When Sandra Dee was growing up in the Philippines, she wanted to learn martial arts, but it was not something girls were encouraged to do. In 1987 she was introduced to Kenpo by Fred Agonoy who studied under Senior Master of the Arts John Sepulveda, and Sandra embraced how the art taught her that girls can play well in the sandbox, too. She was bitten by the “Kenpo Bug” and has been a student of Senior Master Sepulveda ever since. She tested for her 1st Degree Black Belt in 1993 and for 6th Degree in 2021. Starting in 1995, she took a six-year break to raise her son and returned in 2001 with a strong desire to continue her Kenpo journey. Sandra discovered her love of teaching and realized how much Kenpo and her Kenpo family had become an essential part of her life.
Sandra has been extremely humbled to take ownership of Santa Clara Kenpo Academy in 2011 and took the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help provide a place for like-minded Kenpo practitioners to learn, teach, and promote what they loved to do. She didn’t even imagine she could achieve the rank of 6th degree and even more, to run a school. Sandra says when you are blessed with a gift, you live by the three G’s: Gratitude, Grow and Give back. Her mission is to continue the high-quality training legacy of Grandmaster Sepulveda alongside her team of other amazing and longtime Kenpo enthusiasts also led by 9th Degree Larry Beltramo and 8th Degree Black Belts Gary Murry and Gil Acosta. She is very proud of the Santa Clara Kenpo Academy team, who continue to passionately share the gift of Kenpo.