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At Avonworth High School, seniors in Mr. Tuffiash’s AI and Ethics class wrote essays for Duquesne’s 2nd Annual Young Ethicists High School Essay Contest.
Students spent 6 weeks writing essays to answer the prompt: “How do we stay human in the age of AI?”
Avonworth swept the competition, getting first, second, and third place, as well as both honorable mentions.
The winners are as follows:
- First Place – Caroline Boothby, Generative AI in Technical Theater
- Second Place – Lily Stefanik, The Insertion of AI in Clinical Psychology
- Third Place – Camila Intriago, Can AI Translation Truly Understand Us?
- Honorable Mention – Julia Doherty, Avonworth High School, How Will AI Affect Nursing in the Future?
- Honorable Mention – Tessa Burens, Avonworth High School, From Ballet to Bytes: How AI is Changing the Art of Dance
Throughout the writing process, the students’ perspectives on AI changed. While the environmental harm caused by generative AI is well known, there are other lesser-known impacts of AI. Lily Stefanik expressed that while she was originally neutral on AI, she “swore it off almost completely. The responses [she] found, along with what [she] was given, truly disgusted me to my core.”
On April 16, 2026, the Young Ethicists contest winners went to Duquesne to meet the Grefenstette Center’s student fellows, staff, and affiliated faculty to discuss AI ethics, as well as AI’s importance in our everyday lives.
Lily Stefanik, a senior committed to Duquesne, was grateful to have had the opportunity to visit the campus and meet members of the college: “I just really enjoyed being at my future campus with friends and my favorite teacher, as well as getting to know the people there. I love being up there on my own, but they really made it better!”
Reflecting on the day at Duquesne, Mr. Tuffiash noted that the conversations between the Duquesne Student Fellows and the Avonworth winners were both unique and scholarly. He observed that it allowed the high school seniors to envision their own futures on a college campus while learning about diverse AI research across different fields. Mr. Tuffiash concluded, “As an adult, it’s the type of collaboration that makes you enthusiastic about what good today’s students are already doing and how much more they can do in the future.”
While visiting Duquesne, Mr. Tuffiash and the Avonworth students encountered some familiar faces. They crossed paths with Avonworth graduates Riley Adams and Anthony Cetti. They met a group of current students, Sophia Kelley, Isabelle Pecosh, and Sally Nalevanko, along with their chaperone, Dr. Maloney. This group was participating in Future Voices of the People, where they had the opportunity to hear from lawyers and other legal professionals.
