University of North Carolina Athletics
My Carolina Experience: Cam Holland
April 6, 2016 | Football
If it is meant to be it will be. Nothing could be truer in the case of former UNC football player Cam Holland.
Holland, a Pittsburgh native, dreamed of becoming a doctor when he was younger because he witnessed first hand the challenges of finding affordable care in his corner of the world. He knew fulfilling that dream would be a challenge.
When it came to football he had more encouragement than he knew what to do with. Holland always wanted to play for the University of Pittsburgh. But when a UNC coach surprised him with a school visit after seeing Holland at a high school camp, the lineman decided to take a visit to Chapel Hill and he fell in love in the process.
“I had to choose a university that felt comfortable. For me that was a big factor because I wasn't just picking a school or a football team, I was essentially picking a family,” says Holland.
After taking all his NCAA allowable visits, Holland committed to the Tar Heels and came into UNC still dreaming of eventually attending medical school. He did extremely well in the classroom his first year because of a natural knack for the sciences, but he began to struggle as he made his way into the upper-level classes.
“I always felt like I was catching up. I was still doing ok but not well enough to feel like I could go to professional school, so I began pouring more of myself into football. My pursuit of a medical career was renewed when my position coach, Sam Pitman, told me not to give up on my dreams. That conversation was the first time I really believed medicine was something I could do.”
Holland graduated with a degree in biology from Carolina. A stellar senior year on the field, despite back injuries, helped him aid Giovanni Bernard in becoming the first Tar Heel since 1997 to rush for over 1,000 yards. His grit and strength got him a nomination for the Rimington Award awarded to the best center in the nation and led to him being picked up by the Kansas City Chiefs.
Though the NFL was never Holland's goal, by the end of his career he felt he had the hopes and dreams of his community resting on his shoulders. He had shown people from a place with little hope that they could be something great and did not want to let them down. In the end however, he had to do what was right for him, so Holland ended up leaving the Chiefs.
He came back to North Carolina to become a special education substitute teacher and mentor, and loved it. By the following year another school hired him to teach chemistry full time.
“One day, I was talking to one of my students. He had an opportunity to go to college but was debating whether or not he wanted to go for several reasons. I told him the same thing I was once told which was, 'If that's your dream then you should pursue it. You have the ability and you have the capacity so you should have every faith that you can do it if this is what you want.
“He looked at me and said, 'How can you tell me to pursue my dreams when I know you're not pursuing yours.' That coming from one of my high school students was powerful. I made him a deal that if he went to school I would stop teaching and go back to school with him. He did, and we both ended up at UNC Greensboro.
“While I was at UNC Greensboro, Cricket Lane, an employee for UNC Athletics, brought up the Medical Education Development program at Carolina, a condensed version of the first semester of medical school for people looking to attend who are underrepresented in the field. I was at UNCG to prove what football players are capable of to myself and to the world, and the M.E.D. program fit perfectly into that.”
Holland was accepted into the program and thoroughly enjoyed being surrounded yet again by people at Carolina who not only wanted to be their best, but who wanted the best for one another. He finished number one in the cohort and soon after was accepted at UNC's School of Medicine.
Holland's Carolina experience opened him up to becoming a person he thought was only possible in his dreams, showing those who look up to him that being great doesn't always mean doing what is expected of you. As he begins school this fall he will never again let anyone – not even himself – get in the way of fulfilling his dreams.
“At Carolina I learned how to be a role model and how to give back. Even now my pursuit of those things are invaluable to me and I wouldn't trade that for anything. That same pursuit drives me to bring health care to communities who have been marginalized by society, like minority communities, the mentally and physically disabled, and the underprivileged.
“I left Carolina with tools for life thanks to people who wanted nothing more than to see me succeed. It's where I learned how to work, and sacrifice, as well as how to be a great teammate and friend. Before UNC my focus was more inward and self-centered. My goals were to get out of my neighborhood, go to college, and to be the best that I could be. At Carolina, I became a part of something bigger than myself. I became a part of a culture of excellence, and while there I learned what that was and how to achieve it.”
