Punching bags, STEM learning collide for kids at Dallas boxing gym
DALLAS — Kids and teenagers practice boxing in a busy shopping center in East Dallas. “One, two, one-two, punch,” says the instructor while the background is full of laughter and chatter in English and Spanish. Latin music blasts the room.
It’s a typical day at LaBori Boxing Gym, which later becomes a STEM lab, where still sweaty students learn about careers they can pursue in science, technology, engineering and math.
The LaB, as Amanda Alvarez, 33, the founder of the gym likes to call the place, opened last November with two goals: Offer a space where young people can grow in physical strength and self-confidence, and get them exposed to professional opportunities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
The LaB is a nonprofit boxing gym offering free classes to those from 8 to 18 years old. Through once-a-month workshops, kids also learn about STEM, college applications, scholarships and opportunities for their future.
“You only know what you are exposed to,” said Alvarez, born and raised in Puerto Rico. “I want to give them the tools, kind of dress them with the knowledge that they need earlier in their academic career so that they can start thinking about those decisions beforehand.”
The gym also offers low cost workout classes for adults.
Alvarez wanted to create a place where she could combine her two passions: boxing and science. She holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience and currently works as a consultant for the pharmaceutical industry.
Growing up in a culture where boxing was highly celebrated, she started to practice boxing when she was 18. Through her experience while navigating higher education, she learned that Hispanics were less likely to be exposed to science or pursue a career in that field.
Hispanic professional workers make up 17% of workers across all occupations, but just 8% of all STEM workers, according to the latest Pew Research
Center analysis of federal data.
When Alvarez moved to Dallas in 2012, she wanted to open a gym, but things didn’t align until the summer of 2022 when she secured a lease in East Dallas.
Now the LaB, with graffiti and phrases like, “tu puedes,” let’s get to work, on the walls, is like a second home to about 30 children who come twice a week to learn all the ins-and-outs of boxing.
Keeping children, specifically teenagers, engaged in a healthy activity has become more challenging with the many distractions they face, like excessive social media exposure and the use of alcohol and drugs. But the key to a successful program is having a relationship of mutual respect, said head boxing coach Jonathan Hernandez, 32, born and raised in East Dallas.
“When you tell the kids that you also grew up here and went through the same things they are going through in school and their neighborhood, they respect you and see you as an example,” said Hernandez.
For some students, LaBori is their first exposure to boxing.
“I thought that boxing was a sport only for guys before my friend invited me to come to the classes with her,” said Maricruz Mendoza, 13, who has been taking classes for two months.
Mendoza, a J. L. Long Middle School student, likes that at LaBori, she can stay active and take a break from her phone.
“When you are home, it is hard to put away your phone, but here I don’t think it is hard,” said Mendoza.
On one recent day, students put the gloves and boxing wraps to the side after an hour of bag punching to learn about scholarships and opportunities at Dallas College.
“Do you know what a scholarship is? Are you going to be the first one in your family to go to college?” Jessica Padilla, a pathway specialist for the School of Health Sciences at Dallas College, asked the kids.
At a table, about 15 kids of all ages ate tacos, rice and beans as they listened to Padilla tell them about what types of careers they could pursue through classes at Dallas College, what a scholarship is, and what being a first-generation college student means. She constantly encouraged them to keep asking questions.
Throughout the presentation, the children talked about their favorite subjects at school and what they wanted to be when they grew up.