Mateen Ashparie: 'Dream Big'

Mateen Ashparie is a junior at George Mason University, recently transferred from NOVA Community College. He is majoring in biology, and hopes to get into medical school. With his medical degree, Ashparie says, “I want to one day become the sports medicine physician for my favorite NFL team, the Washington Redskins.” When asked about the impossibility of this goal, he replied concisely, “Dream big.”

Ashparie was born on January 5, 1989 and grew up in Burke, Va., not too far from Mason’s Fairfax campus. Although he seems like the typical commuter student that is characteristic of Mason, Ashparie is different because outside the school, he becomes the teacher. Just across Ox Road, in the familiar University Mall, Ashparie works for Black Belt Academy (BBA) as a martial arts and fitness instructor.

Since the age of 10, Ashparie has invested the majority of his free time mastering the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. At the age of 17, he earned the title of Black Belt. Since then, Ashparie has been working at Black Belt Academy as a Tae Kwon Do instructor to all age groups.

Additionally, Ashparie runs the Lil Dragons program at BBA, which is a specially crafted Tae Kwon Do class for 3 to 5-year-olds. He comments, “Nothing is better than seeing those little faces excited to learn what you know how to teach.”

Ashparie also picked up teaching a kickboxing class for BBA. When asked where his interest in martial arts originated, he replied, “Ever since I was a little kid, Jean Claude Van Damme was my hero.” And that’s where the obsession allegedly began.

He also attributes his love for Tae Kwon Do to his role model and older brother, Yousef Ashparie. Yousef was also trained and employed by BBA throughout his college years at Mason. However, Mateen depends on his brother for more than just BBA-related issues. Ashparie describes his older brother saying, “Yousef is a good person…He ‘s made something of himself by working hard, and he’s always been there for me because he has strong family values.”

Mateen, too, holds family very high on his priority list; evident by the fact that his best friend is also his first cousin, Ali Baluch. Baluch describes Ashparie as filling the “big brother role” amongst their cousins. He says, “when we were younger, I would run my mouth and he would fight my fights.” Since then, Ashparie does not fight, but remains an influential figure in the lives of his younger cousins and family in general.

His emphasis on the importance of family also influenced Ashparie’s choice of college. When asked why he chose Mason he said, “I didn’t want to miss out on my little brother’s life,” referring to his 7-year-old brother, Sultan.

Ashparie spends most of his time balancing school, family, and his football and martial arts passions. To add to his full schedule, he has also recently taken up teaching himself how to play piano. Ashparie is a fun, yet focused and responsible student; he is definitely a great new addition to the Mason community.