It has been an incredible year for NCSU boxing and it would not have been possible if it weren't for the wonderful group of student leaders that we had running the team.  In the Fall of 2025, the students kicked things off by running bi-weekly classes in the combat room at NCSU.  Those interested in competing came to Jawbreaker gym for more intense training.  Our numbers were up from the previous year.

Our first big event of the season was joint workout and sparring event with UNC.  It was a huge success and we had good turnout.  It was great for the boxers to get experience and meet.  It is something I definitely want to do annually and now that ECU has a collegiate team we can include them and make it even better.

In January, training for competition got more intense.  We fielded a team of 7 boxers and they worked hard to get ready.  We decided to do a home boxing show and it was a huge success and all of our boxers were able to compete at the show.  It is another thing I really hope we can continue to do annually.  We also applied to be considered a sports organization and held a raffle ticket fundraiser.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to compete in any other collegiate boxing shows.  They were all far away and we decided just focusing on the home show would be our best bet.  We also weren't able to pay for any of the travel expenses of our boxers.  We tried to get sponsors and only had very limited success.  

We did, however get three of our boxers to the National Championships.  Razi, our club president and most experienced boxer, went to the NCBA boxing regionals in Cincinnati first.  He did really well there making it to the finals and had two fights.   He advanced and fought in the Finals which were conveniently located in Charlotte a few weeks later, but lost to a tough boxer from the Army team.

I also took 2 boxers to the USIBA National Tournament that was held in Las Vegas.  Now, this was a really great event and it was so much fun coming back to Las Vegas as a coach.  I love this tournament because not only are there an abundance of female boxers, there is also an abundance of female coaches.  I think at least 10 teams had female coaches.  Floyd Mayweather showed up for a while on the day of the finals and various professional boxers handed out belts to the champions.  Kudos to UNLV for putting on a fantastic show.  Najier Torrance and Kevin Fultz both got buys for the first day of competition, so we went to watch their competition.  We had a good plan going into the second day of competition.  Kevin fought a fantastic fight where he dominated his opponent from University of Indiana and got a standing eight count.  He used a hard jab to push his opponent backward.  Naiier fought an extremely aggressive and strong opponent from the University of Arkansas.  He seemed to outbox him in two of the three rounds, but the decision was given to his opponent.  Both of their opponents were so nice and came up to them afterwards.  By the day of the finals we were in a really good groove and Kevin performed beautifully against a University of Riverside boxer getting two 8 counts and absolutely leaving it all in the ring.  His family came out to support him.  He worked harder than anyone to get this title and I was so proud of him.

Our final success of the year was getting included as a Sports Club for the 2025-2026 year.  Razi gave a great presentation that impressed the Sports Club organizers.  We will have a one year probation and if it goes well, we can then get funding from NCSU for expenses and travel.  This is a huge step for us to grow.  I am excited for next year, but will miss those graduating and moving on...Kevin, Najier, Amelia and Razi contributed so much to the club this year through teaching the classes and their leadership to get things done.  Year 2 was far more successful than I could have expected and I can't wait to see what year 3 brings.

Back in December I floated the idea to Dave Mossman, the UNC Coach about the possibility of doing a collegiate boxing show together.  I imagined it would be at NC State or a small community center locally.  We tried to find a venue both at NC State and around town with no luck.  So I asked Remy, the owner of Jawbreaker Boxing, the gym where I work if we could host the show there.  He agreed to it and we were off and running.  I thought it would be a simple show with a few people attending, similar to most of the amateur shows in town.  But what ended up transpiring was one of the best amateur shows I have been to period.

Since it was our first show, there was a lot of work and logistics to figure out how best to put on the show at our gym from seating arrangements to parking and ticket sales.  I was tasked with taking care of matchmaking and getting all that was needed to make this event follow USA Boxing guidelines.  We got our sanction through the National Collegiate Boxing Association, thinking it would mainly be a show between collegiate boxers.  In the end, only the three local colleges participated so we included many of our amateur boxers and other local boxers which in the end made it a really well rounded card.  There were some collegiate bouts, some kid bouts and some really hard fought amateur bouts.  

Remy did a fabulous job as a promoter.  He organized the event and got the publicity out.  He brought in a wonderful drummer and vocalist as well as got several local sponsors.  Our gym turned out to be the perfect venue for a small amateur show.  We sold over 250 tickets.  Most of the matches I made happened and they were great fights.  David West was there.  Ray Mercer was there and most importantly our Jawbreaker community showed up. We needed a lot of help to get the gym ready for the event and it all came together with the help of our members. We had 10 fighters on the card, so I spent most of the time working the corner, but it was great to see all of the members of our community there cheering on the boxers and having a great time.

Doing your first show is a nerve racking experience because you don't know what you don't know, but it all came together and was a complete and total success.  Now that we know what to do, we can continue to build our program.  Everyone who went had a great time and I can't wait to continue to be THE place where amateur boxing shines!

I recently finished teaching my semester course on AI to high schoolers at One Schoolhouse.  I have to say it was one of the most rewarding and fantastic teaching experiences I have had in all of my career.  I had 14 really bright, curious students in the course that included 5 international students.  It was a diverse bunch, some students with extensive coding experience and others with no experience.  Their work was consistently thoughtful and there was a real sense that the students were committed to learning more about AI, sensing its growing importance in the world.  I was inspired weekly by the work they submitted and felt really fortunate to be teaching them.
 
I inherited a well-structured course that was designed before generative AI.  I felt that some of the resources and materials were outdated and there was no mention of generative AI.  I spent a lot of time in the spring and fall updated and adding resources and activities that I thought were more pertinent and hands on while still maintaining the basic course structure.  One of the things I am most proud of is how I infused the course with topics around the ethics of AI.  I really feel it is important to highlight the ethics around the topics we explore, so that students get in the habit of thinking through the positive and negative impacts of AI.

The course centers around 5 big ideas of AI:  Perception, Representation and Reasoning, Learning, Natural Interaction, and Societal Impact.  One assignment that I start with is having students learn about ethical issues related to AI.  They are given a list of 10 ethical issues and are asked to rank them and explain which one they think is most concerning.  It proved to be a really good way to understand the concerns student have about AI.  Throughout the first quarter students learn conceptually about AI.  They get to understand how training models, neural networks and computer vision work as well as understand machine learning, and natural language processing.  Students learned concepts then practice with AI apps such as Suno, LLMs, and Teachable Machine.  Each unit circled back to the ethical aspect of the concept studied.  Students explored topics such as Bias in Training Models, Deep Fakes and Disinformation, and the impact of AI on music production.  We then moved to the more technical aspects of AI.  Student learned how AI Agents worked and explored the coding required for data science and machine learning.  One of my favorite assignments is one pulled from Datacamp where students do a Code Along with machine learning expert Tanya Akuma.  She is doing work with machine learning and ultrasounds to improve prenatal health in third world countries. Students get to code along with her to build a training model that detects irregularities in ultrasounds.

This was a project-based course and I was delighted by the projects students created.  They developed wonderful presentations on the Impact of AI in various disciplines such as sports, cooking and manufacturing.  They collaborated in groups to  design smart environments and make videos reviewing an AI application.  They created travel itineraries, songs and used LLMs to do mock interviews with famous people. They were encouraged to always keep a critical eye on how AI was working in each project.   They wrote a Personal AI Manifesto where they detailed how they will use AI in their lives.  For their final project they got to choose between 3 different pathways- learn, design or research.  There were various topics and projects students could choose from and it turned out really well as a final project.  I had a good distribution of students taking each of the pathways. I had a student choose to build a facial recognition model, another design a medical chatbot, as well as a student who wrote a clever research piece on the challenge of getting to the truth behind environmental issues related to AI. One of the most impressive projects is a student who chose the Learn Pathway.  Though she had no experience coding prior to the class, she chose to explore Deep Learning with Py Torch.  It was impressive to see her challenge herself and develop confidence in studying challenging coding concepts.  Students can move on to a Spring seminar where they design projects based on their interests and chose one of the following pathways:  Research, Activism or Design.  

We were challenged at One Schoolhouse to use AI and have students use AI as part of our professional goals.  I used Gemini to help write more robust discussion questions, build information sheets on topics and project rubrics as well as brainstorm project ideas and pathways.  I feel like I am in the sweet spot of having many years experience as an educator, where I can easily tell what is useful and what is not with content that is created by AI.  I also spent time creating content for students that related to school policy for AI use.  I created a video to help students understand how they can use AI as a collaborator and how to document AI usage. Additionally, I incorporated assignments and guidelines that helped students understand how to write good prompts for various contexts. I still feel there is more work to do with regards to helping students be more transparent about their AI usage which is a goal I am currently working on and hope to unpack more this Spring. Finally, I feel that AI is evolving so rapidly and the content of the course will always need to be refreshed,  so that it feels relevant and deals with the current landscape of AI. I got so much insight into how students are thinking about AI and using it and am grateful to have had this opportunity. It was an exciting first year teaching AI and I am looking forward to future iterations of the course.

I didn't know quite what to expect from the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame that took place on April 4th and 5th at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas. but it was an incredible event that I will always cherish.  As an inductee I was excited, but also a bit nervous and anxious.  Luckily my family showed up in a big way.  My husband, Adam, organized everything and I had 30 family and friends show up for the event.  My cousins, Rupa and Amit came all the way from London.  I had two friends come with their partners from Raleigh and I even had friends and former sparring partners from the Bay Area where I got my boxing start who I hadn't seen in forever.  I am grateful to all of them for making me feel so supported.

The event was preceded by a two day Women's Summit put on by the WBC.  I registered for it, but only was able to attend a small portion of it on the first and second day.  There were a lot of wonderful presenters (who I unfortunately missed) like Laila Ali, Christy Martin and Tiara Brown, but luckily the WBC recorded some of the talks and I will be able to go back and watch them.  It's wonderful to see a boxing federation, put on an event exclusively devoted to women in the sport.  I was pleasantly surprised to see Nonito Donaire there with his kids to support his wife Rachel, who gave a talk on boxing management.  I hadn't seen him since he was a kid, and while I have watched many of his fights, it was nice to see him with his family.

I have to say I was blown away by the International Women's Boxing Hall of Fame Event.  Held over two days, it truly showcased the inspiring stories of professionals in the sport, not just boxers but also journalists, photographers and promoters. The event was so well organized and ran like clockwork thanks to the hard work of the fabulous Sue TL Fox and the amazing team of organizers: Wanda Countiss, Godfrey Hewitt, Amy Green, Terri Moss, Oscar McCarver, Mailssa Smith, Dalia Duran, and Krysti Rosario.  In the beautiful program they put together, Sue writes in her letter of appreciation, "This event is not only a celebration of past accomplishments, but also a rallying call to continue pushing boundaries and advocating for female athletes.  Let us cherish the stories and experiences that bring us together."  I felt a connection to all who were honored and have personal connections to many of them.  They say that the boxing world is a small world and the world of women's boxing is even smaller.  

First, I have to say part of what made this event so special is that it is now held in Las Vegas every year.  Not only was Las Vegas my home for my professional boxing career, it is also where my parents live, so it was incredible to come home for this experience.  The Orleans hosted many great boxing shows in the very ballroom where the induction took place including those of Las Vegas legends, Melinda Cooper and Layla McCarter who I trained with at various stages in my career.  I moved to Las Vegas, imagining I would have many opportunities to fight there, but only fought once at the Stardust Casino which has since been demolished, but ironically the Orleans Casino has a Stardust Suite that plays homage to the casino and I was able to get a cool Stardust Mug from the gift shop.  I was fortunate to train at many of the famous gyms in Vegas.  Richard Steele's gym was where I met a 12 year old Melinda and I traveled with her and her coach to the 1999 Golden Gloves Tournament where I won the national title.  I trained at Laila Ali's gym and alongside Layla McCarter at Johnny Tocco's gym. Vegas is also where I had a 12-year career as a high school teacher and actually worked at the same school where fellow Hall of Famer Tracy Byrd was a resource police officer. 

The first night of the IWBHF event saw "Women Cops Who Box" honored in what may have been the most inspiring part of the event.  The women cops honored at this event are incredible role models who not only chose one of the toughest sports out there, but also one of the toughest careers.  On top of that many of them contribute to boxing in significant ways from running gyms and programs to promoting boxing shows. AND many of them are still active as professional boxers.  I was so proud to see Melinda who was on duty and came in her police uniform.  I have always admired the work Terri "The Boss" Moss has done out of her gym in Georgia.  Her fight promotions are legendary and we both just came from a national collegiate tournament where she coached the Georgia Tech boxing team.  It was wonderful to see Alex Love who I spent a week with this past December at the Olympic Training Center to become coaching clinicians and even got to visit her amazing gym, Boxing with Love.  She embodies strength and heart.  Then to hear the stories of Irma Garcia, Elia Carranza, Nora Daigle and Stephanie Han as they shared their passion for the sport and community made my heart swell with pride.  Tracy Byrd punctuated the event by giving a stirring speech about her work and boxing that left me wanting to stand up and cheer.  That evening my parents hosted a wonderful dinner at the Bulgarian Restaurant, Beso, with my family. Having this time together made the weekend all the more special.  I ran into Layla McCarter in the casino as we headed out and she is still as lovely as I remembered her.  I hope she gets more opportunities to fight the big names before she retires.

The night of the induction was fabulous.  There were all these fantastic spaces to take pictures to commemorate the night.  The event was sold out and I saw lots of boxing luminary in the crowd including Christy Martin, Boza Edwards, Alex Ramos, Melvina Latham, Miguel Diaz, Sumya Anani, Yvonne Trevino, Jelena Mrdjenovich, and Jeff Mayweather.  I would have liked to have taken more pictures during the night, but I was dealing with a lot of nerves.  Luckily, once the ceremony began with a stirring keynote from promoter, Roy Englebrecht I was able to really focus on listening to all the honorees stories and be inspired by the diverse journeys of courage, grit, and passion.  My father won one of the autographed giant Cleto Reyes gloves and gratefully, he gave it to me. It has the autographs of so many great fighters.  I wish I could have gotten all of the inductees to sign it.  This night was truly one of the greatest nights of my life and an honor of a lifetime.

To make the event all the more special I came home to find out that Thomas Gerbasi had posted a story about my career for Ring Magazine.  When he interviewed me the week prior to event, I imagined that it was for an article about the event and I might have a small paragraph in it.  I have never felt more like a star and appreciated in this sport as I did this past weekend.  I am inspired to continue in my role as a coach and official to support the next generation of boxers especially the women.

Congratulations to all my fellow inductees and all the people who where honored during this event.  I am humbled and honored to be a part of this resilient, brave community of boxers and professionals in the sport.

When I started boxing back in the '90s, one of the places where I learned the most was at the UC Berkeley boxing gym.  UC Berkeley has the longest continuously running collegiate boxing program in the US.  It started in 1916 which is an impressive feat.  Unfortunately, while I was attending UC Berkeley, the boxing program was not coed as women's boxing had just been allowed by USA Boxing.  But I was definitely welcomed there despite a lack of competitive opportunities and it is the place I attribute to really being able to hone my skills with the help of two fellow students, Raymond Joshua and Porfirio Garcia.  We had a beautiful gym and I met my first coach there Mr. Thomas who volunteered time there even though he wasn't affiliated with the college program.  After I graduated, they gave our beautiful gym space to gymnastics and put us in two squash courts.  It was a step down, but I am happy to report that I was able to start a women's team with 7 members and one of those members was able to compete with NCBA in the first ever women's collegiate match and then again for the nationals.

Fast forward to 2024 when I decided to start a collegiate program for North Carolina State University.  We had 6-7 students who were coming to our gym regularly and I felt that supporting them to compete in collegiate boxing would be a great opportunity for them. The students got on board  We had a member at our gym, Chris Osburn, who is a professor at NCSU and volunteered as our faculty advisor.  One of our most talented boxers, Razi Sayyed, and sophomore at NCSU agreed to be president and got the club enrolled as a student organization.  Several other students(Bailey Patterson, A.J. Beckmann, Logan Phillips and Max Baumgartner joined in to run bi-weekly classes at NCSU and run fundraisers for the team.  They also worked hard to prepare for the competition season.    We have had a wonderful first year that would have not been possible without the amazing efforts of the students both in and out of the ring.

I signed up the club to be a member of NCBA and what I remembered about the NCBA is that the military schools tended to dominate because they are well-funded and supported by their schools.  Unfortunately, this is not the case for many of the other universities and colleges.  There were no nearby NCBA shows for us to compete in during the season and I only felt comfortable sending Razi to the regional tournament due to the possibility of having to compete against someone who might have a lot more experience.  Everyone I dealt with at NCBA was great.  I was especially impressed with Nat Shineman who is the Midwest Regional Chair.  When I reached out with questions about entering students with limited experience, he responded promptly with thoughtful answers to help me make decisions about whether or not to enter my athletes in the regional tournament.  Then when one of my athletes asked about accommodations for the fact that he was fasting during Ramadan, he came up with reasonable and equitable accommodations.  My boxer was so happy, but unfortunately, we were not able to make it to the regional tournament.

However, what I did learn about was another collegiate organization, the United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association or USIBA.  There was a fundraising show in Richmond, VA at the beginning of February, so we decided to register for it.  We got matches for all 5 of our boxers even though only 4 ended up fighting.  The venue was a bit strange with a lot of cigar smoke, but it was a great experience for our boxers.  We came away with 3 out of 4 wins and it was a great team bonding experience where our boxers got a sense of what it feels like to compete.  USIBA held their national tournament in Macon, Georgia which was a bit closer than the NCBA regional tournaments held in Ohio.
​

One of the highlights of the trip for me was to meet Terri "The Boss" Moss who had 17 boxers compete from Georgia Tech.  I have always admired the work she is doing with her boxers and as a promoter.  It was nice to meet her in person.  After the tournament, I wandered around downttown Macon where everyone was wearing pink for the Cherry Blossom festival and even spotted a pink poodle.  I am excited to see where next year's tournament will be.

In December of 2024 I started my journey of being a Coaching Clinician for USA Boxing.  I was selected to attend a week long training at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to prepare for this role.  Gil Garza ran the training and I got to work with 8 talented coaches who were also going through the process.  I was excited to see that there were an equal number of women and men coaches as I've always felt that there needs to be more women in leadership roles and as coaches.  I shared a dorm room with Krysti Rosario who was a talented amateur at the same time as me.  She has made a name for herself as a professional judge and referee and also teaches boxing classes in Southern California.  It was great to catch up with her and share our experiences in the sport.  I also got to work with Alex Love who resides in Colorado Springs and was a high performance athlete and it was wonderful to learn about her experience and even visit her gym.  

Photo source:  USA Boxing

The 2024 Women's National Championships in Lafayette, Louisiana did not disappoint.  I flew in to New Orleans and after a day of sightseeing there and dinner with my dear friend Tasha made the two and a half hour drive to Lafayette.  It was hot and muggy in Lafayette and New Orleans and it was the Jazz Museum and Cafe Du Mond that saved the day during my time in New Orleans.  For only $8, I was able to cool off and see a number of art exhibits in the 3 story building down by the river.  Cafe Du Mond has the best beignets in New Orleans and for $10 I was able to have 3 delicious, warm beignets and a refreshing ice coffee.  I had lunch at Cafe Fleur de Lis and dinner at Luke's in the French Quarter. Crawfish etouffee for lunch and gumbo for dinner were my choices and they both were fabulous. There's nothing like New Orleans cuisine.

The Women's Nationals started for me with a two-day coaching clinic to receive USA Boxing Silver Certification.  It was taught by the fabulous Julia Gshwind.  She runs the Austin Women's Boxing Club and in addition to teaching the clinic, she had 5 boxers competing in the tournament.  I truly enjoyed the clinic and learned a lot about planning a year of training for a boxer depending on their goals.  It was a nice mix of information about USA Boxing training principles for high performance, hands on activities, and reflecting on one's own practice and what you can do to improve it.  One of the reasons I wanted to go to this certification was to meet and learn from Julia.  She is definitely an inspiration for me.  She had the vision and persistence to start an all women's boxing club at a time 17 years ago when there was no guarantees it would be successful.  But she made it so and is also a successful coach trainer at USA Boxing.   It's rare you get to meet another woman who is so invested in the sport of boxing and for so many years.  We are few and far between.  On Friday of the clinic, Julia asked if I would be interested in helping as her second as she had four fighters competing on Saturday and was there alone.  I felt humbled and honored and took the necessary steps to get registered as a coach.  Her team of boxers was equal part talent and sweetness.  Julia has done a wonderful job creating a sisterhood in boxing.  I had a blast helping in the corner.

On Friday, I went to the Mitt Competition and met up with Kim, a Raleigh fighter who came down to the tournament by herself to help her train.  I also ran into Coach Font and Coach Tasha from Fontaneaux Boxing in Fayetteville who had three fighters entered into the  tournament.  The most impressive thing about this tournament was that it was all about getting the women who came to the tournament as much experience and as many bouts as possible which is critical for developing female boxers and a program that grows.  The women who came were entered in the tournament by weight division, age and experience level with a novice and elite division.  But they also had additional matched bouts so women could get additional fights with boxers around their experience level and weight.  Even if they lost their fight early on in the tournament, women could continue to fight additional fights with some women fighting every day of the tournament. There were also a number of impromptu sparring sessions.  You really can't underestimate the value of a female boxer to be surrounded by other women who have the same passion for the sport.  I got to watch the first session of boxing competition session on Saturday.  The skill level was impressive.  There are some really talented boxers from all across the country and the talent coming from the under 18 competitors speaks to the future of women's boxing.  I realized at the tournament that the boxers who were the most talented and experienced were the ones whose coaches had a plan to travel to get their boxers the fights they needed to grow.  It's a tough thing in boxing.  There is not a traditional season or pathway for competition.  Coaches have to actively seek out matches that are the right ones for their boxers and find a way to pay for the travel that is required.  No easy feat.  This has especially been a barrier for female boxers as the local competitions in any given region can be few and far between. The Women's National Tournament hosted by USA Boxing is an important step in building women's amateur boxing.  I hope it continues to grow and be a space where female boxers get to shine.
​Webpage: https://www.usaboxing.org/events/2023/july/22/usa-boxing-womens-championships
Photos: https://geosnapshot.com/e/2024-womens-national-championship/

For the past few months I have been working with Kubrio as it redesigns its educational platform.  For many years now Kubrio has set itself apart as a schooling option for self-directed learners who work with their families and Kubrio to identify 21st Century skills that best suit each child to design a personalized educational experience.  The community of Kubrio is a mix of innovative, adventurous educators with expertise in a range of subjects and educational philosophies and a passion for doing education differently.  Many students at Kubrio are worldschooling or homeshcooling with their parents.  It's exciting to build something transformative with this group and have a visionary leadership that embraces AI to build a unique platform and educational community.  As educators we have been challenged to create Pods that allow students to learn and develop as a small learning community while each student pursue unique pathways of learning and demonstrating growth.  At Kubrio, I've been working to develop two pods that I think are timely and important for students to explore.  The first is AI Adventures which allows students to create their own adventure as they explore the exciting world of AI and complete interactive projects related to the topics they are exploring.  Digital Culture and Citizenship is a pod geared towards having students reflect on the societal and ethical impacts of an increasingly digital world to help inform how they navigate this constantly changing landscape.  I am excited to be able to offer these two innovative options and am also thrilled to be building a storehouse of quests students can do independently to earn badges and points as they build a portfolio that showcases the skills they are learning.  Kubrio is working hard to build a suite of tools for educators, students and parents powered by AI to craft creative learning experiences for a range of students and bring them together in learning communities built on similar passions and interests.  I invite you to check out the video below about my AI Adventures pod or check out the Kubrio website to learn more about how to sign your child up to begin exploring the many exciting pods and quests that keeps on growing.

Image source:  AI generated on Freepik

When I think about teaching my children about AI, I am admittedly nervous. What if they start using ChatGPT to do all their homework and school assignments? My kids are 10 and 12, and I certainly have many worries. Won’t AI prevent them from developing the critical thinking and literacy skills they need to succeed academically? Do they have the skills to critically assess whether the information provided by AI is factual or accurate?

While it's easy to become protective when it comes to AI and consider not letting them use it, AI is here to stay and continues to grow in its capabilities and presence in our society. Kids will be exposed to AI either through their peers or their use of technology. So, what is the best path forward, and what exactly do kids need to learn about and do with AI? Here are some important topics and essential questions that will help provide kids with an intentional grounding in AI to prepare them to use it productively and responsibly.

What is AI? Many kids have heard about AI, but when asked what it is, they might struggle to explain it. A foundational understanding of what AI is and what it is not will help them identify and understand the various types of AI and how it is being used across different fields and industries.

How is AI built and how does it work? Large language models, neural networks, and machine learning are key components of AI. Understanding what happens behind the scenes with AI will help kids think critically about how AI works.

How does AI use data, and what are the ethical implications? Kids must understand the limitations and characteristics of the data used for AI. It's crucial for them to see that data can be biased and imperfect, and to recognize the impact this has on AI outputs.

How is AI being used and impacting society? Understanding the diverse applications of AI will help kids see the risks and benefits of AI and encourage them to think critically about its best uses.

What can I create with AI, and how do I use it productively? Experimenting with various AI tools for different tasks is a fun and engaging way for kids to learn about AI. It's important to scaffold these experiences with age-appropriate tools and tasks. They should also explore prompt engineering, or the art of writing effective prompts for AI, to get the best outputs.

How do I build AI? There are numerous projects for students to build AI, such as creating recommendation engines or chatbots. This helps solidify their knowledge of AI by understanding what goes into building AI systems.

While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, it helps me to think about developing thoughtful and varied learning experiences about AI aimed so students have foundational skills related to this  ever-evolving field.  I am currently working on developing a framework to support self-directed learners learn about AI called the AI Adventures Pod.  It is not a linear curriculum, but rather a dynamic one based on developing personalized pathways and a curious and passionate learning community around a technology that is taking the world by storm.

I had the opportunity to go out to Washington D.C. for the Regional Golden Gloves on April 20th.  It was a boxing show that was packed with entertaining, hard fought matches..  The first fight was a contested fight that occurred before the show started.  It was the first time I had ever seen this, but it was good to see.   I was able to referee an exciting bout between two talented 125 boxers.  They fought cleanly and I didn't have to step in too much, but I did give an 8-count at the end of the match.  I was nervous to get in there, but I think things went really well after a bit of confusion at the beginning of the bout.  I really enjoy refereeing and getting better at it.  I feel like I'm at 50% of where I want to be, but luckily I have so many great officials around that I can learn from.  I judged quite a few bouts and was spot on with my decisions, so that felt good.  Judging comes easily to me and I have a good sense of how to narrate the fight in my head so I can keep track of who is winning.  There were approximately 18 fights on the card and almost all were evenly matched and it felt like a championship atmosphere,  There was unfortunately only one female bout, but 4 other women won by walkover including Deborah Grant from Fayetteville, NC.   The red corner were Virginia and North Carolina fighters versus the blue corner who were Maryland and D.C. fighters.  One of the best fights of the night was contested by a couple of 17 year olds at 147 lbs. named Justin Almonte of Virginia Beach and Markell Steele of Temple Hills, Maryland.  They both showed so much heart.  Steele was the harder puncher and hit Almonte with some wicked body shots, but Almonte kept fighting back and had his moments as well.​

We only had one boxer from North Carolina compete and he was actually from Raleigh.   Michael Nwaschukwu fought an incredibly entertaining fight in the 203+ division.  It was the last fight of the night and the crowd was glued to their seats.  He channeled George Foreman and the fight was nonstop!  ​All the open level winners advance to the National Golden Gloves in Detroit.

I am eternally grateful to LaTasha Washington, president of the PVA boxing association and Chief of Officials residing over the event.  She made me feel so welcome and supported and gave me great feedback on my officiating.  It was also nice to work with Lisa Cuellar, another top notch female official who comes from Virginia and has a fight background.  I learned a lot from the many talented officials.  The atmosphere at the event was fun.  There was even a live band and ring card girls.  The motto of the tournament is Heart-Pride-Desire to Win and the boxers on this night showed it.  Grateful to witness and be a part of it.