LITTLE HAITI — Pat Russo, director of NYC Cops & Kids Boxing, knows well the story of Mother Cabrini, having spent his youth in St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Bath Beach.
He compares the patron saint of immigrants and champion for orphans to Nisa Rodriguez, a professional boxer who rose through the ranks of NYC Cops & Kids. Once an at-risk youth, Rodriguez is now a middleweight contender ranked third in the world (as of this writing) by the World Boxing Association.
She is also a member of the New York City Police Department assigned to community resource duties at the Flatbush Gardens housing complex, which houses one of the four gyms operated by NYC Cops & Kids.
“She’s the next Mother Cabrini,” Russo said. “What Mother Cabrini did is what she’s doing now.”
Russo described how Cabrini, in the early 1900s, moved throughout New York City and beyond, opening orphanages for underprivileged children “to keep them off the streets.”
Likewise, he said, the NYPD has assigned Rodriguez to be a mentor who steers kids away from persistent neighborhood street crime.
“She’s the sheriff of this little community at Flatbush Gardens,” Russo said from a classroom connected to the gym. The space is also Rodriguez’s NYPD office, where she fills out reports and performs other police tasks.
Russo turned to her and asked if she had finally watched the 2024 film, “Cabrini.”
Rodriguez, who is married and a mother of three, laughed with a tinge of embarrassment and exclaimed, “I only have one day off!”
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Boxing promoters are currently planning Rodriguez’s next professional bout. Leading up to that, she’ll be at the gym before work early each morning, training.
“Because of boxing, and because of people like Pat, I have a job that I sincerely love,” she said. “I’m very blessed.”
Rodriguez was born in the Bronx to parents from Puerto Rico.
The family regularly went to Mass, and Rodriguez attended a Catholic school and became an altar server. Still, there was adversity. Her parents split, and the family lived in a rough area of the Bronx.
“I had brothers who were running the streets, and I lived in a gang-infested neighborhood,” she said. “I was an angry child with a lot of stuff going on at home. I was kind of a product of my environment.”
Rodriguez dropped out of school at 16 and gave birth to her eldest child, Emerson, who is now 16 and an aspiring amateur boxer.
But back then, Rodriguez also got into fights — and she hadn’t yet stepped into the ring.
Although her father wasn’t in the home, he suggested boxing and signed her up at a free gym. “I went in, and it stuck,” she said.
The Bronx gym eventually closed. That’s when she found NYC Cops & Kids Boxing at Flatbush Gardens. For years, she commuted an hour each way on the 2 Train from the Bronx to Little Haiti and racked up wins in the ring.
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She also earned a General Educational Development (GED) diploma and a college degree. For eight years, she taught physical education, which she loved. But while teaching at the Harlem Village Academies charter schools, two of her students, both boys, died from neighborhood gun violence.
She began to consider how she could do more to help at-risk kids as a police officer, like the ones who coached her at the gym in Brooklyn.
Her boxing career also accelerated, and she qualified for a spot on Puerto Rico’s Olympic boxing team in 2018. However, that dream was cut short when a blood clot caused a pulmonary embolism in her lung.
Rodriguez recovered and returned to New York, but she was at a career crossroads. Russo, a retired NYPD sergeant, suggested she test for the police academy.
She did, and has now been a cop for nearly four years, including her probationary years on patrol in Midtown Manhattan.
A couple of years ago, when a community resource officer was needed at Flatbush Gardens, Russo and NYC Cops & Kids lobbied then-Police Commissioner Edward Caban to appoint Rodriguez.
“He heard her story and said, ‘She’s yours,’ ” Russo said.
Meanwhile, her family also grew.
With her husband, Wilson Hernandez, she has two daughters, Hannaly, 12, and Riley, 10. The entire family, including Emerson, volunteers at the gym.
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As the community’s connection to the NYPD, Rodriguez funnels boys and girls, many of whom are “at-risk,” into the boxing program, which encourages hard work, self-discipline, respect, sportsmanship, and commitment to academic studies.
Among them is Shamar Jerrick, 18, of Crown Heights, who graduated last year from Research and Service High School in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Shamar’s win-loss record is 16-2, and he’s hungry for more. He said the gym provides excellent structure to help him meet his boxing goals, among other benefits.
“I know that for sure,” Jerrick said. “Nisa helped me with my resume, so it’s really more than boxing. Nisa always looks out.”
Rodriguez said she’s proud not only to exemplify an accomplished athlete, but also to offer practical guidance on life issues, including careers.
“I feel like God put me in this position,” Rodriguez said. “At least they have some type of guidance here. And if guidance was what you needed, that’s what God told me to do, and I did my job.
“One day, these kids will pay it forward.”
