Sensei Vicky Arroyo
Life as a Karateka
Sensei Vicky started her martial arts journey at the age of 5 training under Kyoshi Paterson at the East Coast School of Combined Martial Arts. Her love for Gotan Ryu and the sport was instant. Despite not speaking any English when she began training (and Kyoshi not speaking any Spanish) she quickly moved up the ranks and began traveling all over the United States competing in national and international competitions. At the age of 9 she received her first black belt and by the time she entered middle school Sensei Vicky had already traveled to Orlando, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, Minnesota, and all of New England (many of these places more than once) for competitions.
When asked about what is was like training so intensely and competing at that level at such a young age she says: "It was great! Sure, it was a lot at times. My life felt really different than those of my friends' who weren't in karate, and as I moved into my teenage years that was hard and I sometimes resented karate for that. But the reality is that Gotan Ryu and karate allowed me to experience things I would have NEVER experienced otherwise. Like, ever. My family didn't have the financial or social capital to provide these things for me on their own. But through karate, they were able to."
Having had to make so many sacrifices in her early years (at times being in the dojo 6 days a week) and having had accomplished so much at such a young age Sensei Vicky remembers the stark difference in her experience during her teenage years. "I had over 100 1st - 3rd place trophies, plaques and medals all over my house. Winning was no longer appealing or exciting." She recalls that during her final year competing she'd receive her trophy tickets in the ring and gift them to other competitors. Eventually she made the choice to stop competing, and with time her training practically did the same. "I think I wanted to explore who I was outside of the 'karate kid'. But what I didn't understand at the time was that Gotan Ryu wasn't keeping me from finding myself, it allowed me to grow into the person I always wanted to be. And so regardless of how much I tried to distance myself from my martial arts, I always found myself right back where I started."
While in college at Syracuse University Sensei Vicky began training at the university's Kenpo-Jutsu program. While studying abroad in Santiago de Chile, she found herself back in a dojo training in Tae Kwon Do. And when she graduated and returned back home to Boston, she found herself back at East Coast but this time it was her mother running the floor. Still hesitant to jump back in fully she offered to stop by the dojo periodically to provide support whenever she was available. "The thing I was trying to avoid happened," she says laughing. "There was only one way I could do Gotan Ryu and it was all in. So, 9 years later here I am. And there's nowhere else I'd rathe be."
Sensei Vicky says that one of the biggest things she has learned throughout the years is that in order to keep Gotan Ryu in her life she had to learn how to make it adapt and evolve as she grew from a child karateka to now a partner and mother of 2 young children with a successful and growing career. She shares that it wasn't until she realized that Gotan Ryu wasn't getting in the way but that her relationship with Gotan Ryu had to evolve and grow right alongside her that she was able to really feel again the passion she had as an 8 year old traveling the country. "There is no greater feeling than being able to replicate for my students the experiences, support, encouragement, confidence and access to resources I myself gained thanks to Gotan Ryu. And doing it while walking through an airport next to my mother in front of a sea of our students' strutting their red t-shirts and trophies is something I'll never take for granted."
When asked what makes East Coast School of Combined Martial Arts, Arroyo's Program special and unique from other martial dojos they've encountered she says, "It's a feeling you need to experience. A sense of safety and love and the undoubting feeling that your Senseis and Shidoins and classmates are invested in you as a person. That's what makes us unique... that PLUS the fact that our competitors consistently sweep the competition! By seeing our students for who they are as people first- their identities, their experiences, their assets, their challenges- and caring for them, we're able to train top competitors who have yet to start gifting trophy tickets."
Personal Life
Born and raised in Jamaica Plain to a Puerto Rican father and a Colombian mother, Sensei Vicky Arroyo recalls her childhood as a happy one. For most of her youth she didn’t know much outside of her neighborhood. And though she was aware that families and individuals in her neighborhood faced challenges that others did not face, she loved her community and was grateful for her family, their home, her friends and the constant energy of the world around her. She shares, “Now I look back and can only image the challenges and financial struggles my parents faced raising 3 kids in Boston on one small income but the truth is that I never felt those challenges. We always had what we needed. I realize now how much of an advantage never worrying about the basics, like many of my friends’ families worried about, truly was.”
After years of attending and loving Boston Public Schools throughout her neighborhood and alongside her friends, Sensei Vicky started attending a private school outside of Boston for 7th grade which she would then go on to graduate from. Her time there, and the experiences she had as a Latina from a low-income household in Boston in an extremely wealthy and white school, really shaped her teenage years. Having been a student who excelled academically from the time she stepped into a classroom, she very suddenly started to lose her love of learning in the classroom. No longer being surrounded by students and adults who looked like her, lived like her, and experienced joy like her she realized she had entered an entirely new world. She recalls feeling unwelcomed, not only by students but by adults as well. And the inequities that existed in her own world, and the ones of those in her community, became a lot clearer. This experience only fueled the fire that her biggest role model, her mother, had set for her. It became more clear to her than ever that she would never turn her back on the community she loved so much, and instead would deepen her understanding of why these inequities existed in order to continue to build up the beautiful, welcoming, vibrant place she called home. Throughout her high school years, Sensei worked back home in Jamaica Plain as a Youth Community Organizer and Summer Camp Counselor.
The youngest of 3 siblings and only girl Sensei Vicky learned early on that she would not live within the expectations and restrictions many times put on young girls and women in her Latino culture. The older she got the more she learned how to advocate for herself and gain independence. At 17 she graduated high school and went on to attend and graduate from Syracuse University where she majored in Sociology. She recalls never really knowing what she wanted to do after graduating but there was one thing she’d always say, “I want to go back home and have an impact on my community.” She wanted to follow the example her mother had set for her and be an active part of the fight for justice in the place she called home.
After college Sensei Vicky went on to become a licensed educator and taught elementary education for a number of years. From there she transitioned into instructional coaching and then began designing and executing professional development and providing support for novice teachers across the state of Massachusetts. Currently, she works for a tech start-up with a mission to improve education for every student by helping teachers act on data and improve student outcomes. Sensei Vicky met her husband, Joe, while still in college in 2010 and they married in 2012. They have 2 children together, Santiago and Mateo, and continue to live in Jamaica Plain.
