On April 27th, Jason A. traveled to Connecticut and successfully tested for his first-level Black Sash in the Shaolin 5-Animal system. Jason is only the second Portsmouth student to accomplish this. He follows Jack R. who received his Black Sash in 2014, and who was working towards his 2nd-level Black Sash when college called him away. Unlike the belt system, which has three different levels of Black Belt recognition (Jr., Jhongji, and Adult), the Five-Animal System recognizes the Black Sash as…..the Black Sash! All who test for this do so in front of the Grandmaster. Our congratulations to Jason, who worked hard and tested well. We are grateful to participate on this journey with him and look forward to continuing with his studies.