MSU taekwondo roots back to 1959 when Jongoon Kim started a martial arts club while attending Michigan State as an international graduate student from South Korea. Kim eventually made his way to becoming a professor of judo and taekwondo, and MSU soon became the first ever university to offer taekwondo for credit. In 1982, Southwick signed up for his class. 

"I could probably write a dissertation on the benefits of taekwondo," Southwick said. "There's a social element to and a cultural element to it, and It's a positive outlet for people to be engaged with physical activity."

Southwick went on to graduate, earn his master's degree, and become a professor in the department of animal sciences at MSU. Although he kept up with his taekwondo training, he never considered teaching it until 1999, when Kim announced his retirement. 

Due to a lack of funding, the university said Kim’s retirement would end the judo and taekwondo programs at MSU. When Southwick heard this news, he volunteered to teach the class without compensation while continuing his research for the university until they could hire somebody else. Now, 25 years later, Southwick still teaches taekwondo and holds club meetings open to any MSU student simply because it is his passion. 

"Even though I'm an athlete, and I've been pretty successful in that, my real passion is teaching," he said. "When I met Mr. Kim and saw the way that he taught I knew I wanted to do that."

Now Southwick gets to be the mentor for his students that Kim was once for him. 

"We’re really lucky to have a world-class instructor like Southwick here," said mechanical engineering sophomore Alex Foufopoulos. "It's been a really wonderful experience."

Foufopoulos took KIN102 last semester and quickly fell in love with the art of taekwondo. He decided to join the extracurricular club and became a TA for the class. 

"It is very much a well-rounded sport," he said. "You learn everything from flexibility and strength to agility and It has the practical aspect like self defense."

Taekwondo club members range everywhere from white belts who have never tried taekwondo before, to world champion winners. When international student, finance and economics junior Jogi Katende first came to MSU from Uganda he knew he was going to join the club. 

"All of my life, taekwondo was such a big part of it," he said. Katende has been practicing taekwondo since he was four years old. As a kid he joined the junior Ugandan national team, and now he is a member of the senior team. "When I came to MSU I was so happy to see a history of taekwondo here," he said. 

This October, Katende is scheduled to compete at the U.S. open tournament, representing both Uganda and MSU. 

Southwick has had multiple students who made the U..S national team and olympic team trials. However, he said that creating athletes is not his goal.

 "I want to teach people the more positive part of martial arts as a lifelong practice," he said.  

Teaching first time students is one of Southwick's favorite aspects of the taekwondo club.

"I get so much energy out of it because they come in with a blank slate and enthusiasm," he said. "To me that's infectious. I remember being in that stage. Just seeing somebody who doesn't think they can do something come in and start doing it, you see the spark in their eyes."

Overall, Southwick tries to emphasize the community and inclusivity of martial arts to his students. 

"Everybody works together to do the same thing and get the same thing out of it. It's like we're on a target and the center is where we're aiming for, but we all come in a different direction and we all meet in the middle," he said. 

Even for champions like Katende, the club environment and the relationships he has built through taekwondo are his favorite aspects of the sport. 

"Our principle is 'back at the gym on Monday,'" he said. "Even if you have a competition and win something or lose something, if you come in last or are on top of the world, you come back to train together. For everybody it's back to the gym on Monday."