcello Ferguson, Paddy Newton, Daniel Stockton, JJ Wada, and Ericsson Ye will compete at the International Ethics Olympiad after winning a silver medal at the South Island Championships.
The five-strong team members have pooled their skills to “out-negotiate” most of their rivals with an impressive approach. Competing against 26 other Years 11–13 teams, the College team has relished the challenge during a full-day competition where teams are tasked with explaining the most ethical approach to “morally challenging questions”.
Having won a silver medal, the boys will now represent New Zealand and compete against top schools from around the globe on 24 July.
“As a team, it is an opportunity for best friends to get together and utilise our synergy to do what we love in a competitive environment – that is, tackling some high-level ethical dilemmas by means of critical reasoning and discussion,” Marcello explains.
JJ adds that “most of us have been involved in the Ethics Olympiad since Year 9, and while we haven’t always been in the same team, it’s incredibly rewarding to see how far we’ve come – both as individuals and as a team”.
The College team will face competitors from India, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania, Queensland, and Victoria, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, another Christ’s College team – featuring Peter Beasley, William Butler, Lewis Devine-Smith, and Louis Sharr – has been recognised as the most improved team on the day at the Ethics Olympiad.
