About
Ethics, rebuilt for a new generation.
The Interscholastic Ethics Society, United States — a student-led movement bringing rigorous, honest conversations about ethics, character, and civic responsibility into American high schools.
Our Mission
To give American students a serious space to think, speak, and lead with integrity.
Every chapter cultivates dialogue over debate, character over credential, and principled action over performative virtue.
Our Seal
A mark of principle.
The U.S. Chapter seal carries the American flag flanked by two doves — a pledge to civil dialogue and peace — with a single heart at its center, marking the ethical core of our work. The encircling inscription, IES National · The U.S. Chapter · Est. 2026, anchors our founding.
Founder's Message
Co-Founder & Student Vice Chair
Joseph Hahmmin Kang
Co-Founder & Student Vice Chair · Director of Global Operations, Interscholastic Ethics Society
The Interscholastic Ethics Society began with a simple conviction: students should have a serious place to think about the choices that shape their lives, their schools, and their communities. What started in Korea has grown into a global conversation, and the United States chapter is the next chapter of that story.
As co-founder and Director of Global Operations, I have watched chapters form, fail, and rebuild — and I have learned that the strength of IES is never in any one leader. It is in the daily discipline of students who choose to ask hard questions out loud, and who hold each other accountable to answers that match their actions.
To every student joining IES United States: you are not joining a club. You are joining a tradition. Build it with the seriousness it deserves, and leave it better than you found it.
— Joseph Hahmmin Kang