Coach Nas poses with the Ring of Hope traveling boxing team. The program was started more than 20 years ago by Jeff Christiana and Vince Kittle to help young men and women receive tutoring and other support, as well as optional Bible Study, to keep them away from the lure of the street and learn life lessons through the discipline of boxing.

Saniaya Smith, 19, of Rotterdam, is the first woman to be selected for the Ring of Hope traveling boxing team. The gym is her haven from tumult in her life.She dropped 50 pounds through daily training and is now a talented 132-pound boxer.

Jacki Kinnicutt-Sawyer, operations coordinator, has devoted 10 years at Ring of Hope with a blend of maternal support and stern accountability.

Ta'lique Grant-Lynch, 23, started boxing at Ring of Hope while a Schenectady HS sophomore and he credits the program with helping him graduate, secure a full-time job, attend college and enlist in the Army National Guard.

Nasir Mayfield (Coach Nas), director of training, critiques the technique of Saniaya Smith, in green, as she spars with an older, bigger male boxer during a Saturday sparring session at Ring of Hope Boxing Club in Schenectady.

SCHENECTADY — Sanaiya Smith, 19, was taking classes at Hudson Valley Community College, working in Hannaford supermarket’s deli section and excited to attend her first college party on Memorial Day last year in Albany.

Loud pops rang out over the music.

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“We thought it was fireworks,” Smith recalled. It was shots fired.

Smith’s EMT training kicked in. She gave first aid and drove the victim to the hospital. The gun violence left her badly shaken.

“It was scary and terrible,” she said. “I just wanted to get back into the gym.”

Ring of Hope Boxing Club on Erie Boulevard in Schenectady is Smith’s haven, the most stable and self-affirming part of her life.

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The not-for-profit organization has transformed hundreds of youngsters by using boxing to impart positive life lessons and offer alternatives to gang violence, drugs and the lure of the streets.

Some come to Ring of Hope after brushes with the law,........

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