Our School

Dragon Phoenix was founded in the fall of 2014 by Sifu Aaron Dison.

I started my journey into martial arts back in January of 1998 when I was invited to study and teach Taekwondo as a high school student. As I rose through the ranks, I taught children who were lower ranked than I. I remember very clearly one day when I was giving instructions to a student. I could see how they were struggling with the movement and how their mind was trying to process the information. I then broke down the information in a new way and saw that the student was able to grasp the concept much easier. Seeing students faces light up as they had that “aha” moment was and still is incredibly rewarding. It was my time as a taekwondo instructor that later led to me pursuing a career in education.

I eventually went on to become an elementary school teacher inspired by some of the great teachers I had in my life during elementary school that instilled a love for learning in me. After 7 years in public education, I began to grow very dismayed at the state of our educational system. It seemed that the most important thing above everything else was test scores, which led to a certain type of culture. I felt that because of this, many of the most important parts of helping students grow into excellent human beings had disappeared. Students did not enjoy learning when they were constantly tested throughout the day, and I saw even my brightest students begin to despise learning. The real change in me happened when the school I taught at put us through 7 Habits of Highly Effective People training. During this time, we were asked to reflect on our goals and values in life and to write a personal mission statement. Upon doing this I discovered that in my capacity as a school teacher I was not able to fulfil my goals and was not being true to my heart. I finished out the school year and left public education to open Dragon Phoenix.

I opened Dragon Phoenix as a way to teach students some of the values that I felt were important for kids to learn growing up. Values that I was not able to teach in the traditional school setting and that helped shape me into the person I am today. Values such as Love, Kindness, being a Good Listener, Patience, that every student has the ability to learn and grow, and that each person is great just for being who they are. As adults, we still need some of those reminders too. Life throws us challenges and can oftentimes be difficult. Some of my greatest influences are Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, and Tao philosophy.

Martial arts has been a tremendously positive influence for me in my life. It has helped me to feel connected to my body, helped me to feel confident, introduced me to many friends, helped to bring me peace, helped me to understand the world around me, and helped me to get through some of the most difficult times in my life. This is why I have chosen it as the medium through which to teach students how to believe in and value themselves, and to encourage them to become lifelong learners instilled with a sense of curiosity.

Teaching Kung Fu allows me to follow my heart and spend my life doing what I love. It enables me to research deeper into the art and learn all of its mysteries. My inspiration for this is all of the students here at Dragon Phoenix. You all give me the reason to keep learning and growing, because I have you to share it with. Thank you for helping to make Dragon Phoenix what it has become today. I couldn’t do it without you.