The Summer Graduating Class was small, but full of character and spirit.  They all did a fantastic job during their 3 month long pre-test and at their Graduation performances.

Chief Master Taejoon Lee and the entire staff at the West Coast Hwa Rang Do® Academy would like to congratulate these four graduates for their unrelenting effort to always strive for excellence and welcome them into the Hwa Rang Do® Family.

Jessica Baio

Jessica is very popular at the school because of her considerable athletic ability, her unbridled enthusiasm, and her sparkling personality. She hails from the town of Annecy in the French Alps near the Swiss border. She attended college in Paris and studied French literature, but after three years she began to question her own ambitions and decided to travel abroad for a year. Once here in California, though, she met Francois Letiec, a musician and fellow expatriate, and they married. While working in her brother's restaurant, she looked for a martial art to practice in her spare time, and so discovered our Website. After reading there about our Instructor Olivia Vaatate, she was drawn by the French Connection.

It seems she found the right place. Now she trains five days a week and has joined the Teuk Gong Team as well. After graduation she intends to go on to Hwa Rang Do, and hopes also to open a restaurant next year in Southern California with her mother.

Magali Duque

Magali, who hails from Pasadena, has been enrolled at the nearby Lycee Francais since kindergarten. Currently she is 11 and in the 6th grade, and in the French-speaking section because of her French father. She enjoys most of her school subjects. She and her brother Dominique were introduced to the Dojang by her schoolmates Amber Vaatate and Andrea Perez-Bartoloto, both of whom are already Hwa Rang Do senior students. Magali intends to join them in HRD after TSD graduation.

Magali is usually brought to class by her grandmother, whom she credits for always encouraging her to continue Tae Soo Do training, despite its difficulty. Tae Soo Do is but one of her many activities, which also include school choir and drama, dance class, and piano study. Somehow she manages to get some free time on Sundays! 

Milo Piazza

Milo will be nine years old just in time for his Tae Soo Do black belt graduation. He currently attends The Frostig School in Pasadena, where he excels in mathematics. When he isn't playing computer games (he's very fond of casino games like blackjack and poker!), or reading his favorite chapter books, Milo can be found at the Dojang diligently practicing for his Tae Soo Do tests. Since his introduction to our art he has shown remarkable improvement, and has demonstrated his emerging maturity.

Harrison LaFord

A ten-year-old, Harrison is finishing up the fourth grade at The Cowan School in Westchester. He and Milo were prior friends from a gymnastic class several years ago, where they met our very own Nicholas Moreno. It was Nick who brought them to the Dojang. Harrison enjoys math and reading as well. It is rumored that he is world class on the pogo stick. Harrison is now demonstrating his increasing powers of concentration as his Tae Soo Do black belt approaches. In his spare time he enjoys his Nintendo Game Cube and the mere mention of the book Captain Underpants makes him giggle.

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