For homeless children at Sacramento’s Mustard Seed School, martial arts practice is more than mere exercise. Their self-defense lessons are also aimed at building self-esteem and protecting them from the dangers of life on the street.

Bright bunches of balloons outside signal to me that this is the Kovars Karate School I’m looking for. As I enter, I’m greeted with the playground sounds of about a dozen kids chattering and laughing as they race and skip around the wide open space of the dojo. They are doing cart-wheels in sock feet, making funny faces toward the mirrors along one wall. They are smiling, excited, and, no doubt, ready for the pizza party that’s scheduled to follow their belt ceremony. You could watch these kids for hours and never know that they are homeless, never know that some of them maybe slept in cars last night, or walked through dangerous neighborhoods in the darkest, coldest hours of the night. You might never know the fears they’ve faced or the very grown-up worries they’ve had to carry on their narrow young shoulders. To know all that, you would really have to get to know them. You would have to have been there, day in and day out, asking the right questions and listening, really listening, when they shared pieces of their stories. You would have to be their teacher, or a parent, a psychologist, or a coach, a playmate, a friend. You would have to be someone like Sophia Powers, who, at one time or another, has been all those things to these kids who are gathered here today from the Mustard Seed School, Sacramento’s School for homeless children. The kids are here to celebrate their progress (some are receiving their gold belt today, next up from white, while others are getting “tips” on their belts, signifying they are one step closer). But the teachers and parents gathered here to support them are also celebrating the first anniversary of a very special partnership between the school and Kovars Martial Arts Academy, a program that started with Ms. Powers’ vision.

“I was hearing and reading all these statistics about homeless kids…how eight out of ten are physically assaulted before they reach their teens.” Powers asked herself, “If they can’t go to Martial Arts, why can’t we bring it to them?” So, she wrote a proposal to Dave Kovars, Founder and Chief Training Officer of the Kovars/Satori Academy of Martial Arts, who agreed to support the program, allowing Mustard Seed students to learn the Kovars self-defense curriculum at no cost to them or the school. The instructors, who volunteer their time, have made the program a success.

Dave Kovar is at the event and leads the kids in reviewing, among other things, The Principles of Black Belt: “modesty, courtesy, integrity, perseverance, courage and indomitable spirit.” It’s a tall order for even the most privileged and disciplined of adults, let alone for disadvantaged kids who don’t always know where their next meal is coming from or where they’ll spend the night. “It’s hard for people to really fathom what these kids go through,” says Ms. Powers, yet she is firm in her belief that the adversity her students face is all the more reason to lift their expectations higher.

After the kids have successfully demonstrated their knowledge of martial arts basics, they participate in a board-breaking exercise. Teachers demonstrate the proper technique and describe how, mentally, the kids will focus (“not so much on the board, but beyond it”) in order to achieve a clean break. Each of the kids follows instructions exactly, and as board after board breaks in two, triumphant smiles start to fill the room. One of the girls, Samantha, seems awed by what she’s just done. She keeps staring at the two pieces of wood held tightly in her hands, and she whispers to herself again and again, “I broke that board…” Even when the kids get gift bags, she does not stop gazing at her hands, and she does not let go of those boards—tangible proof that she is capable of doing more than she thought she could. You can see, in her expression, how the fact of her success gradually sinks in, until, all smiles, she declares, “I want to break another board!” It’s Samantha’s smile that comes back to me later, asSophia tells me what teaching means to her: “There isn’t a greater gift you can give your students than to show them all that they can be.”

To help these kids develop their full potential, the Satori Academy is introducing a scholarship program, which will allow kids to continue their martial arts training once they leave the Mustard Seed School. Families who manage to get into housing and re-enroll their children in public schools still face a precarious financial situation, and the kids sometimes face a difficult adjustment. This program will allow the children to further their training, maintain that important relationship with a teacher, and continue to surprise themselves with all that they can do.

To learn more about Sacramento’s Mustard Seed School, and how you can make a difference in the lives of its students, call Gail at 916-446-0874 or visit sacramentoloavesandfishes.org/mustardseed.html.

Go to SacramentoParent.com, to read “Positive Impact,” a companion piece to this article, available only online, or look up “Sowing the Seeds of Hope,” our February story on Sacramento’s Mustard Seed School.

For more information about the Kovars/Satori Martial Arts Academy, visit Kovars.com or SatoriAcademy.com.