Najea Holt is a Freshman at West Liberty University that enrolled in the pre-med major. Her mother passed away in January of 2022 of stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer leaving her struggling to find her own identity. Najea took care of her mother for years prior to her passing which inspired her to join the Pre-med program so that other people wouldn’t have to lose their loved ones.

Naj realized she finds her happiness in helping others, which propelled her towards wanting to be a doctor. However, Naj soon realized that her college career is not what she expected and that her decisions were inspired by her mother. Dealing with the ongoing stress of going through college with no parental support forced Najea to have an eye-opening moment. She realized that math was her passion and that she still wants to help people which led her to switch her major from Pre-med to Math Education.

She now faces the judgment of her family now that she dropped out of the Pre-med major for math education. Naj is now at a point of her life where she started living for herself and she has been a lot happier since. Her story is inspirational and shows how sometimes you have to lose a part of you to truthfully find yourself and find happiness. She is now a member of the dance team and a West Liberty athlete. With few people knowing about her new life change she deals with the stress of coming out to her to her family about the switch. With support form her boyfriend and grandmother Najea find’s ways to succeed and deal with her stress.

In this interview Najea opens up about what motivates her in life and the stress she deals with going through her freshman year without any parent support. She continues to further her education making her grandmother proud, but she also stresses facing disappointment from the rest of her family following her recent decision to change her major. Najea gets into her career in dance and how that has changed her life. This interview served as an insight into some of the struggles a freshman at West Liberty might go through and how clubs and social events can be a healthy way to cope with the stress.