May 2025,
FROM THE ARTICLE
Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Schaefer.
Hi Joe, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I dropped out of Indiana University in 1984 after just one year. I was 19, managing a restaurant, and unsure of what I was meant to do in life. That’s when I stumbled into a small Kung Fu school in rural Indiana — and everything changed.
Training in martial arts gave me back my confidence, my direction, and a deeper sense of purpose. I earned my black belt in 1987, and just one month later, I began teaching. I was hooked. My wife Sheryl began training alongside me in 1988, and we’ve been building this journey together ever since.
I returned to college with a new mindset, eventually earning a Ph.D. in neurophysiology from the University of Texas. In 1996, I was honored as Young Researcher of the Year in my field and published my research in the world’s top neuroscience journal. Science shaped my mind — but Kung Fu shaped my life.
In 1995, we opened our first full-time school in North Austin, and within a year, it became the largest school in our national system. Sheryl and I built this community from the ground up — even as I drove 3.5 hours one way every other week to continue studying with our Grandmaster in Kentucky.
November 2025,
FROM THE ARTICLE
Sheryl Schaefer is a co-founder and instructor at Austin Shaolin-Do Kung Fu & T’ai Chi. A seventh-degree black belt and lifelong teacher, Schaefer has spent decades transforming the ancient discipline of martial arts into a modern vehicle for empowerment—particularly for women across Central Texas.
Schaefer’s path to mastery was neither easy nor conventional. While earning her master’s degree in insect physiology at the University of Texas at Austin, she balanced graduate studies with caring for a newborn. Around the same time, she earned her black belt in Kung Fu, often training as one of the few women in the room. That balance of perseverance and purpose shaped her philosophy: strength is not just physical—it’s mental, emotional, and communal.
“I learned to rise above perceptions and to train without limits—qualities that have shaped every part of my life since,” Schaefer said.
