In
This Corner, a Smith Alumna and Doctoral Candidate
By Anne Berman '15
The first time
Mikela Bjork ’03 faced an opponent in the ring, she knew
she was as ready as she could be.
She had trained for an entire
year, but was a new contender. Her opponent had
competed in 12 bouts.
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Mikela Bjork '03 (on right) delivers a piercing left
jab. |
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Bjork gets advice from her trainer between rounds. |
First
came the announcement: “Welcome
to the ring, Mikela ‘The Professor’ Bjork!” The crowd cheered,
the bell rang, and Bjork moved in, throwing punches. Slowly,
the sound of the crowd faded as she focused, absorbing strikes
but delivering more. She won the first and second rounds,
but lost the third.
Then came the fourth and final
round. “I
don’t remember much about that last round,” she says. “We
were both tired, and we both landed some great punches.”
Bjork did not win that first
fight, but she was encouraged. “The
crowd was so affirming and supportive. It was just so empowering.
It was such a beautiful experience.”
Though she lost, Bjork learned
more about herself in those eight minutes than she had in
a whole year of training.
“The loss felt like such a feat for me because I know I gave her a run for her
money,” recalls Bjork, who lives in Brooklyn and competed for the New York Golden
Gloves boxing title in January. “Other coaches and boxers were talking about
the new girl (me). I made a name for myself. It's all such a gift to be able
to turn a loss into such a win.”
It was as an undergrad at Smith
when Bjork first tried boxing. “I loved it,” she
says of her initial foray in the ring, at a gym in Springfield. “I knew immediately
that it was something I was naturally good at and would keep getting better at
the more I practiced.””
But boxing would have to wait,
she knew, until she finished her undergraduate studies. A
double major, in anthropology and photography, Bjork also
rowed on the Smith crew team.
Her return to boxing came a
year ago, following the death of her good friend,
Melissa. “After losing her, I made
a bucket list of things to do, and did a lot of them. l went
surfing and scuba diving, and I went to this gym, where I
didn’t know anyone, to try boxing again.
A trainer came over to me and said, ‘Do you want to learn
to fight?’ That was
it. I started training with him and have been boxing ever
since.”
Bjork is now a graduate student
at the City University of New York, where she is scheduled
to complete her doctorate in urban education in 2015—thus, her ringside
moniker, “The Professor.”
“My research will look at the experiences of young women in high school with
special education labels across social class and race and ethnicity,” she explains. “I
am interested in collecting the educational ‘herstories’ of these young women
and making connections to if and how their special education labels are produced
and reproduced in schools serving various socio-economic populations and what
the implications are for these women in a broader political economy.”
When she first entered the boxing
world, Bjork was surprised by the other female boxers around
her. “I went into the locker room that day of my first fight with
a tough attitude,” she recalls, “but I was struck by how kind everyone was.”
Once in the ring, the women
become competitors and the fight is on, says Bjork. But most
the women were generous and friendly outside the ring. “I think it’s
that in such a male-dominated sport, we have to stick together because female
boxers are viewed with a much more critical eye.”
Even after
completing her doctorate, and heading to Austin, Texas, where
she will pursue a teaching career, Bjork plans to continue
boxing.
“I spend most of my day in my
head, so when I get to the gym, it is an opportunity to get
out of that analytical head space,” she says. “I love the
feeling of finding my rhythm, staying light in my legs, moving
around the ring with ease. I love the dance of it."
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