Penn Highlands Healthcare Director Volunteers in the Community

People should feel safe when Rebekah Voris, BS, a social worker at Penn Highlands DuBois, is in the room. She earned a masters rank of fourth-degree black belt in Goshin Jutsu Karate in September 2025 and volunteers to share her martial arts knowledge with women and children at the Clearfield YMCA in Clearfield, PA.

“In 2017 and 2018, I volunteered to assist my instructor teaching two women’s self-defense courses at the YMCA,” said Rebekah. “After I got my second-degree black belt in 2019, I started a full class there.”

Rebekah explained that she became interested in martial arts in 2003 because her mother worked with Michael Morris who became her instructor in Goshin Jutsu Karate. After receiving her black belt in 2017, she was qualified to pass on the teachings of Goshin Jutsu Karate.

“I began assisting my instructor in teaching an eight-week course in 2017 followed by a six-week course in 2018. Then, in 2019, it grew to a weekly course that I have continued teaching for the last seven years,” she said.

When Rebekah began teaching the self-defense class, she was one of only three female instructors in her school. She felt it was important that women and children know how to defend themselves. Today, she teaches women and children ages 6 to 12 the defense skills.

“One of the key points that I emphasize is the martial arts are a lifelong journey that just doesn’t stop when you get your black belt,” explained Rebekah. “It is something that changes the way you think and how you move through your daily life.”

She continued, “It is rewarding seeing the kids’ faces light up when they finally master something difficult or when I hear from them years later and they tell me how being in karate helped them in some way.”

Volunteering to teach the classes is something that Rebekah learned from her instructor.

“My instructor never took payment for teaching and I feel it is the right thing to do the same as he did for me when I was learning.”