Student spotlight – Meet Matthew Holt

Matt Holt is pictured with a calving glacier as the sun sets off the coast of Greenland.

Education is one of the four pillars of UNMC’s mission and our students are the lifeblood of that aspect of campus life.

In UNMC Today’s Student Spotlight, we get to know some of these students, who will become tomorrow’s health care professionals.

Today we meet:

• Name: Matthew Holt
• Hometown: Hastings, Neb.
• Program/Year: College of Public Health, second year, M.P.H in Health Policy

What sparked your interest in public health?

I got my EMT-B (emergency medical technician-basic) in order to work on ski patrol and eventually went on to get my paramedic degree. My time spent as a medic working in an ER led me to think I could make a bigger impact working upstream and preventing a large number of the injuries that required EMS. I decided to get my master’s in order to position myself to work in prevention and EMS restructuring.

List three songs on your playlist.

• “Redemption Song,” by Bob Marley
• “Stairway to Heaven,” by Led Zeppelin
• “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” by the Beatles

Your favorite study snack is:
Coffee.

Your favorite app is:

During football season, it is my fantasy football team app; during ski season, it is the snow ski report.

Three things people may not know about you.

• I love to ski and worked as a ski patroller while living in Breckenridge, Colo.
• I love to hike and camp in the backcountry with just my pack and my wife.
• My wife and I have more than 35 indoor plants and recently purchased our first bonsai trees.