Extra Rounds: UMSN Students Win Boxing Titles

The two undergraduates competed in a national intercollegiate boxing tournament, cheered on by nursing faculty and peers.

“We worked really hard going into Nationals,” said University of Michigan School of Nursing senior Layne Dettor. “We were working out 15-20 hours a week.”

Nursing students are known to have one of the most difficult schedules of all undergraduate majors due to required clinical rotations on top of a substantial curriculum. That doesn’t keep them from pursuing a “powerful” variety of extracurricular activities.

Boxing started out as a way to stay fit for Dettor and fellow senior Magdalene (Maggie) Kuznia, but turned into much more. They began to think about competing in the 2015 United States Intercollegiate Boxing Association National Championships (USIBA). Dettor had only begun boxing in September. Kuznia had first taken up boxing her freshman year, then stopped due to time constraints, but picked it back up in this past January.

Dettor and Kuznia had a cheering section that included fellow nursing students and UMSN Clinical Associate Professor Dr. Stephen Strobbe. He offers extra credit to students who participate in U-M’s campuswide physical activity challenge, ActiveU. Each class creates its own team and tracks their physical activity over multiple weeks. “It’s important for nurses to take care of themselves in order to take better care of their patients and their families,” says Dr. Strobbe. “It promotes physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health.” Both Kuznia and Dettor had participated in the challenge when they were in Dr. Strobbe’s class and invited him to the tournament, held in Ann Arbor.

“I am so proud to be a part of the Women's Boxing Club at University of Michigan,” says Kuznia. “During these past few months of training for Nationals, I've had the opportunity to learn vital life lessons from my teammates and coaches. My mind is blown by all the hard work that paid off for our team, and my heart is filled with gratitude to be a part of this group.”

“We are so proud of Maggie and Layne,” says Clinical Associate Professor Esther H. Bay, PhD, ACNS-BC. “They were able to discipline themselves for extensive practice times and perform for our university while maintaining excellence in their clinical setting and classes.  Further, they modeled skill and performance beyond what is expected while maintaining brain health to facilitate excellence during their final exams.”

With graduation just a few weeks away, both students are looking forward to putting their nursing degrees to use. Kuznia plans to work in her home state of California. Dettor, who is currently part of the Navy Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) will work as a nurse at the Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan.

Read about Magalene Kuznia’s 2013 global health experience at Salokaya College of Nursing in India.