Bernadette Alvarez

Bernadette Alvarez was born in Hong Kong, China on March 12, 1996. She lived in Hong Kong for seven years before moving to the Philippines in 2003, and started karate (Shotokan) a year after. She participated in her first tournament when she was a green belt in 2005 and won her first medal in kata (silver). She continued to join tournaments since then.

After deciding to compete at various tournaments, her then-current sensei, Sandy Santos, encouraged her to train at Advanced Kata and Kumite classes. She did so until she left for Canada in 2008. During the three year exposure to new kata and kumite techniques, she had the good fortune to have the choice to go to the 4th International Asian-Pacific Goju-Kai Karate-do Championships in Hong Kong. lt was this choice in which required her to learn various ShitoRyu and Goju-Ryu katas. Today, she only uses three of these learned katas in tournaments, while the rest are used for the dojo gradings.

Ever since coming to Canada on July 3, 2008, she has moved to another dojo only once, her only reason for switching dojos being, "Their kumite (and their kata) was not up to standard as in the PhiIippines." After staying with them for around three months, she made the choice to switch styles, and join Shima Karate School.

She still trains at Shima up to now, three and a half years later. Her dream is to become better than Atsuko Wakai, and to become an international dual athlete, winning medals for both kata and kumite.

Aside from karate, she enjoys any kind of physical activity, except that which requires or includes "skirts, dancing, singing, capture the flag, pantyhose, and dresses. " She also enjoys reading fantasy books, but has recently been interested in some classical books, such as Les Miserables, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.