Small black belt patch on sleeve?

[one_love]

I'm new to this, and to martial arts. Super stoked to be in both, by the way... but today I noticed one of my classmates had a small black belt patch thing on the upper shoulder of his uniform. When I asked Sensei, he said it was (( sounds like )) gaku se ?? I'm probably not spelling it right, but he challenged me to find out and I'm totally clueless. Any help?

 

[Grenadier]

Gakusha and Gakusei are ranks that are used in various Japanese and Okinawan organizations, to signify how one has progressed as a teacher. These ranks are usually separate from the "usual" ranks of sempai, sensei, shihan, etc. There are other rankings, such as renshi, kyoshi, and hanshi.

In general, Gakusha / Gakusei is a junior teaching rank, usually given to low-level, younger, yudansha, or in some organizations, maybe even higher ranked mudansha.

Here's an example of such a hierarchy:

http://www.ikkf.org/rank.html

 

[Perpetual White Belt]

C. Bruce Heilman... there's a blast from the past.