About Berkeley & UC Martial Arts Program

• San Francisco Bay Area
• Berkeley & the University
• UC Martial Arts Program

San Francisco Bay Area

Berkeley, California is inclined on oak- and redwood-covered hills seven miles east of San Francisco and touches the San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco Bay Area is the second most popular tourist destination in the world. San Francisco is famous for the Golden Gate Bridge, rolling hills, clanging cable cars, decadent Ghirardelli chocolate, curvy Lombard Street, vibrant Chinatown, and Fishermen's Wharf. The bay is dotted with several islands, including Angel, Treasure, Yerba Buena, and Alcatraz (the most visited national monument). Silicon Valley--home to over 90% of the world's computer-related companies--is one hour southwest of Berkeley, and picturesque Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, and Big Sur are just a bit farther south. The Napa Valley, famous for its quaint towns, bed-and-breakfast inns, and wineries, is an hour and half north. Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada Mountains are a three-hour drive east.

Berkeley and the University of California, Berkeley

The City of Berkeley is a university town and home to the University of California at Berkeley, the oldest and largest of nine campuses in the University of California system. The campus is surrounded by wooded, rolling hills and by the city of Berkeley (population 106,500), "the Athens of the West". Berkeley has a long history as one of America's most lively, culturally diverse, and politically adventurous cities. The campus itself has an interesting history and tradition.

Berkeley Today...

South Hall, the oaks along Strawberry Creek, and the eucalyptus grove link Berkeley to its beginnings over a century ago. While the campus has grown considerably since then, it has retained much of the tranquil beauty of its rural past and is now a park-like oasis in an urban setting. Students study, work, and relax among neoclassical buildings, wooded glens, and parklands spread across 1,232 scenic acres overlooking the San Francisco Bay.

Today, with 35,000 students, a distinguished faculty, nearly 300-degree programs, and alumni in positions of national and international leadership, Berkeley today is a large and complex institution, offering students a vast range of scholarly endeavors and a wide area for personal growth. The University of California at Berkeley is one of the world's leading intellectual centers.

The campus is renowned for the size and quality of its libraries and laboratories, the scope of its research and publications, and the distinction of its faculty and students. National rankings place Berkeley as an elite research and academic institution. US News and World Report consistently rates Berkeley the top public undergraduate university in the United States and is the only university in the United States to achieve a top 5 ranking in every one of its PhD programs. The faculty includes 10 Nobel laureates, 198 members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 121 members of the National Academy of Science, a Poet Laureate emeritus of the United States, and 140 Guggenheim Fellows. The quality of Berkeley's diverse and independent student body complements the excellence of its faculty. While most students are Californians, every state and more than 100 foreign countries are represented on campus. The student body is often characterized by its diversity; no one racial or ethnic group constitutes a majority. Berkeley students represent all age groups, and economic, cultural, and geographic backgrounds. The dynamic mix produces a wide range of opinion and perspective essential to a great university. More Berkeley alumni go on to complete their PhDs than any other post-secondary institution in the United States.

UC Martial Arts Program

A prominent feature of the University of California at Berkeley, the UC Martial Arts Program (UCMAP) is an expanding, dynamic organization dedicated to providing outstanding martial arts instruction to the campus community. Under the guidance of dedicated individuals such as Dr. Henry Stone, who introduced Judo to UC Berkeley in the 1930s, and Dr. Kyung Ho (Ken) Min, the founder and technical director emeritus of the present martial arts program, UCMAP has grown into an organization that is recognized throughout the world and is a model for other universities.

Since its inception in 1969, UCMAP has developed and hosted countless tournaments to challenge practitioners in martial arts such as taekwondo, judo, yongmudo, and wushu. These four arts are all taught at UCMAP by high-ranking instructors in their particular martial arts, many of whom are themselves students of Dr. Min, whose qualifications (9th Dan Taekwondo, 9th Dan Judo, 9th Dan Yongmudo, and 3rd Dan Kendo) have elevated UCMAP to its present status.

UCMAP’s long history of successful tournament hosting involves martial arts events of all kinds, from small-scale local tournaments to multiday international affairs. UCMAP’s first tournament, the 1st UC Open Taekwondo Championship, will be celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2009, and expects upwards of 1000 competitors. Dr. Min was a key figure in developing the National Collegiate Taekwondo Championship, which UCMAP has hosted six times, most recently in 2005. He was also responsible for the premiere of the FISU-sponsored World University Taekwondo Championship in 1986, which UCMAP also hosted in 2002. In addition to hosting the National Collegiate Judo Championship several times, UCMAP has developed two other annual Martial Arts events: a Chinese martial arts tournament and a Yongmudo championship. Both events continue to grow each year.