Southwest Chicago Shotokan offers a significant discount on dojo dues for students currently attending college. For these individuals, dojo dues are $5/month instead of the normal $40/month. Please note that membership in Shotokan Karate of America is still required for college students. Details are available here.

We offer this discount for several reasons.

Shotokan Karate of America has a long history with colleges and universities. The founder of the Shotokan style, Master Gichin Funakoshi, taught karate at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo. It is here at Waseda University that our chief instructor, Mr. Tsutomu Ohshima, began karate practice with Master Funakoshi. In 1957, two years after traveling to the United States to continue his education in economics, Mr. Ohshima founded the first university karate club in the United States at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Many of Mr. Ohshima’s karate students at Caltech went on to start their own university karate clubs throughout the United States after leaving Caltech. All three Southwest Chicago Shotokan instructors began their karate training while in college (John and Jeff at Northern Illinois University, and Steve at the University of Chicago).

We believe that karate training offers many benefits to adults in their late teens and early twenties. It teaches discipline and focus, which can help with one’s studies. It teaches awareness and self-defense, which can help with one’s safety when traveling across campus alone, sometimes in the dark. It teaches the ideas of continuous improvement and persistence, setting the stage for success in life.

We also realize that college is very expensive, and that many college students don’t have much money to pay for things not directly related to their education.

We are happy to offer this discounted pricing to those furthering their education.

Please contact us if you if you have any questions, or to find out how to get started.