Academics and athletics: a dominant four years for Faith Holloway
A two-time Academic All-American, two-time All-West Region selection and four-time All-SCIAC defender, Faith Holloway is without a doubt one of the most decorated student-athletes to ever put on the Panther uniform. Maintaining a perfect 4.0 grade point average throughout her three and a half years as a Biological Sciences major, Faith is the 2019-2020 Chapman University Female Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Along with her perfect performance in the classroom, Holloway conducted research in her time at Chapman and continues to do so in her current internship. The Rocklin, Calif. native works for Zymo Research, a biotech company, helping to produce and distribute COVID-19 tests. Along with assisting in the fight against COVID-19, Holloway is in charge of her own research involving pre-natal screening.
"The project that I am specifically in charge of is for pre-natal testing", Faith said. "It's diagnosing disorders before a baby is born." Right now, she is working on identifying babies with downs syndrome while still in the mother's womb. She says the test will be able to identify other disorders upon more research.
She has plans to attend the Keck Graduate Institute in Claremont, Calif. in the fall to earn a Master's in Science and Business, but may postpone due to the COVID-19 crisis. As it stands, Zymo Research has offered Holloway a full-time position. If classes remain online at KGI, she will continue her research and postpone graduate school to Fall 2021.
Holloway showed throughout her four years that she was elite in the classroom and in the lab, and that only intensified when she stepped onto the soccer field. The two-time team captain was a starter all four years, anchoring the Panthers' back line as a center defender. At one point, a role she thought she was never going to have.
"I was convinced I was going to get cut from the team freshman year" was a sentence nobody thought they would hear come out of the Academic All-American's mouth. The four-time All-SCIAC honoree proved to everyone that she deserved to be on that field day in and day out.
Her teammates saw it and rewarded her accordingly, selecting her as team captain for her junior season.
"I was really honored to be selected going into the junior year because it's based on votes. To be selected by my teammates meant a lot. I just tried to lead by example."
She said that after learning the ropes for one year, she was ready to tackle being a captain in her final season head-on. "Junior year I was still learning a lot about what it meant to be one of the team's two primary leaders. There was a lot more behind the scenes than I expected so I got used to that junior year, then senior year I was fully prepared to take that on."
In her final season, Holloway took the WSCR reigns, starting 13 matches and heading the charge to the SCIAC Postseason. Literally. In Chapman's final regular season home game - and her senior night - the center defender headed in the game-winning goal to send the Panthers to the SCIAC Postseason Tournament for the first time since her freshman season.
She credits that goal as her greatest accomplishment on the field during her time at Chapman. "On my senior night…I scored the game-winning goal that put us into the semifinals. That was one of the best feelings that I've had in my four years."
As far as her favorite team accomplishment, Holloway thinks back to her first year in the Panther uniform. "Beating the number one team Pomona in the SCIAC Semifinals still stands out as probably the biggest team moment."
Accomplishments on the field pale in comparison to what she has accomplished in the classroom. Maintaining a 4.0 GPA throughout three and a half years of college is something only few can say they have done. She also had the opportunity to present research at a national conference with Chapman professors. She attended The Annual Meeting for the Society for Integrated and Comparative Biology in Austin, Texas to present her research on parental care behaviors in birds and the gene expression changes that underlie the transition to becoming a parent and caring for offspring. A mouthful, but insanely impressive nonetheless.
On top of her Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award, Holloway is nominated for four other campus leadership awards. She is also the first women's soccer player in school history to earn Academic All-America honors twice, and just the second to earn First Team recognition.
"I had the greatest three and a half years here. I've made some lifelong friends. There were a lot of sleepless nights, but I really just remember the good times with my friends and my teammates," she says of her time at Chapman. "I accomplished a lot more than I thought I was capable of, to be honest. In my soccer career and in the classroom. I feel like my confidence grew a lot throughout college, from freshman year to now."
There is no doubt that Holloway is absolutely deserving of the honor of Female Student-Athlete of the Year. She has shown through hard work both on the field and in the classroom that she is one of the best to ever don a Chapman University jersey.
By Katie Bell
Administrative Supervisor
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