Wisconsin Tai Chi Academy has welcomed the first successful recipient of its Youth Scholarship Program.

Twenty-three year old Olivia, who is new to Tai Chi, commenced in July this year at WTCA’s Whitewater class following her the scholarship award.

The scholarship, which has been offered for the last two years, awards young people between 16 and 24 who have no or limited experience of Tai Chi full coverage of their Beginner’s program class fees for a year (four terms). This enables the recipients the ability to learn a full Tai Chi set, the Beijing 24 Forms (or Yang 24 Forms) and an introductory Qigong set, the Lotus Qigong, and complete at least a full term of refinement to develop their skills and understanding.

“We’ve offered this scholarship for several years now and are very pleased to be able to award it to our very first successful applicant,” WTCA’s Founder and Head Instructor, Sifu Ray Gates, said. “We started offering this to encourage more younger people to explore Tai Chi and realize it is not just something old people do. Commencing Tai Chi when you’re younger offers you much more time to understand it and develop your skills, whether you’re doing this just for exercise or mindfulness, or wanting to learn the martial art side of things, or whether you want to become a competitive athlete; or all of these things!”

Increasing numbers of young people are turning to mindfulness practices such as Tai Chi and Qigong as a means of dealing with mental and emotional stressors, such as stress, anxiety, and brain fog, and to help attune to themselves to quiet and focus their minds in an attention-demanding world.

Gates hopes that Olivia’s successful scholarship award and her upcoming journey with Tai Chi will encourage more younger people to learn Tai Chi and Qigong. Scholarships for 2026 are open until September 2026 and new applicants are encouraged to apply to commence in October this year.