Start a Team
The year before you first compete:
- Find a faculty sponsor at your institution. This can either be a faculty member, a full-time staff member, or a graduate student. This is the person who will correspond with us on all official matters.
- Line up university funding for next year. You’ll need funding for registration fees, APPE membership, and travel to at least one regional competition and (if all goes well) the national competition. Some teams are funded by their departments while others find funding from sponsors, community partners, or other sources within the university.
- Think about which regional(s) you would like to attend. There are 12 regions across the United States.
- Familiarize yourself with the various documents on the this page. There you will find competition cases, rules, judging guidelines and score sheets, and the judges training video.
- Consider attending the APPE IEB® summer workshop or watching videos from the previous workshop.
In the fall of the year you are first competing:
- Register for a regional competition. The locations for all of the regional competitions are generally finalized in late summer with registrations beginning in July or August.
- Contact the regional organizer of the bowl you will be attending, so you can receive documents and updates pertaining to the bowl.
- Put together a team. 3 to 5 students is the norm, but some teams are much larger (some coaches rotate in different students each round).
- Begin working on the cases with your team. The regional competition cases will be released on the APPE Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl web page shortly after Labor Day.
Please direct any questions to Michael Jordan, APPE IEB® Chair, at mjordan.ethicsbowl@gmail.com.
