Taekwon Kids Mountain View

The global pandemic has brought international competition to our living rooms. Taekwon Kids Poomsae Team members, Chloe and Lucas (with Team Kimbohyeon) competed and won a gold and a bronze medals at the MBC International Online Poomsae Championships hosted by one of the three major TV Broadcasting Companies of Korea.

December Belt Promotion Test, the last belt promotion test of 2020!

Taekwon Kids athlete Albert Jung (Team Bohyeon Kim) competed at the Pan American International TKD Poomsae Championships, representing the USA National Team, won a bronze medal in the Cadet (12-14 year olds) pair division! Congratulations!

November Belt Promotion Test

She has done it again! Kristie takes GOLD in the 2020 AAU TKD National Championships!

Kristie wins 2nd place at the nation's biggest Poomsae Competition of the year! Her results in recent online competitions have been the some of the best ever. Great job Kristie!

An excellent explanation of why we practice classical stances in martial arts.

Our outdoor classes offer an exciting and fun Taekwondo classes in a safe environmemt.

October Belt Promotion Test

Taekwon Kids Poomsae Team Member, Albert Jung, coached by Master Bohyeon Kim, recently took a silver medal in Pan Am Open Poomsae Championships, earning a wildcard spot to compete in the PanAm Games resprensing the USA!

Fall 2020 Black Belt Test under the books!

September 2020 Belt Promotion Test! Great Job everyone!

Over the weekend, several Taekwon Kids athletes achieved several top positions in PanAm Open Poomsae Championships, which is one of the largest Taekwondo events in the worlds with top competitors participating from all over North, Central, and South America. Kristie Park - 3rd place - Female Individual Senior Division Mika Chi - 3rd place - Female Individual Youth Division Dylan & Megan Kim - 3rd place - Pairs Cadet Division... Albert Jung & Samantha - 2nd place - Pairs Junior Division Chloe & Eva - Prelims Congratulations to winner and we are proud of each one of you regardless of your results. Keep fighting for excellence!

Concrete demolishing videos from some of our 2020 Spring Black Belt Achievers. https://youtu.be/xgnWcQNYYmE

Due to Pandemic, then wild fires, this black belt test took 6 months to complete, but nevertheless, these black belts never gave up and reached their goals! Congratulations!

$1,000 TAMF College Scholarship winner for school year 2020-21. She shared how Taekwondo has shaped her as a leader in an essay: ===============================... TAM Foundation Scholarship Application Essay By Kristie Park Journey to Becoming a Leader: Learning Initiative Having started Taekwondo as a hobby when Taekwon Kids first opened in 2010, I could never have imagined the versatility of the sport ten years ago. Over the past decade, I’ve had the opportunity to explore the competitive stage in tandem with the realm of service through mission trips, growing not only as an athlete, but as a person as well. Yet amongst the myriad of lessons I’ve learned, I think the one that resonates with me the most is how to take initiative. From the initiative required for trying new techniques or pushing one’s physical and mental limits, to taking the initiative to look beyond the established competition system and pursue servicethe ability to constantly look forward and take that first step is pervasive throughout the different aspects of Taekwondo I have experienced. Having been surrounded by instructors and peers that exemplified such a spirit, I slowly learned to incorporate initiative into my mindset as well. At first, it was baby steps. I remember the beginning of high school being one of the most tumultuous and transformative periods of my life, with the combination of both increased responsibilities and the decision to pursue just poomsae, not to mention at a much higher level of competition than before. It seemed like uncertainty had come to define my life, and that lack of a solid plan combined with my indecisive personality was not a good combination. Yet adversity builds strength. Being thrust into such a position forced me to seriously think about what I wanted, and how I wanted to pursue my dreams. Of course, my parents, peers, and teachers/masters played a major role in helping me to where I am todayI definitely could not have made it to this point in my life without their help. However, decision-making became a much more prevalent part of my daily life, and with that, the need for initiative as well, since success isn’t dished out on a silver platter. Beyond the competitive scene however, the second realm through which I developed this characteristic was through service. TAM Foundation is unique in the way it harnesses the global Taekwondo community for social goodit’s an ingenious idea, mobilizing an already internationally connected community to serve underprivileged communities. I believe a powerful sense of initiative lies at the core of this movement: initiative to look beyond Taekwondo as a sport and see Taekwondo as a medium for service, alongside initiative to build broader connections and pursue a mission to decrease the global education and health disparity. On the two mission trips I’ve partaken in, both combined Taekwondo with another method of service, whether it be partnering with E3Empower when going to Tanzania, or with the Healing Guatemala Project when going to Guatemala. Working with a myriad of peoplemasters, doctors, pastors, and teachers, just to name a fewon both our team and in these different countries, I learned so much, including how to pursue and realize social progress. Today, that initiative has become one of the core pillars of my personal philosophy. And it is precisely that ability to translate a will into action that has taught me how to be a leader for both the people around me and myself. Implementation of Leadership in Pursuing Social Justice Through social media, classes, and the news, people are exposed to a litany of injustices every day, whether they be happening in another country or within our very hometown. It is precisely that exposure and the unique platform we have as students that makes the political voice of the youth so critical in shaping the world we live in. The Big Question, now, is how. While volunteering through various service projects through TAM, I developed a deeper interest in exploring social justice. Equipped with the tools I acquired from a Taekwondo athlete and missionary, I decided that for me, the answer to that Big Question would be MAP: the Mitty Advocacy Project, my high school’s student advocacy leadership program consisting of five teams, each dedicated to a specific social justice topic. During my four years as a member, a team leader for the Criminal Justice Reform Team, and eventually, President, I worked to create awareness projects including partnering with The Innocence Project and Impact Justice to bring speakers to our school, organizing letter writing campaigns and directing informational videos to play during morning announcements. I visited migrant farmworker camps and gang rehabilitation centers to gauge what specific political changes to advocate for, and spoke at public hearings both local to my community and in Sacramento. I also learned how to draft my ideas into cohesive policy proposals and built the communication skills necessary for my voice to be heard in the political world. In hindsight, it’s clear how influential the drive and ability to take initiative I developed through Taekwondo was in helping me pursue these projects, especially since the crux of advocacy is progress and progress is something that cannot happen without initiative. One of our biggest legislative successes came in December of 2018, when our policy proposal to edit the federal Three Strikes law so that it would be less severe towards nonviolent drug offenders and disincentivize judges’ use of mandatory minimum sentencing was adopted into the First Step Act. I still remember Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s response to our proposal when we visited her office during our advocacy trip to Capitol Hill; she reminded us of just how powerful our advocacy as studentsthe next generation of votersis in influencing politicians’ thoughts and decisions. The warm memory resurfaced in my head when I read what changes the First Step Act made in terms of criminal justice and recognized that it matched our proposal, the realization filling me with a sense of indescribable pride. Senior year, following my election to the presidency, I shifted gears as my responsibilities changed from leading a team specific to a single topic to leading the entire 150+ student program. Designing a campaign that would outline the presidential race’s structure from the primaries to Election Day alongside registering and teaching students how to vote, I sought to mobilize the voices of students beyond MAP as well. Partnering with the Santa Clara Registrar of Voters, we registered 490 students to vote, and following several meetings with the administration, developed and distributed an infographic regarding voting rights and the voting process to the entire school to accompany an educational workshop. That’s four hundred and ninety more voices and perspectives that will help decide the future of our nation. Dreams for the Future As a global pandemic highlights the systematic racism corrupting our nation’s law and an impeached (later acquitted) president reenters the 2020 presidential race, the voice of the youtha powerful voter demographicis more important than ever. Though my graduation has marked the end of my work with MAP, the need for scholarship surrounding social justice and reshaping American race relations in particular has not diminished. America may be finally awakening to just how deep rooted and pervasive racism is in society through the recent media coverage of the black lives matter movement, but concrete change in both the law and public opinion has yet to be made. So where do we start? For me, the answer lies in unraveling the legacy of discrimination in U.S. healthcare, an issue linked to both doctor-patient mistrust and the wealth disparity. There has never been a time in U.S. history in which healthcarethe supposed safety net and fundamental human right for allhas been equal. Utilizing the resources available to me in college, I aim to address this by studying implicit bias in clinical decision making alongside patient mistrust amongst minority demographics. Though the idea is not novel, there has yet to be a successful solution to break through the racism, explicit and implicit, that has persisted in medical care. Additionally, basic healthcare accessibility has much to improve on, with the U.S.’s mix of private, single payer, and state-managed healthcare still leaving around 28 million people uninsured. Could that be fixed by streamlining or at least simplifying the system to decrease the excessively high administrative costs? Could that be fixed by increasing the education quality for minority communities so that more people of such demographics can be employed by companies that offer better health insurance? Could that be fixed by increasing the range of basic services financed by an increase in taxes? Through my newfound ability to vote in tandem with my research and work as an aspiring physician, I hope to partake in the movement to dismantle systematic racism: first in healthcare, and ultimately, in society as a whole. I will forever be grateful to Taekwondo for establishing the foundation for such a dream. _________ Bureau, US Census. Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2018. The United States Census Bureau, 8 Nov. 2

Mika takes 4th in the black belt division at the USA Taekwondo National Competition. Amazing feat for an athlete who just received her black belt only five months ago!

September 4, 2020 TAEKWONDO DAY The 4th of September is ‘TAEKWONDO DAY’, which was chosen to commemorate the day in 1994 the International Olympic Committee o...fficially adopted taekwondo as an Olympic sport at the 103rd IOC General Meeting. In 2006, World Taekwondo officially designated September 4 as Taekwondo Day at the General Assembly. Happy Taekwondo Day!

August Belt Promotion Test on Zoom. Great Job everyone!!!

Dylan earns a 3rd place finish in the USA Taekwondo National Competition for Cadet (12-14) Male Black Belt Poomsae Division! Congratulations!