Niko Zorba
Technical Assistant
Niko is currently in his first year of graduate school at Florida State University studying for an MA in Slavic. He graduated last spring from FSU, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Criminology with a minor in Russian. Niko currently is working as a teaching assistant while completing his graduate coursework, being responsible for teaching two groups of students the Russian language.
Niko started training in martial arts in 2007 at the Madison Academy of Martial Arts in Madison, Connecticut, learning Tae-Kwon-Do under Master Antonio Pinto. He trained here for ten years, earning his first-degree black belt in 2017, right before moving down to Florida and starting his education at FSU. Around this time is when he found the Cuong Nhu Martial Arts Club. He has been in the club studying Cuong Nhu under Master Vu for over four years and has seen the club steadily grow into what it is today. In recent years, he has participated in competitions for the club and is eager to go to more.
When he first became a member, Sempai Max was the president of the club. This was during the time when the club was on probation for the mistakes that were conducted by the previous officers. Eager to help, he always stepped up when the officers asked for people to help with things related to the club, such as volunteering and going to other events for administrative purposes. Niko, after his first year, was elected and became an officer, in the organization that was established by the FSU Sports Clubs for all the sports and martial arts clubs like the Bamboo Dojo and held various positions during the last three years of his undergraduate studies, specifically the treasurer, secretary, and travel/safety.
While training in Cuong Nhu under Master Vu Trinh, Niko always serves as a valuable assistant since he has a strong background in martial arts and well-trained hands and legs techniques. In most cases, he presented himself as a key performer among the others for those demonstrations conducted by Bamboo Dojo. With an exceptional personality, Niko has been shared his knowledge and helped just about everyone with lower ranks during the training sessions. Currently, Niko is working very hard to prepare for his upcoming Brown Belt test. As Master Vu Trinh often mentioned during the training sessions, “I am proud to have such a nice student as Niko in our dojo”.
Regarding his leadership in Cuong Nhu under the Bamboo Dojo, Niko is taking the responsibility to assist Sensei Alanna and Master Vu Trinh to work with the lower ranks student on Tuesday and Friday classes along with other technical assistants like him.