![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernjournal\/files\/2018\/04\/LeilaH-3-1-683x1024.jpg\")
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Simson Garcia | Sports Editor<\/span><\/p>\n A stereotypical question many college students are faced with is “what are you going to do in college?” When a student finds the answer, the question expands further to “what will that do for you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Volleyball setter Leila Holt is an art major and focuses her art on \u201cportraying a feeling. It\u2019s more for my mind and emotions. Art is more of me,\u201d said Holt. What used to be a hobby is now a drive toward making her art piece better than the last, as well as better than the competition.<\/span><\/p>\n But Holt\u2019s no stranger to those questions being raised. During her first two years, the now-junior was just brushing by, prerequisite after prerequisite, for completion of her liberal arts core courses. Not dead set, at the time, on where exactly she\u2019d put her vision towards, a few art classes helped paint a picture for her future.<\/span><\/p>\n In her younger years, Holt drew up early passions in softball, hula and volleyball among other things she\u2019d find interest in. The first game changer, however, was volleyball, a sport she\u2019s loved since elementary school. Growing up in Manoa, Hawaii, she played ball at Kamehameha High School where she helped her school win state.<\/span><\/p>\n Soon after graduating, she stepped foot on Western\u2019s volleyball court into a class of seven recruits. Throughout the years, she\u2019s earned her battle scars and stripes, through knee and elbow scrapes from hard floor digging dives and slides, to keep a game alive.<\/span><\/p>\n Last season, Holt led her Western squad in assists which elevated her to eighth all-time for the school in that category, with 1,239 assists. 2017 didn\u2019t go as planned for the Wolves, however, finishing last in their division.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have such great talent on our team, it\u2019s just the cohesion which hasn\u2019t kind of clicked,\u201d said Holt.<\/span><\/p>\n Next season, Holt will enter her senior year as a team leader. Her experience benefits the Wolves as she played all but one game during her first year and started in half of the games; an experience which, according to her, has led her to taking on a \u201cmotherly\u201d role to the many newcomers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt won\u2019t be hard, you\u2019ll be fine,\u201d she expressed adamantly to her younger volleyball teammates in passing. Her mentorship role is something she learned on and off the court, as she grew up with five siblings \u2014 a few of which have also played collegiately in different sports \u2014 and in the collectivistic nature of Hawaiian culture.<\/span><\/p>\n Ever the veteran and leader, Holt has found a home in volleyball and it\u2019s also managed to weave smoothly with her artistic side.<\/span><\/p>\n With her eyes set on art as the major, she\u2019s just getting started, and following completion of her LACC\u2019s and art classes she\u2019s taken thus far, is eager for more. <\/span><\/p>\n The transition in both art and volleyball for Holt is based on one commonality: both free Holt from all the world\u2019s stresses.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cVolleyball is my physical escape. I have to constantly work out for it, but it\u2019s also a very mindful thing. Art is more for my mind and emotions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n At this point in her portrait of life, Holt has found harmony between the two, but volleyball\u2019s rigorous in-season schedule has kept Holt on her toes; \u201c(Volleyball) does take a lot of mental stress and also emotional stress. But art helps take away from that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Holt credits professor Kim Hoffman for the decision in helping choose art as her focus. Hoffman and Holt discussed that very relationship between majoring in art and competing in volleyball and how the combination may be difficult, considering the busy schedules both environments provide.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut (Hoffman) came to me one class period and he had the change of major form, handed it to me, and told me \u2018write your name down\u2019 … and so if he sees potential in me and thinks that I could do it, then of course I\u2019m going to do it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not uncommon for students to regret a degree choice. In fact, it\u2019s common that students venture their whole education discontent with their major. But majoring in art, Holt says, is the best decision she\u2019s made.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so happy with it. I see everyone stressed out with finals and things, but for me, I don\u2019t get that type of stress anymore. It\u2019s more of \u2018I\u2019m stressed about if my project is good enough.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s ceramics, sculpting, drawing or painting, it\u2019s no longer about just doing the work, but about her strides in progression piece after piece. In her room, she was befuddled at old drawings she pinned to her wall \u2014 drawings she came to reflect back on and vehemently took down soon after. Holt, therefore, has become her own biggest fan and critic.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t see something wrong with your piece, then you\u2019re never going to get better. There\u2019s always something that you could\u2019ve done, or could still do to make it better,\u201d Holt said.<\/span><\/p>\n And while many may have a particular art piece or painter they\u2019ve become inspired by, Holt enjoys studying and taking away bits and pieces from all aspects of art she\u2019s seen: \u201cI like artworks that you can think about, also seeing and wondering what it is or whether it makes you feel a certain way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Art is an escape from social anxieties, a release into the creative process and a place where one can get in the zone and work through for two to three hours, in the eyes of Holt.<\/span><\/p>\n Contact the author at journalsports@wou.edu<\/span><\/i> \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Photo by: Paul F. Davis<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Simson Garcia | Sports Editor A stereotypical question many college students are faced with is “what are you going to do in college?” When a student finds the answer, the question expands further to “what will that do for you?\u201d Volleyball setter Leila Holt is an art major and focuses her art on \u201cportraying a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1030,"featured_media":7419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}