Entrepreneurial student earns gold medals in aikido

Thesis student Aleah Colón-Alfonso is known on campus for her drive. She has built two companies from her dorm room at New College, and earned a local (and global) reputation as an entrepreneur. Last month, she added another title to her resume: aikido gold medalist.

At the Tomiki Aikido of the Americas national tournament in mid-September, Colón-Alfonso took home the gold in both the beginner division of randori-no-kata and the solo beginner randori-no-kata event.

“I’m beyond thrilled to have had the opportunity to compete in the national tournament this year,” said Colón-Alfonso, who is studying biological psychology, neuroscience and theatre, and serves as the president of New College’s Aikido Club. “I arrived at New College with a black belt in taekwondo and took up aikido under the instruction of Dr. Tiffany Doan, who held the title of national champion for eight years.”

Doan, a biology professor at New College, is the faculty sponsor and sensei for the College’s Aikido Club, and her mentorship of Colón-Alfonso has been transformative—in and out of the classroom.

“My background in martial arts involves training under and with almost all men, so it has been invaluable and truly inspirational to train under such a highly accomplished woman in both martial arts and the sciences,” Colón-Alfonso said. “As I prepare to graduate from New College, I readily admit that nothing has been more important or challenging to me than impressing my sensei, Dr. Doan.”

Doan has watched Colón-Alfonso—an immunocompromised student with small fiber neuropathy, Lyme disease and accompanying secondary illnesses—practice aikido for the past three years with incredible tenacity.

“She immediately immersed herself in the art, becoming club president, and she never misses practice except for illness. When I told her about the Tomiki Aikido tournament, her response was, ‘Which events do you want me to win?,’” Doan said. “She wasn’t trying to be arrogant; she just planned to work as hard as it took to make her forms award-worthy.”

Over the summer, Doan and Colón-Alfonso practiced aikido regularly in preparation for the competition.

“She developed a beautiful kata (martial arts set of techniques). Even with all the work, she was surprised to win at the tournament,” Doan said. “What she didn’t know is that I counted that tournament entry toward her belt test and, immediately after the tournament, I presented her with her next belt. She was ecstatic.”

The two are currently training hard, and Doan hopes to take several students to the next national championship in Las Vegas, Nevada (with Colón-Alfonso leading the New College team).

“I’m currently endeavoring to test for my black belt in aikido this summer while continuing to train alongside Dr. Doan for next year’s national championship,” Colón-Alfonso said.

In the meantime, Colón-Alfonso is working toward graduation and bolstering her globally recognized, health-centric companies: Stay Safely Away (wearable merchandise—from T-shirts to masks—that allows customers with immune issues to “stay distantly social” during the pandemic) and Aleah Wares, Inc. (a line of patent-pending sweaters for patients undergoing IV treatments). Colón-Alfonso has shifted her focus to the latter company lately.

She is currently finalizing her Infused Comfort collection of sweaters (bespoke and private label orders will be available by the end of fall, and the full collection is slated to launch in the winter of 2022).

Colón-Alfonso has also begun writing her undergraduate thesis, which combines biological psychology and business “by studying neurobiological responses to parenting for men and women, and comparing it to neuroimaging studies of entrepreneurs,” she said.

By studying previously observed sex differences in parenting and utilizing the available neuroimaging research conducted on business owners, Colón-Alfonso plans to analyze the biological underpinnings behind behavioral economics and the personal/emotional investment business owners have in their companies.

“The goal is to create prognostications using neuroimaging to help level the disparity in the number of sex-specific business studies,” she said, “and to foster a continuation of the conversation regarding women in positions of executive control within their fields.”

Abby Weingarten is the senior editor in the Office of Communications & Marketing.