ETHICS
The Ethics Council with Director of the Centre for Ethics, Nina Blumenfeld, and Dio alumnae guests Shania Kumar, Arielle Friedlander and Sabreen Islam who were invited back to Soapbox to speak to the students.
Hayley Liu
LEADING
D
WITH A STRONG VOICE
espite the ravages of COVID-19, the 2022 Ethics Council is a strong group that has been eager to make its mark. It is a creative group ably led by Lucy Russ, Madeleine Jorgensen and Grace Field. In the past two terms, the students have run a successful and dynamic soapbox competition, invited the Race Relations Conciliator Meng Foon to speak to Years 9 to 13 students and answer their questions, trained for and been involved in the Senior Ethics Olympiad.
UNMUTE YOUR MIC! SOAPBOX 2022 The Dio Soapbox for 2022 was undoubtedly one of our most thoughtprovoking, high-quality years of the contest yet. In this competition, students are encouraged to take a stand and present a structured rant on an ethical issue of their choice. Given our current climate of political and social polarisation, events such as this foster dialogue around tough issues in a healthy and constructive way. Our slogan, Unmute Your Mic, expresses this clearly. Students with a keen interest in a specific topic are given a platform to share their views with their peers, who, in turn, are exposed to compelling issues they may 24
DIO TODAY
not have otherwise considered. This year, subjects ranged from climate anxiety to the housing crisis to the importance of empathy. Of course, the war in Ukraine featured quite often as well. Every single speaker brought an original and meaningful voice to their chosen subject. There was a wonderfully enthusiastic contribution from Years 7 and 8 students; some memorable rants from Years 9 and 10, and finally, last-minute but very thoughtful viewpoints presented by senior students. Huge congratulations to all who took part, but particularly to our 2022 finalists. In our senior division, these were Victoria Wright, Alex Wackrow, Aniva Clark, Bharathi Manikandan and Talia Wood, and in our junior division, Violet Tucker, Anna Lynskey, Emilia Young, Hayley Liu and Eloise Voss. In the final, these girls presented an impressive and dynamic range of speeches, so much so that our judges, Ms Jackson, Mrs Spicer and Ms Rosen, struggled to choose the winners. In the end, the winner of the Junior High competition was Eloise Voss with an impactful speech about body image, and the Senior competition winner was Aniva Clark with her meaningful speech, from the viewpoint of a Pasifika student, on protecting our oceans. Students
were also given the opportunity to vote on the speeches that they felt spoke to them most, and the People’s Choice Awards went to Hayley Liu and Bharathi Manikandan in the Junior High and Senior Schools respectively. A massive thank you to everyone who made this competition possible, particularly Ms Blumenfeld and the Ethics Council who put in countless hours organising and facilitating the event. Given the fantastic standard of competition this year, it’s safe to say we can expect great things in the years to come.
ETHICS OLYMPIAD The three Ethics Council prefects and nine other senior students regularly met during Term 1 to train for the Ethics Senior Olympiad competition against other New Zealand and Australian schools. Unfortunately, COVID-19 meant that this competition took place online this year in Term 2. This is yet another opportunity for students to express themselves, which in this polarised world, is becoming increasingly vital as a life skill. Students analyse and discuss real-life, timely ethical issues in a competitive yet collaborative manner. It differs from debating in that students