Our Team
LEADERS
Master Nicholas Yates
Head Coach
Master Nick Yates is a 5th degree black belt certified by the World Taekwondo Headquarters. He was the US Open silver medalist in 2009 and 2016, and has competed at the international level and trained in Korea. Master Nick additionally has a decade of experience as head instructor of a Taekwondo school.
We are incredibly grateful to be coached by Master Nick as well as our team of dedicated student instructors!
Emma Evans-Nolet
President
Daniel Lee
Captain
Class of 2024
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Academic Concentration: ME and CS
Year Started Taekwondo: 2020
Fun Bit: Spent spring 2022 in Berlin
Class of 2024
Hometown: Duluth, GA
Academic Concentration: Bio / Premed
Year Started Taekwondo: 2008
Fun Bit: Likes country music
Katie Zhang
Treasurer
Meera Patel
VP of Programming
Class of 2024
Hometown: Potomac, MD
Academic Concentration: EvAnth Major (Biology minor)
Year Started Taekwondo: 2020
Fun Bit: I do calligraphy and my art is featured in the official Dear Evan Hansen musical book
Class of 2025
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
Academic Concentration: Biology (Pre-med)
Year Started Taekwondo: 2013
Fun Bit: Kicks people on accident
Julia Lin
VP of Outreach
Sophia Roud
VP of Communications
Class of 2024
Hometown: Ridgefield, CT
Academic Concentration: Biology / Global Health (Premed)
Year Started Taekwondo: 2021
Fun Bit: Bananas for bananagrams
Class of 2026
Hometown: Wellington, FL
Academics: Psychology / Pre-Medicine
Year started taekwondo: 2015
Fun bit: If she were a dog, she’d be a Pomeranian that’s convinced she’s actually a Doberman.
Emily Ford
Secretary
Vivian Zhang
Safety Officer
Class of 2024
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA
Academic Concentration: Economics, Markets & Management
Year Started Taekwondo: 2022
Fun Bit: Likes Harry Potter Trap remix
Class of 2025
Hometown: Dallas, TX
Academic Concentration: Neuroscience
Year Started Taekwondo: 2016
Fun Bit: Likes country music
ALUMNI
Melody Gao
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President
Class of 2023
Melody served as President for the 2022-2023 season, as VP of Programming from 2020-2022, and as an instructor for three years. She graduated with a BA in History and with minors in Spanish and Chemistry. Melody will be teaching in Los Angeles for two years with plans to attend medical school in 2025. She looks forward to continuing to train and compete in Taekwondo!
Harrison Huang
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Instructor
Class of 2023
Harrison was Safety Officer of Duke Taekwondo for two years from 2020 to 2022 and an instructor in the 2022-23 season. He graduated in 2023 with a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics and a minor in Statistical Science. After graduation, he will be working as a Software Engineer for Roblox in San Mateo, California.
Samy Boutouis
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Class of 2022
Samy graduated in 2023 with a B.S.E. in Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science. After graduation, he will be joining Bloomberg as a software engineer in New York City!
Min Ju Lee
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Class of 2023
Min Ju Lee started learning Taekwondo at Duke for the first time after joining the club as a freshmen in 2019. She received a silver medal in poomsae in UNC tournament. She earned her Neuroscience Bachelor of Science degree and plans to return to Singapore to work as a lab technician before applying to medical school.
Florence Liu
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Treasurer
Class of 2022
Florence was VP of Programming for 1 year and Treasurer for 2 years. She was also a taekwondo instructor and taught beginners for 2 years. Florence graduated with a B.S. in computer science and a minor in physics. She will be working for Amazon in Dallas post-graduation!.
Duc Tran
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Captain
Class of 2021
Duc Tran joined Duke Taekwondo in 2017 and was the captain of the club in the 2020-2021 season. He graduated in 2021 with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and in Computer Science. After graduation, he will be working as a Software Developer at General Motors in Atlanta.
Heesu Park
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Secretary
Class of 2020
Heesu was treasurer of the club in the 2019-2020 season and secretary in 2018-2019. She graduated in 2020 with a BS in Biology, BA in Spanish, and a minor in Chemistry. After graduation, she will be working in pediatric research in New York for a gap year before attending medical school. she and fellow alum and friend, Alice Chen, hope to open a pediatric practice together in the future!
Carol Xia
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Class of 2020
"Hi! My name is Carol and I studied Mechanical Engineering in my undergrad. I didn’t have any taekwondo experience before coming to college, but decided to go to a few practices with some friends who lived in my dorm. Flash forward to senior year, and I was still in the club and living with those same friends. Taekwondo has been a great experience, full of rewarding practices, fun retreats, and team bonding. I’m so glad I decided to go to that first practice during my freshman year!"
Brendan Ryu
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President
Class of 2017
Brendan Ryu was the president of the the club for the 2016-2017 season. He helped our club expand to include many new members. Brendan grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and has practiced for Taekwondo for many years. He was instrumental in helping many of our new students learn Taekwondo and eventually win medals at Nationals. He graduated with a B.S in Neuroscience in May 2017 and will be back at Duke this year doing research
Brian Pegno
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President
Class of 2016
A native of New York, Brian Pegno was President of Duke Taekwondo and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, each for two years. After graduating Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a B.S. in Biology, Brian now works as an Incoming Associate Consultant at Bain & Company.
Stephanie Colorado
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Class of 2016
Stephanie Colorado earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy Analysis and Psychology from Duke University, where she also participated as a part of the Duke Taekwondo Club. Stephanie received the Yellow-Belt Gold Medal at Collegiate Nationals and now studies law at Columbia Law School.
Mary Claire Lark
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Social Chair
Class of 2015
Mary Claire Lark graduated with a Bachelor of Science on May 10th, 2015.
Priya Juarez
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Captain
Class of 2023
Priya was a 3 year instructor, Assistant Captain in 21-22, and Captain in the 22-23 year, in addition to serving as VP of Outreach. She graduated with a degree in ECE/BME and will be working as an embedded electrical engineer in Colorado Springs!
Larry Zheng
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Instructor
Class of 2023
Larry was an instructor in the 2022-2023 year. He graduated with a B.S. in biology and a minor in computer science. He will be studying reef sharks in Malaysia in 2024 for the Fulbright research grant.
Vatsal Varma
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Class of 2023
Vatsal joined Duke Taekwondo in his sophomore year during the pandemic. He was a member of the club from 2020-2023 and competed in several different competitions. He graduated in 2023 with a B.S. in Physics and Computer Science with a Minor in E.C.E. After graduation, Vatsal will be living in the San Diego area working as an Embedded Software Engineer for Qualcomm!
Daniel Ryan
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Captain
Class of 2022
Daniel graduated from Duke's Trinity College of Arts and Sciences in May 2022 with a B.S. in biology, a minor in Chinese language, and a "Science and the Public" certificate. A four-year member of the club, Daniel served as an instructor his sophomore, junior, and senior years, the VP of Outreach his sophomore year, and the club Captain his senior year. He moves to Bethesda, Maryland, where he will work as post-baccalaureate researcher at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, with hopes of attending medical school beginning in 2024.
Juhyoung Lee
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Member
Class of 2022
"I studied biomedical engineering and computer science at Duke! I'll be joining YouTube in fall 2022 at Mountain View."
Teresa Mao
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Captain
Class of 2020
Teresa was captain of the club in 2019-2020, sharing with both instructors and students her years of taekwondo experience and passion. She graduated with a BS in Biomedical Engineering and in Computer Science and will be working as a Software Engineer in Seattle.
Shayal Vashisth
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President
Class of 2019
Shayal began her taekwondo training in 2011 and joined Duke Taekwondo as soon as she arrived on campus. As a sophomore, she earned a silver medal for poomsae at Nationals, and was club president in her junior year. After graduating from Duke in 2019 with a B.S. in neuroscience and a minor in creative writing, she immediately began pursuing her PhD at UT Southwestern. She is forever grateful for the family she found in the team.
Sean McCroskey
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Vice President
Class of 2017
Sean McCroskey was the vice president of the club for the 2016-7 season. He also helped our club expand and taught our new students. Sean was a model for what a Duke Taekwondo student could become. Having never done Taekwondo before college, he learned quickly and became one of our best. He graduated in 2017 with a double degree in English and Japanese. Sean is currently teaching in Japan.
Eric Mastrolonardo
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Vice President
Class of 2016
Eric Mastrolonardo was the Vice President of Duke Taekwondo, graduating in 2016 with a B.S. in Biology. Eric plans on pursuing his passion for medicine and continuing his humanitarian work abroad.
Koichi Kawaii
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Class of 2016
Koichi graduated from Duke Taekwondo and Duke Law School with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree in 2016. Koichi plans on moving to NYC in the summer of 2016 for an internship at a law firm until July 2017. Afterwards, Koichi plans on returning to work in Japan.
Cameron Aubin
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President
Class of 2014
Cameron was captain of Duke Martial Arts Team from 2013-2014 and received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E), Biomedical Engineering in 2014. Cameron now is studying for his Masters of Science (M.S.) in Mechanical Engineering at Cornell University.
Kaitlin Gladney
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Vice President
Class of 2014
Kaitlin Gladney was president of Duke Taekwondo and graduated with a BS in Psychology and a degree in English in 2014. Kaitlin now works as the founder of Parallax Creative, an artist manager for indie-folker Skout, and as a photographer/ videographer, and writer.
Kathleen Chen
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Treasurer
Class of 2023
Kathleen was VP of Communication for her sophomore year and Treasurer her senior year. She was also a taekwondo instructor, teaching beginners and poomsae for 3 years. She graduated with a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering and in Computer Science and a minor in Psychology. She will be working for Mastercard as a software engineer in St. Louis post-graduation!
Adela (Yuxuan) Guo
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Class of 2023
Adela started Taekwondo from 0 at Duke and was in the club since she was a first year. She graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Art in Political Science and Psychology. After graduation, she plans to move back home to Henan Province, China for 3 months to stay with family and participate in local community work. After that, she will be pursuing a Master's degree in the University of Oxford (Comparative Social Policy).
Ethan Lee
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Class of 2023
Ethan Lee was a DKU Student who graduated with a BS. He is from Lower East Side Manhattan, New York. He enjoys playing piano, guitar and singing, and also took karate for 14 years. After graduation, he will be heading back to New York to take a gap year before potentially applying to grad school.
Rayhan Jhanji
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President
Class of 2022
Rayhan served as President during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons. Previously, he served as Vice-President of Communications during the 2019-2020 season. He graduated in 2022 with a BA in History. After graduation, Rayhan will be working as a Teach for America corps member prior to attending medical school.
Samuel Thompson
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Instructor
Class of 2022
Samuel worked as an intermediate instructor for 3 years and will be graduating with a B.S. in computer science and mathematics! Post graduation, he will be living in Santa Monica, California as a software engineer for Amazon.
Caroline Wang
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President
Class of 2020
Caroline was not only club president 2019-2020, but also previously served as the club's Social Chair and VP of Programming. She graduated in 2020 with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Statistics. After graduation, she will be working as an Associate for Galatea Associates in Durham, NC.
Trishul Nagenalli
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Class of 2020
"I was a communications chair for TKD during my sophomore year. I came from a Karate background and the team helped me and supported me so much to adapt. TKD introduced me to amazing leaders and friends I’ve kept through all of Duke. I’m eternally grateful to the club for it. I’m graduating with a dual degree in ECE/CS and will be heading to a software startup called Clumio in the Bay Area."
Alice Chen
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Secretary
Class of 2019
Alice Chen was secretary of the club for the 2017-2018 season. She graduated in 2019 with a BS in Biology and a BA in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies. Beginning taekwondo in 2012, she continued it because she loves the exercise and the people she has met. She is currently taking a gap year doing clinical research in the Yale OB/GYN Department before attending medical school. She and fellow teammate and friend, Heesu Park, hope to open a pediatric practice in the future!
Jesse Madnick
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Class of 2017
Jesse Madnick is a fourth-year math graduate student at Stanford University. Jesse also taught mathematics to undergraduates under the guidance of both Rick Schoen and Robert Bryant at Duke University. His interests span many areas of mathematics such as differential geometry. In his free time, he enjoys taking a break by practicing taekwondo, as he has done for the past 20 years.
Emily Randle
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Publicity Chair/ Webmaster
Class of 2016
Emily Randle was the Publicity Chair and Webmaster of Duke Taekwondo during the 2015-2016 season, graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Minors in Arabic and Neuroscience. Emily now works as a research lab assistant in Tupler Lab and for the US government.
Titania Juang (PhD)
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Safety Officer, Class of 2015
Dr. Tatania Juang was Duke Taekwondo’s Safety Officer for the 2014-2015 school year, graduating with a PhD in Medical Physics in 2015. After studying optical bio-imaging in the Radiation Oncology Department at Duke, Dr. Juang is now a medical physics resident at Stanford University.
Abraham Lee
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President
Class of 2013
Abraham Lee was captain of Duke Taekwondo and received his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Economics, Political Science and Japanese at Duke University in 2013. Previously, he also competed as an individual in the 2012 Korean Open. More recently, Abraham represented team U.S.A. at the 2014 World University Championships. Abraham is now pursuing his Doctor of Law (J.D. ) degree at NYU.
PAST TEAMS
2022-2023
2021-2022
2020-2021
2019-2020
2018-2019
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2017-2018
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2016-2017
2015-2016
2013-2014
2012-2013
2011-2012
2010-2011
