One of the Downtown Boxing Gym’s newest full-time employees is a longtime team member who is well known to our students. Amy Mullins is the gym’s new secondary education specialist. She’ll focus on building connections between our students and their schools to make the support they receive more seamless.
“The majority of my life has been spent working with students in some way,” says Mullins, who started her new job in January.
Amy started at the boxing gym as a volunteer tutor. After a few short weeks, she was hired as a part-time employee and with passion, patience and dedication has worked at DBG Monday through Friday from 4-7 p.m. for the last year and a half. In her new role, she’ll be visiting students’ middle and high schools, meeting with their teachers and principals, and checking in on their progress. Her job also involves teaching students emotional and physical life skills.
“It’s really being a connection between the schools and the students here, and also being a part of community service,” Mullins says. She will continue to run the computer lab each school day, helping students with their homework and assisting with individual tutoring when needed.
“During the day, it’s really going out in the community,” she says.
Mullins previously worked in the education department at the Methodist Children’s Home Society, a service for abused and neglected boys in Redford Township, where she was frequently called upon to de-escalate potentially violent situations and deal with raw emotions. When her program was eliminated, a woman there told Mullins about the Downtown Boxing Gym and urged her to volunteer. She met with academic coordinator Kristin Lusk, who brought her onboard, and the rest is history.
Mullins says she loves working at the gym.
“It’s amazing,” she says, “It’s what I love to do. It’s what I’ve been called to do. I’m a certified life coach. I come from a background of working with kids. I had my own practice in Northville.”
Amy says she’s struck by the gym’s culture of acceptance as a “no-judgment zone,” and has enjoyed getting to know the students with their unique talents and personalities.
“My most favorite (thing) is the kids, no doubt,” she says. “When they get here … for me, the work shuts down and it’s all about them.”
Mullins has two adult children of her own — a son and a daughter in their 20’s. Her third, non-biological child is an 18 year old boy who’s pursuing his high-school diploma through an online credit-recovery program.
Mullins herself is a student. She’s enrolled at Wayne State University, where she’s pursuing a bachelor’s degree in anthropology. When she’s not studying or helping students to learn, she enjoys kayaking, hiking and reading, particularly science fiction or “anything about vampires” or dragons.
Amy says she’s grateful for the opportunity at the gym.
“I went from working three jobs and school, to one,” she says. “The Downtown Boxing Gym is one of my favorite places to be and I’m truly excited about this new role.”
Please join us in welcoming Amy to the Downtown Boxing Gym team (full-time)!