2025 Annual Campaign for Aikido Kenkyukai International USA

I have been training at Aikido Kenkyukai Los Angeles since early 2022, and during that time I have witnessed aikido, Suzuki Sensei, and this dojo’s community change me and my fellow students for the better.

In 2024 and 2025 I traveled to Japan with Suzuki Sensei and other AKI students, and had the amazing opportunity to participate in a demonstration and training at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine with the great grandson of the founder of Aikido and aikido practitioners from around the world. I have also been fortunate enough to train with high level AKI students and instructors, as well as the head of AKI, Takeda Shihan, at the AKI dojo in Yokohama. I attended a special camp near Mt. Fuji and supported one of my fellow AKI students as he achieved his nidan (2nd degree black belt) rank.

These experiences were invaluable and I believe all of our students should get the chance to visit Japan, but I know that not everyone is in a financial position to do so.  Scholarships made possible by donors have given youths from low-income families the opportunity to accompany Suzuki Sensei to Japan.

Since starting aikido, I have become a Youth Instructor. I have watched the kids in our kids class gain confidence, leadership skills, patience, strength, and good manners through aikido. I’ve seen them become role models for new students and I’ve watched them set and achieve goals. They are all wonderful kids, and it’s so gratifying to see their happy faces at the end of class! 99% of the time, they leave the dojo in a better state than they arrived.  I’m so grateful they have this space to learn, grow, challenge themselves, and just enjoy a screen-free time interacting with other kids.

Please support these amazing young people, and our dojo, by donating. Any contribution would be helpful and very much appreciated.

Thank you!