Ryan Koh grew up in the national circuit policy debate world, competing actively for four years and traveling the country to tournaments at Stanford, Cal Berkeley, and across Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, and beyond. As a senior, he qualified to both the Tournament of Champions and the NDCA National Championship — two of the most prestigious national debate competitions in the country. He competed as “double twos” (2A/2N), one of the most demanding roles in the activity — essentially serving as the team captain for both sides of every argument.

Ryan’s training included two summers at GDI Gonzaga Debate Institute and a rigorous seven-week program at CNDI at Cal Berkeley — elite residential summer institutes where the country’s top debaters train. Before high school, he began competing in organized debate leagues as early as 5th grade, giving him over a decade of experience in the activity and a deep understanding of how students develop as debaters at every level.

He credits debate with developing the skills that carried him through the rest of his academic life — earning an IB diploma, strong AP scores, and a 35 on the ACT without any outside test prep — and was admitted to USC largely on the strength of his debate background, where he studies Political Science. Ryan has also tutored over 100 students in academic subjects at Hiscore Learning, where he’s seen firsthand how the reasoning and communication habits built in debate translate far beyond the activity. He brings that same belief to his coaching: that debate isn’t just about winning rounds — it’s about building thinkers.