Marquez’s School of Hope (SOH)
Martial Arts & Leadership Academy
Our Organizational History and Demonstrated Success
In the spring of 1997, one of his young students preparing for his Bar Mitzvah project asked Kyoshi’s permission to teach martial arts at a specially challenged center in the city of Claremont, California. This six-week project was a complete success and gave birth to the first non-profit under Kyoshi Marquez’s inspirational leadership. What was planned as a community volunteer project by a young martial artist and then taken over as a dedication of love by Kyoshi Marquez and a band of dedicated staff members turned into the first non-profit organization called MindBodySpirit (MBS). Kyoshi Marquez’s unique blend of his martial arts, inspirational and motivational teaching style gave rise to a community base interest in his adapted martial arts philosophy and programs. Recruiting a dedicated staff of instructors and administrators, Kyoshi Marquez transformed a casual recreational program into a non-profit corporation eventually servicing hundreds of children and adults in the Southern California area. Under his dedicated leadership Kyoshi Marquez was able to give rise to a national grassroots movement to facilitate the recognition of martial artist with special needs. His efforts laid the foundation for the 1st & 2nd Annual MindBodySpirit (MBS) International Specially Challenged Martial Arts Championship held in Southern California. Unfortunately, even a great vision cannot withstand the forces of economic demise. MBS became another victim of the budget cuts suffered by many non-profits during the 2002 California budget shortfalls. (MBS dissolved Feb 2003) That would have been the end of the story for most men, but not for Kyoshi Marquez! After many discussions with parents, students, administrators and supporters it was decided that the vision and mission of MBS would continue on in the form of a new and improved non-profit.
|
|
Possibilities Unlimited International (PUI) A NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION ESTABLISHED ON February 8, 2003 offers a wide range of services that include: Adapted and After School Martial Arts Programs, Leadership and Character Development Programs, and Adapted Martial Arts Instructional Training and Certification. PUI also provides seminars and workshops on a wide range of topics, such as “specially challenged” martial arts programs, class/program funding, staff training and training curriculums. SOH has also dedicated its staff and resources to establishing a public awareness campaign on the many wonderful benefits of martial arts training for the physically, mentally and emotionally challenged community. SOH and PUI are dedicated towards establishing a national circuit of martial arts championships that facilitate and recognize the outstanding accomplishments of the specially challenged martial arts community. PUI established and directed the specially challenged divisions at the following National Championship:
SOH’s new programs are designed to enhance our students’ strengths and provide them tools to address their challenges. A quality martial arts program reaches far beyond recreation with its intentions and objectives. Having fun is only one component of the learning experience! While we utilize the performance of technical martial arts skills as our vehicle to achieve improvements in flexibility, coordination and strength as the results of increased physical activity. There are two essential elements of martial arts training which are equally important as physical technique. These are the mental and spiritual elements. The correct performance of martial arts techniques requires concentration, memorization and sharpens the ability to process and integrate information. It calls the student to respond appropriately to instruction. It requires the students to respect themselves and to cooperate with others. It offers tangible rewards for the experience of setting and achieving personal goals. It challenges a student to lead by setting a personal example. In other words, our programs are designed to foster positive behavior, to build and strengthen character, to enhance academic performance, to create healthy and supportive relationships with caring adults devoted to youth and adults, to teach constructive conflict resolution, to develop leadership skills and to offer leadership opportunities. We service the needs of people that face a multiplicity of life and daily challenges. Some of our students have developmental or emotional challenges which manifest themselves in attention deficits, difficulty with impulse control or anger management, slower rates of informational processing, limited language skills, difficulty with self-expression and diminished self-esteem. Others are faced with physical challenges and use assistive devices such as wheelchairs, crutches or braces. Our program offers its participants insight and guidance in dealing with fundamental challenges of daily living and establishing meaningful and successful interaction with others. Our student’s progress is systematically established, monitored and measured. Promotion in rank requires more than technical achievement; it calls for meeting the profoundness of behavioral changes that improve the quality of life for our students. Our teaching philosophy is simple and extremely successful: our instructors strive to create an ongoing atmosphere conducive to excellence, which promotes an inspirational, motivational and challenging environment. Our instructors have all been hand-picked and mentored in this unique philosophy by Kyoshi Marquez and have decades of classroom and individualized teaching experience working with a diverse group of students of all abilities, cross-cutting age, gender, cultural, linguistic, social-economic, and education lines. Our instructional program is continuously searching for, hiring, training, supervising and evaluating a new generation of apprentice staff members who will someday assume intermediate and senior instructional positions. Our curriculums are the most professional and educationally sound text on adapted martial arts and leadership/character development. They follow a systematic, continuous and progressive methodology that will ensure the timely dissemination of course material and the student’s complete success during the evaluation process will be continuously reevaluated and adjusted to reflect the most pertinent and up to date information on adapted martial arts, leadership development and physical fitness. Our demonstrated success is consistent and will continue to provide the leadership in developing a national program that will facilitate the spread and growth of SOH’s philosophy, adapted martial arts, and leadership programs. We are committed to the realization that our martial arts programs create a profound sense of empowerment through self-discovery. This empowerment translates into a sense of “I Can And Will” that makes all things possible and in all cases manifests itself in an improvement of the quality of life for our students. Countless success stories of academic improvement, conflict resolution, information processing, weight loss, physical fitness, anger management, and self-expression are the true measure of our success and drives our commitment to bring this unique and innovative program to every city in the United States and someday the world! SOH is rightfully proud of its students, instructional staff, booster club, and countless supporters. We would welcome the opportunity to make you a part of this wonderful vision that is helping to “Change our world one possibility at a time”. |
Possibilities Unlimited International
1000 E. Route 66, Ste H
Glendora, Ca 91740
626-963-9959