Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Alvarez.
Hi Amanda, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised in San German, Puerto Rico. I grew up celebrating boxing; Puerto Rican boxers like Tito Trinidad and Miguel Cotto were like heroes back home, and so I’ve always felt a passion for boxing. I started training when I was 17y/o and have been training on and off ever since. After High School, I moved to NYC to study at New York University, where I received a B.S. in Neuroscience. Graduate school brought me to Dallas, Texas, where I became a neuroscientist after completing the PhD program in Neuroscience at The University of Texas at Dallas. You could say that boxing and science are two big passions of mine. From this passion, LaBori Boxing was born. LaBori Boxing is a non-profit organization that provides free boxing training and STEM education to the youth in East Dallas. I find boxing to be a great reliever of stress, a proponent of discipline, and a confidence builder, and I truly believe that if we can teach our youth to regulate stress and build their self-confidence at an early age, they’ll grow up to be unstoppable. As a member of a minority group working in STEM, I also believe in dressing our youth as early as possible with the knowledge they’ll need to make academic decisions in the future, in hope that it will help close the gap in representation -if even just a little bit – in the STEM workforce.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Our program is only 1 year old, and so our story is only beginning. However, we operate through grants and donations, and obtaining the funds needed to run a brand-new program was not the easiest task. But I do have to say that we saw a lot of growth on our first year, and we have an our donors and supporters to thank for that.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Our mission is to foster discipline and confidence among young individuals through the sport of boxing while simultaneously providing opportunities for an underrepresented population to explore and pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Through our programs and initiatives, we strive to instill essential life skills, critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, and a passion for lifelong learning. By creating a supportive and inclusive environment that promotes perseverance through boxing, we aim to break barriers, bridge gaps, and unlock doors to opportunities in the world of STEM.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
Haha! I don’t know; this is an interesting question. I do believe that the success we’ve seen so far is mostly the product of hard work … but I do feel very lucky to be working with an extremely talented and passionate team, lucky that we’ve been so welcomed and accepted by the community, and extremely lucky to have met and to be serving each and every person that walks through our doors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.laboriboxing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/labori_boxing/?igshid=NmZiMzY2Mjc%3D
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LaBoriBoxing
Image Credits
Diana Carrillo
@thecreateness
