Instructor- Master Nick Davidson, 4th Dan
Nick is half bear, half man, and all beast! The character Wolverine, played by actor Hugh Jackman in the recent movie series X-Men was modeled after Nick Davidson. When Bryan Singer first approached the idea of transforming Wolverine from the comic book pages to real life, people thought, “No one can be that hairy and look good!” Singer then presented a picture of Nick that quickly put all the naysayers to shame. Nick has been doing Taekwondo since before forever (ie. substantially longer than Alex) and is currently a 4th Degree black belt. According to Taekwondo traditions that makes him a Master Instructor, and he has thusly been dubbed by the club as “Kom Sa Bo Nim” or “Bear Master.”
Instructor- Khoa Tran ’10, 3rd Dan
Khoa is a self-proclaimed clueless senior from the grand state of Texas. Although he may have no idea what he wants to study, he does know a thing or two about Taekwondo, having studied it since he was six years old!
He freely divulges that sidekicks are his favorite aspect of Taekwondo, though he fails to mention that he enjoys using them to assault innocent bystanders (mainly small children and the disabled). In the scant moments that he is not eating, sleeping and breathing tournaments, he enjoys wine, women and song…but don’t give him beer, because he will explode…..kind of like a gremlin.
Instructor- Cartney Smith, 1st Dan
After watching too many martial arts movies, Cartney began his Taekwondo journey during his junior year at Brown University under the instruction of Master Lee. As a member of the club, he served a term as Treasurer. After graduation, he moved to the Boston area to pursue a research job in the pharma/biotech industry. He has continued to train and earned his black belt with HTKD.
Other than TKD, Cartney enjoys Pogs, Magic: The Gathering, and dinner theater. This fall he plans to return to school to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering unless a major television network decides to produce his show.
Edwin You G, ’98-’00. Head Instructor, 3rd Dan
Edwin Yoo was a biology concentrator at Harvard College and enjoyed the beautiful architecture of Pforzheimer House from his spacious single in Currier House. Edwin devoted 15 years of his life to the violin until one day he rented “Drunken Master 2″ from Tokyo Kid in 1994. He quit HRO the very next day and started learning taekwondo. One of the co-founders of HTKD, he earned his 1st dan black belt the spring of 1999, his 2nd dan in May 2003, and his 3rd dan in April 2006.
When not checking his email, Edwin is rock climbing, snowboarding, scuba diving, avoiding responsibility, rescuing kittens, but no longer taking Advair. (Advair saved his life two years ago but it stopped working this year so he’s back to benadryl which doesn’t really work either but at least he gets to sleep even more.) In his quest to never leave Harvard, he recently began his Ph.D studies in biomechanics in the Organismic and Evolutionary Biology department and is a Lowell House non-resident tutor.
Calvin Huang ’02, M.D.
Calvin Huang graduated from Harvard College in 2002 and from Tufts Medical School in 2006. He is from Newark, DE. After starting Taekwondo with HTKD at the end of his freshman year, he earned his 1st dan black belt in 2002 and his 2nd dan in 2004.
Calvin is also a black belt in Kenpo Karate, which he has been studying since the age of six. He enjoys watching anime, playing with computers, paintball, reading, tennis, and “accidently” maiming Will. He likes cats, hamsters, and hanging out with HTKD peeps. He dislikes dogs and the cockroaches that infest his bathtub. Currently, he is completing an ER residency at Mass General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals.
Emma Wu ’09
Emma comes from the land of fire and pain (Texas…*shudder*) where she was forged in the heat of battle and in the dojang of Master Min. It is rumored that the cloning of Emma and then the subsequent meeting of the Emmas in battle would be the third sign of the apocalypse. Because she was created with the sole purpose of destruction, she enjoys kicking but NOT being kicked. Emma first began training with HTKD as a wee whelp of but 16 years when she came to Harvard for a summer program. Predicting the good times she would have beating up girls in the INCTL with the Harvard team, Emma decided to come to the north for college, giving up her life of unadulterated TKD destruction and adopting the dual identities of TKDer and MBB/Linguistics concentrator. Having always had a strong sense of social consciousness, Emma decided that she should provide treatment services to the people that she dominates, and so she also plans to pursue med school upon graduation. While not whoopin’ people and later treating them (all while noting their linguistic patterns), Emma naps and studies in Mather, occasionally waking to fuel her warrior’s strength with cookies, cupcakes and other forms of deliciousness. It is rumored that once every 2 fortnights, Emma will emerge from Harvard and feast on the flesh of various dumplings and treats at an HTKD dimsum outing.
James Bui
James Bui makes it known that little people rock. Also known as Air Bui for his amazing flying jump kicks, James began taekwondo in 1983 after getting beat up by some other kids. He earned his black belt just eight months later, surviving an “old school” style taekwondo club where the instructor would swat his calves with a bamboo stick if he didn’t jump high enough, and where he couldn’t move from a position, speak, ask questions, or even blink if the instructor was standing in front of the class.
James disagreed with this teaching style, which involved many repititous movements with no explanation of how to do them, and began developing his own training style while teaching taekwondo in college. For ten years he trained and meditated on a hill and in the woods, running up mountains and kicking tree stumps and other hard objects to strengthen his bones and muscles (yes, we’re serious, and yes, he still kicks trees…we strongly advise you not to get in the way). James more recently began training in hapkido and earned his second black belt in May 2006.
Currently, James is working as a lab technician at Harvard Medical School and hopes to pursue a Ph.D in biology. Outside of work and training, he likes to cook and eat, tinker with computers and cars, travel, dance, and be a ham in front of an audience. He loves to hang out with people from the club to find out what is unique about each person and what makes them tick.
Dan Shalev ’08
Dan is a large, slow moving mammal from the city and state of New York, where he attended the same high school as Annie. Outside the club he is known for his sluggish ways and inability to focus on anything. In the club he is known as the Crazy Israeli because of some incidents in the sparring ring. Last year he was been transported to the awesomest of houses, Quincy, for safe-keeping. If not in Quincy, he can be found in the Kong with Annie and other HTKD folk or his block mates.
Dan has much free time because he is the master of schedule making. It also helps that he is a WGS concentrator. In his free time he enjoys sleeping, eating, going to every practice ever, not having finals or pre-noontime classes and trying to find the only other full WGS concentrator in his class. He does not enjoy BS50 and is glad its reign of terror has ended.
When not training, Dan enjoys thinking about training, preparing to train, and recruiting other people to train with him. He earned his black belt with HTKD in 2006.
Geoff Svacha GS
Geoff Svacha, also known as the Captain (for reasons which become apparent at any TKD party), is very, very old. It is understood that Geoff came from what today is Michigan. Nowadays, Geoff does a lot of physics and a lot of TKD, earning his black belt with the club in 2006. Despite his age, Geoff still knows how to bring it, and will most likely be doing just that at a sparring ring near you at any given moment.
Although Geoff spars lightweight, in real life, he is no lightweight. In his free time, he enjoys demonstrating this…many times over. He also enjoys action/martial arts movies, snowboarding/skiing and showing off his mad Korean skillz. The man has, in fact, been referred to as a “really ass-kickin Korean rap star disguised as a nice white guy.” When not speaking Korean and partying, you will find Geoff chilling with the ever growing men’s grad student posse of HTKD.
Jen Trieu
