Hallmarks of Grandmaster Veronica DeSantos’ success

By Frederick Halley
“VENTURING into a male-dominated business where most martial arts schools fail within the first 24 months was terrifying, but I had the drive and determination to succeed. These attributes helped me to seek out help and remain focused.”

In an interview with Lead Thru Sports, two years ago, those were the words uttered by Grandmaster and Founder 7th-Degree Black Belt, Guyana-born Veronica De Santos.
Veronica is the proud owner of DeSantos Premier Martial Arts Studio, celebrating 32 years of teaching Tae Kwan Do and Karate at two locations in Toronto, Canada. She is also the lead instructor among a well-qualified group that has been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, but has since resorted to doing their stuff through Zoom.

An extremely busy woman, Veronica took time off from her busy schedule to speak with the Pepperpot Magazine last Monday and the conversation was awe-inspiring.
Known as Kwan Jan Nim, a Korean term meaning “master of one’s house,” Veronica started teaching martial arts out of a community centre, but she aimed to open her own martial arts studio.

In 1988, unable to find the money to do so, she took her own next month’s rent and used it to travel to Boston, USA. There she competed in a martial arts tournament, where only a win as Grand Champion would earn her the U.S.$5,000 prize that would allow her a plane ticket back to Toronto with enough money to pay her rent and open the school. Less than one month later, DeSantos Martial Arts opened its doors.

According to Veronica, despite ridicule from former instructors, training partners and most men in the field, she started martial arts because she wanted to defend herself and wanted to know she had a right as a woman to walk anywhere and be safe. She also wanted to teach others as much as possible to aspire to do the same.

The DeSantos Premier Martial Arts institution teaches the style of Tae Kwan Do, with a mix of other martial arts with a variety of skills, including form, sparring, self-defence, character-building and discipline. The age range for classes start from three years and up. There are programmes for Tiny Champs (ages 3-4), Little Champs (ages 5-7), Youth Classes (ages 8-12) and Teen and Adult Classes (13 years and up). Students wanting to train can also choose from beginner, intermediate and advanced classes.

Veronica described opening a martial arts school as a very tough business, especially for a single woman. She alluded to the fact that being a single woman and a woman of colour with limited education were also barriers she had to overcome.

However, a determined Veronica was never going to give up, despite sleepless nights and also doubting her abilities to continue. She found ways to rise above and sought the help of other women in the business who were running similar schools.

Prior to opening her studio, Veronica was ranked Canada’s number one female fighter, a title she held between 1982-1990. In 1994, she represented Canada at the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg, Russia and in 1999 became the first woman to be inducted into the North American Martial Arts Hall of Fame. In 2016, she was also inducted into the Canadian Black Belt Hall of Fame.

Veronica, who has participated in competitions in Russia, Germany, England, Serbia, and Italy, feels that to achieve anything, it takes hard work, perseverance and unrelenting will. She pointed out that she possesses those attributes since there are no short-cuts but lots of sacrifices.
She opined that martial arts gave her a foundation to live her life and confidence to pursue her dreams after coming to a new country.

Veronica believes that once you are a committed individual “anything is possible.” She is ample proof of this and feels she is a role model for young girls, a commitment she takes very seriously.
Describing her martial achievements, Veronica said attaining a Black Belt meant hours and hours of training and never giving up. She enjoyed the journey and trusted the process as she knew anything of worth doesn’t come easily.

Staying focused, she said, was essential in her career as a competitor and also as a business owner as when her friends were partying, she was training or studying. “The goals I set were important to me and my hard work made them a reality.”

Veronica boasted that through her company she was exposed to leaders in the field of sales, marketing and customer service. She studied hard and learned the concepts and started to see the rewards of applying those concepts to her business.

Admitting that It was an uphill battle, she pointed out that 32 years later, with two successful locations, hundreds of Black Belts and the same resiliency she still possesses the driving force behind everything she does.

Eager to give back to the community in Guyana and Toronto, Veronica started up a non-profit organisation — The DeSantos Foundation – comprising an annual fund-raising walk, which commences at her studio in Toronto and ends at the world-famous Niagara Falls.
This year’s Walk, over the 145-kilometre journey, is scheduled for September 23 – 26 with funds garnered going to a variety of causes, which include school breakfast programmes, both locally and internationally.

According to Veronica, she makes annual financial contributions and also provides shoes, school uniforms and scholarships for children in Guyana and in the Philippines, but the COVID-19 pandemic baulked her programme last year, preventing her from visiting. She however disclosed that she has over 300 specially made backpacks earmarked for schoolchildren in her homeland. During one of her visits, she also presented a printer to the Covent Garden School.

Alluding to the fact that sports have always been part of her life from a very young age, Veronica said she wanted to do everything from playing cricket as well as martial arts, but being the youngest of 10 children, her mother and other siblings impressed upon her that she should not participate in martial arts.

Today, Veronica said she has no regrets and loved every minute of the classes while doing extra training on her own. Despite failing her first test, this didn’t deter her as it taught her the valuable lesson of not giving up. According to her, “success is built on failures and failure is an opportunity to learn.”

Born at Prospect, East Bank Demerara, Guyana, Veronica migrated to Toronto, Canada, in June, 1975, four months shy of her 17th birthday and once settled the first thing she looked for was a martial arts school. Her undying love for martial arts had just begun.