Where Entrepreneurship & Wellness Go Hand In Hand (And Glove to Glove)

In Fall 2023, Athena traveled to Brooklyn for Ringside with Athena: a community of practice at HAVEN Boxing, a radically inclusive, women-, queer-, & POC-owned gym based in Williamsburg. This collaboration emerged after Athena’s Director of Applied Learning Chriss Sneed and resident HAVEN stan met up with the gym’s founders – Gaby, Taylor, Andrea, and Nina – to design an experience where entrepreneurship-curious students could learn about a socially-conscious business committed to intentional spaces of community and wellness. 

Part boxing class, part business case study, Ringside spanned 3 sessions with each composed of a 45-minute introductory boxing class followed by a business talkback. In the first session, students gained insight into how HAVEN’s values define the gym’s operations, its culture and its services. The next session featured the story of HAVEN’s launch: how the four founders came together across industries and leveraged their skill sets to build their business. In the last session, students learned about HAVEN’s strategies for creating sustainable community partnerships, such as their practice of providing scholarships for community members who experience cost as a barrier to entry.

“Our approach at Haven is twofold; creating a safe space for all bodies not only to move, but heal—and to actively talk about the toxicity within our field. Actively addressing both has naturally led to a space where we see people not just feel comfortable, but have fun,” explains the HAVEN team. 

HAVEN’s story shows that building a business built on values such as radical inclusion isn’t just possible, it’s good business. Brianna Dunkley ‘27, a statistics and psychology major enjoyed this hands-on experience, sharing that

“Seeing a real-life example of people who started a business together, and all have the same intentions, morals, and philosophy expanded my understanding of successful entrepreneurship.” 

Besides gaining inspiration on how business can live up to one’s values, the students also felt that the experience uniquely resonated with them as Barnard students. Ilana Cohen ‘24, a psychology and human rights major, noted that Ringside was “extremely Athena-coded” due to HAVEN’s focus on community and, specifically, its emphasis on body neutrality in a space traditionally associated with constrictive fitness standards.

Unlike fitness spaces that feel exclusive, HAVEN invites everyone, no matter their relationship with movement, to put on the gloves and step into the ring. It’s a safe space, but more importantly, it’s a brave space. Just like at Athena, doing hard things becomes that much easier with a chorus of people cheering you on.

“I had the strong sense that the instructors believed in me,” reflected Olivia Martinez ‘25, a political science and human rights major. Nina Kulkarni ‘27, an undeclared major, agreed, saying that “[t]heir encouragement made me feel safe to try something new and to feel strong in my body.”

“I never thought I could be so vulnerable with my experiences in fitness,” confesses Tanisha Srivatsa ‘26, an economics major. “HAVEN was nothing short of transformative, and I now have a new outlook and expectation for the places where I work—and work out—in the future.”

Want to experience this knockout community of practice for yourself? Ringside with Athena is returning for Spring 2024. Read more about the community of practice and how to get involved here. 

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A note of thanks to our partners for this program: the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being — and, of course, our Brooklyn-based faves, HAVEN Boxing.