Aikido Kenkyukai Santa Barbara & California State Channel Islands Community Partnership

09/01/09 – 12/03/09

Capstone 2009 - Lia Suzuki From Joshua Reason: a very grateful new college graduate and Aikido student

My senior capstone final project presentation was a complete success. Thanks to the CSUCI & AKSB partnership I was able to give a very clear and entertaining presentation and speech connecting the work that Aikido Kenkyukai is doing at the dojo in Santa Barbara and the direction that the CSUCI campus is going in facilitating their education curriculum. Thank you Aikido Kenkyukai Santa Barbara for your friendship and the knowledge passed down to me during my internship. Exemplars such as written articles connecting CSUCI class reading material by speaker, author and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mahmud Yunus, the teachings of Aikido instructors like Lia Suzuki Sensei and the teachings of Morihei Ueshiba are such examples of presentation topics that were covered during the Senior Capstone presentations. Community members staff and students of Channel Islands University were in attendance to take part in yet another very promising graduating class.

This is a great start to build new relationships, open new doors for programs, cooperation between Ventura and Santa Barbara Communities, and I look forward to working with all the members of the dojo and donors that make friendships and partnerships like this one possible.

Here is a brief account of my project and experience:

I had finished my final presentation for CSUCI on December third. The Capstone project was a success, however, not as successful as I initially wanted. I was expecting some enormous gratification preceding the implementation of the project and I wanted to set myself up on a pedestal to extenuate my graduation. These intentions were not only for my community partner sake and volunteer organization Aikido Kenkyukai Santa Barbara but also to explain my life’s work in promoting inner peace to the rest of the graduating class. However, some things do take time especially when new ideas and old ideas are coming together. A visual account of my work is posted on the AKSB site on the front page titled Aikido Kenkyukai Santa Barbara & California State Channel Islands Community Partnership Video. The potential for another semester of the SBCC Aikido College Club and ongoing blog discussions from articles posted on the World Wide Web are still a great promise for me and I look forward to taking part in them.