The Hopewell Valley Central High School martial arts club members, under the instruction of Master Sunghee Kim (back left), are (front row) Kwin Javelosa, Kirsten Hansen, Brooke Tarantino, Heehoon Lee and Julianna Schmucker and (back row) Joe Melillo, Stefan Cruceru, Lucas Carsky-Wilson and Melina Boutris.
Martial arts club members Melina Boutris and Joe Melillo teach the group a new motion while clubmates Stefan Cruceru, Lucas Carsky-Wilson and Julianna Schmucker follow along.
The martial arts are about more than breaking boards, sparring and using weapons, and Hopewell Valley Central High School junior Melina Boutris wants her classmates to know that.
The 16-year-old has been practicing taekwondo since she was 5, and its benefits, she said, are invaluable. Especially when it comes to women (and men) who want to learn self-defense.
Inspired by an article in Time detailing the frequency and severity of campus rape and sexual assault, Boutris started a martial arts club at Hopewell to teach basic self-defense tactics, in addition to confidence, focus and discipline.
Learning those traits was the reason Boutris’s mother, Eva Ries, enrolled her in martial arts in the first place.
“She had a little bit of a problem at that time, paying attention, sitting still and concentrating,” Ries said. “That was my idea of helping in that. It really does work. Now that I look back and I see other kids that enrolled at that age, they all did better after that. You can’t see [a change] overnight, but you see it after a year or two.”
A similar club existed at the school about a decade ago, but it got shut down due to concern from some parents, who felt the sport promoted violence. But Ries said that could not be further from reality.
So, inspired by the past club and a yearly police-run self-defense demonstration, Boutris and school psychologist and faculty supervisor Drew Wood introduced the new idea to the board of education, who eventually approved the club.
A group of 10 Hopewell students meets in the school’s cafeteria once a month with Master Sunghee Kim of Victory Taekwondo, where Boutris and classmate Joe Melillo practice. Sunghee volunteers his time with the students, most of whom are beginners.
All of what he teaches can be applied to all aspects of his students’ lives, he said.
“This is all different levels, so we wanted to let them have fun and, of course, martial means military,” Kim said. “Discipline is so important to their lives as well. Focus and concentration are important. Some of them are shy, so they can build up their confidence as well.”
Melillo said Kim’s teachings are invaluable to him, and he wanted to see his classmates receive the same level of instruction.
“Master Kim is spending all this time with it, and he’s a role model to me, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually,” he said. “Anywhere he is, I’m there.”
During a typical hour-long lesson, Kim leads the students through stretches and self-defense motions. He also teaches the kids bits of information like which body parts on an attacker are most susceptible to injury and how to effectively pinpoint them.
Wood said learning techniques like those during teenage years is key.
“We know the plasticity of the brain is so important, especially at this age,” Wood said. “This is when the grooves really start to be laid in the brain, and we want to make sure that we offer students as many opportunties as possible to become confident in themselves and assertive and to have a level of comfort as they’re walking down the street in their communities.”
Boutris agreed—the lessons learned in the club are important.
“I just felt like something had to be done to protect our kids in our school and our community so that we have the choice to come here and learn something that we can really use,” she said.
All of the students except Boutris, Melillo and Kwin Javelosa are new to the sport. Julianna Schmucker said she joined to try something new and learn how to protect herself.
“I feel like this group is very supportive,” she said. “When I try something new, I feel nervous that people are going to treat me differently if I do bad. I felt very welcomed here.”
That’s exactly the kind of environment Ries was hoping the club would foster.
“This is really noncompetitive,” she said. “You don’t have to be experienced in any martial art. You can join as a beginner. I think beginners are often worried about not having experience. This is not about fighting.”
Wood agreed.
He said the club is an alternative to competitive sports that also keeps kids active.
“I really felt like this was a good chance for students to get up and move,” he said. “Twenty minutes of exercise can have a powerful impact on your brain. This is a little longer than 20 minutes. It can really have a good impact.”
The club is small, but Ries, Wood and the members attribute that to the large number of other sports, clubs and extracurricular activities.
Still, Boutris hope to see the club grow, increasing membership and meetings.
“I think it would be better for repetition,” she said. “I think it would be nice to see all these people work together. Maybe even if we’re pretty decent, I would like to take everyone to a local championship just so they can feel good about what they’re learning.”
Because of what it teaches, Wood hopes to see that, too.
“I think the trends we see both at this school and other schools is the anxiety,” he said. “There;s such a need to perform at a high level with the standardized assessments and to prepare for college. This is a great resilience factor. They develop a level of confidence that works.”
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