Samuel Gates is a 25-year-old exchange student from Concordia University, St Paul, Minnesota, in the US. He came to UIC in February 2017 and is completing his degree in Marketing Management and Innovation.
“I wanted to get a bit of international experience to broaden my degree,” said Samuel. “I saw that China had the biggest opportunity due to their economic development and growth rate, making them the future major global player on the world stage.” He almost chose to go to Shanghai, but if he chose UIC, then a student from UIC could take his seat at Concordia University. At the same time, the University in Shanghai did not have this exchange agreement with his university in the USA.
Now Samuel is at UIC. He started a boxing club on the campus that has gathered a lot of attention. Samuel has a wealth of experience with boxing by starting at the age of 14 when his friend introduced him to the sport as a way of distracting him from the environment he was living in. Boxing gave him a structured way of living life, so he was encouraged to go daily. Plus, as he was a natural fighter, the sport suited him.
He first caught the attention of students in UIC when he was working out shadow boxing in the gym, and some students asked him for advice. They asked if he could teach them how to box, to which he agreed. “They asked if I could help and assist them in learning to box, and it grew from there,” Samuel mentioned. “Also, I like to teach and share my knowledge as someone in my past taught and shared their knowledge about boxing with me.”
When Samuel went to inquire about starting a boxing club, it seemed that the Whole Person Education Office already knew about his boxing endeavours from the students and this allowed for Samuel to arrange a meeting to open UIC’s first boxing club. UIC arranged for him a room with mats from the beginning of March that he can use two nights a week on Sunday and Monday.
Ideally, he would prefer to have more boxing equipment such as heavy bags and speed bags. He said that in the future the university would supply the equipment in time for the start of his boxing class in the 2017-2018 academic year.
When asked if anyone can go and learn to box, Samuel said, “Anyone that can stand can box. You can learn the stance and the form. It doesn’t matter about your age, size or gender.” When asked what the general reaction of the students and staff attending the class is like, Samuel said, “They come here not knowing what to expect, and by the end of the class they love it.” Usually, the class has around 8-10 students and staff that are learning to box, which Samuel finds very manageable as he can give them individual attention.
Samuel mentioned that all his students had almost zero knowledge of boxing, and he is constantly correcting their form after they throw a punch. He described the action as a piston, going in and then returning to its original position. He starts the class off with warm-up exercises such as 20-30 jumping jacks, followed by burpees and then moving on to push-ups for upper body strength. Before they learn and practice boxing techniques, he allows the students to perform some yoga style stretching.
Samuel said he would love to see boxing thrive as it is an art form and eventually see the creation of a UIC boxing team. “I would like to see students have the advantage of having a full-time boxing facility with coaches on-site where students can come and ask questions and get pointers to prevent them from looking outside and ending up with lesser qualified individuals.”
For the 2017-2018 academic year, Samuel has accepted an internship back to UIC and will assist the development of the boxing class. “I am pleased about that, and I hope to get boxing established in UIC,” he said. “I am happy to work alongside the WPEO to establish a proper boxing club.”
Reporter: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
Photographer/Video Producer: Duan Jia Rui, Cao Chen (Year 2, IJ)
Editor: Deen He (MPRO)
(with special thanks to the ELC)
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