Three Clarebourne Upper School students — Amara Diallo ’26, Jacob Fineman ’25, and Priya Subramaniam ’26 — placed in the top fifteen of this year’s New England Regional Philosophy Olympiad, competing against students from 34 independent and public schools across five states.
The olympiad requires students to write and defend an original philosophical argument before a panel of university faculty judges. This year’s prompt asked competitors to take a position on whether civil disobedience can be morally obligatory rather than merely permissible. Jacob Fineman placed third overall; Amara Diallo and Priya Subramaniam received honorable mentions.
All three students are enrolled in Dr. Tanaka’s Grade 11 History and Ethics seminar, which incorporates primary source philosophy texts alongside historical case studies. Dr. Tanaka, characteristically, deflected the credit. “They did the thinking. I just refused to let them get away with easy arguments.”
This is the third consecutive year Clarebourne students have placed in the top fifteen of the olympiad.