C O N T E N T S T A B L E O F

Throughoutthe magazine,wefeature severalofourKarateka andtheactivities/ passionstheyhave beyondKarateonpages 14,23,31,and39.

Throughoutthe magazine,youwillfind featuredarticlesonthe Karatejourneyofvarious instructorsthatwehave metandconnectedwith onpages28-30.

Throughoutthemagazine, wefeatureseveralofthe altruisminaction activitiesthatour studentscompleted.We featureactivitiesinwhich ourstudentsdedicated combinationsoftime, money,andskillson pages9,10,17,35,and38.

Altruism is often misunderstood and viewed as a group of selfless people offeringopportunitiesofwhichotherscantakeadvantageforfree.However,to reachtrue,continuousaltruism,thosebenefitingfromwhatselflesspeopleoffer must consider ways to pay it forward. They must work to create opportunities forthenextgenerationsothatthey,too,canbenefitfromtheopportunitiesthat thecurrentoneenjoys.

Our friends in the Japan University Karatedo Federation (JUKF) and Technical Colleges Karate Federation (TCKF) shared this idea with us when we visited Japan. Many of the senior members explained that, while they were university students training Karate, often the senior club members and instructors would takethemouttoeataftertraining,payfortheirfood,offerencouragement,and share life advice. The students might have wanted to repay them, but they knew that they did not have the money and resources to do so at the time. Instead, our friends explained their group’s wisdom: the best way to pay back what they received was to pay it forward. This is the true goal of altruism: to offeropportunitiestostudentswhootherwisewouldnothaveaccesstoit,while also inspire these students to continue paying it forward with the next generation. If people receive benefits without paying anything forward, the cyclestops,andfuturegenerationsdon’treceivethesamehelpandsupportto reach success. Adopting our friends’ philosophy, our goal is to develop a community in which students receive as much support as they need to succeedwhilelearningtopayitforwardfortheirfutureteammates.