Ethan Wilkes

Ascend California - Congressional Debate Specialty Instructor

Ethan is a Statistics & Data Science major at UT Austin and the congressional debate coach at The Bronx High School of Science in New York City.

During his time competing, he championed Yale 2021 and Sunvite 2022. He also placed in the top 6 at NSDA Nationals, TOC, and Harvard, making the NSDA Nationals final round 3 times. He has penned several culturally significant AGDs still used by debaters to this day and fictitiously won the 2021 TOC, according to one Redditor. He also completed a career side quest in Lincoln-Douglas, even winning a 6A UIL State Championship in 2023.

As a coach, Ethan has had students champion the TOC and Glenbrooks, along with numerous top 6 placements at NSDA (House & Senate), Harvard, Yale, and Emory. Ethan believes in developing the debate intuition of each individual student to help them innovate and find their own personal style of congress.

Outside of debate, Ethan enjoys exploring new cities, playing cards, and watching Arch Manning throw deep balls to the Texas Longhorns receiving core. Ethan is hyped to be at Ascend this summer!