Hoffman Honors Scholar wins world championship

A referee declares Shea's victory. Photo/provided.

The second-year UC student traveled internationally twice during the Fall 2025 semester alone, to compete at both of the world championships that feature her primary martial art: the 17th World Wushu Championships in Brasília, Brazil, in early September, and-just six weeks later-the 8th World Kuo Shu Championship, in São Paulo, Brazil, which she attended as part of a Team USA group of more than 20 fighters, drawn from all over the country. She was defeated in the quarterfinals at the World Wushu Championships by a fighter representing the Philippines; of this initial loss, Scarborough reflects: "It was a close match… I was very proud of my performance," adding that her opponent, like the majority of internationally ranked fighters who represent the Asian and European countries in which Sanda is most popular, was a professional athlete.

However, Scarborough triumphed at the subsequent World Kuo Shu Championship, earning the top spot in her weight class-and the title of world champion. "I got taken down a few times," she says, when describing her winning match. "But that's what makes it a fight."

Shea mid-fight. Photo/provided.

When she shifted her focus to Sanda, Scarborough discovered that her extensive background in Tae Kwon Do was an asset-of her fighting style, she remarks that "kicks are definitely my specialty"-but that it also meant she had some unlearning to do. "My very first practice in Sanda," Scarborough recalls, "my coach knew me and my abilities in Tae Kwon Do, so he told me, 'do this kick.' And then I immediately got caught and taken down to the ground, and I thought, okay, this is definitely something a little bit new."

While she has come to love the variety of techniques Sanda requires, as well as its intensely competitive nature, Scarborough describes the connection she shares with her teammates as the most fulfilling aspect of her experience. Although Sanda is an individual sport, team members train together, usually on multiple days each week, and travel together to competitions, forming a tight-knit community. "I've always joked that I have three or four older brothers and sisters, and younger siblings as well, even though I'm an only child," Scarborough says. Their travel time runs on mutual support and endless games of euchre; "every time we're traveling," she adds, "we're like, 'who's got the deck of cards?'"

Shea with her parents at the Fall 2025 HHS Welcome Reception. Photo/Joe Fuqua.

Managing two majors, as well as involvement in three separate honors programs-UHP, LBH, and the prestigious HHS-while competing at this level was no easy feat. "Any downtime that we have between mornings and nights of fighting and registering and traveling in the airport, I've got my laptop out and I'm knocking out schoolwork," Scarborough describes, adding that she remains grateful to her professors for their openness to her staying on top of classwork remotely.

In the wake of her season's end, she's especially glad to be back with her interdisciplinary community in HHS, where she serves as a mentor to first-year HHS students as one of the program's inaugural student ambassadors. "In LCB, I more than likely would have never met people from outside that college; I love HHS because it brings CCM, A&S, and LCB people together," she reflects. "Learning what other people are passionate about definitely makes me excited to be a Hoffman scholar."