Next Stop: Duke Medical School Awaits Cheerleader Captain

DURHAM, N.C. -- Graduation day arrived last week at precisely the right moment for senior Cameron Williams. There was nothing left for her to accomplish as a Duke undergraduate.

Over the past four years she has navigated through the university's pre-med curriculum, volunteered at the medical center and in the community, shadowed a physician, interned in several hospital clinics and all the while maintained the pace of a varsity athlete.

"I think I've really exhausted my opportunities as an undergrad here so I'm very excited about graduating," Williams says. "I don't have any regrets and I'm glad I took advantage of all the opportunities that Duke has, because there are a lot."

Williams' name might not ring a bell with most Duke fans, but her face is a familiar one. Her varsity sport has been cheerleading -- an endeavor to which she has devoted countless hours of workouts, practices and game appearances from the first week she arrived on campus four years ago.

As a freshman she cheered at football and women's basketball games, then moved up to varsity for her last three years of working men's basketball and football games. She was the lone senior and captain of the cheerleading squad this year and received the Harry Rainey Spirit Award at the annual men's basketball banquet last month.

"It's been incredible, definitely the highlight of my Duke experience," Williams says of her cheerleading efforts. "I can't imagine having done it any other way. My time management skills have really developed from having done it, and I've gotten to see the country with all the away games and travel, so it's been awesome."

Williams, a native of St. Petersburg, Fla., has been cheering since the fourth grade. During middle school and high school, she not only cheered for her schools but also for the Florida Top Dog All-Stars, a competitive squad that traveled all over the state and the southeast. She began developing an interest in Duke while in middle school, when her father came home from a business trip to Raleigh with a Blue Devil T-shirt for her. She got another push from a high school guidance counselor who was a Duke grad.

"I would have come to Duke whether or not I had the opportunity to cheer, because I've loved Duke for a long time," she notes.

But the environment around the Blue Devil squad also proved to be the perfect fit: daily workouts and serious practices, but not at the expense of academics.

"It's definitely a huge commitment but it's not as crazy as it is at some other schools. They realize that academics come first here and that cheerleading is secondary to that."

Williams' academic career was an intriguing one, not exactly conventional for pre-med. She took all the necessary science classes and had minors in both chemistry and biology, but her major was on the other end of the spectrum ? art history.

"I'm a very visual person, so it's neat for me to stare at a visual image or painting and come up with 10 pages to write about it," she explains. "I think that's a cool skill to have and it will make me a very well-rounded adult who is able to appreciate the arts for the rest of my life. I love visiting museums, and I now have more of a background in it.

"I really like 17th century Dutch art, the Northern Renaissance. That's really been my focus. Visually it's very appealing to me. The Italian Renaissance is very interesting, but the Northern Renaissance doesn't get as much recognition in terms of Western art, and I think it's really cool.

"I had a really good mix of the humanities and the sciences. That's a lot of class time to fit in, but I started it from day one. The art history was almost like an escape from some of the hardcore organic chemistry and physics, but that is my first love, science, so I'm pretty excited to continue studying that for the rest of my life."

Those studies resume in August when she begins her first year in medical school at Duke. She should have no problem finding her way around the hospital after all of the time she spent there as an undergrad.

Along with volunteering at the brain tumor center, she had the chance her junior year to shadow a physician in pediatric hematology and oncology once a week. And last summer she was an intern in the CAPE (Collegiate Athlete Pre-Medical Experience) program, a Duke initiative that targets female athletes who are interested in medical careers. The internship included rotations through 11 clinics.

Perhaps cognizant of some cheerleading stereotypes, Williams' application to CAPE included a "feisty" email to co-director Dr. Henry Friedman asserting that cheerleaders should be eligible for the program as athletes, just like the players from Duke's other varsity sports teams.

"She pushed hard for the right to be in CAPE before she knew what my reaction would be," Friedman recalls. "I called my son Josh, who graduated from Duke in 2005 and had been a Blue Devil mascot for three years. His comment was, ?Of course you let her in. She is an athlete like the other athletes.' Josh barely knew her since she was a freshman when he was a senior, but he knew how hard the cheerleaders work at their craft."

Williams describes her courtside view and cheering in Cameron Indoor Stadium as "absolutely amazing" and recalls the atmosphere on the floor right after Sean Dockery hit his buzzer-beater vs. Virginia Tech in 2006 as one of her most memorable moments.

She knows it will be a different perspective when she watches from the stands as a med student next season.

"I think I'll miss it a lot and be a little bit jealous of the girls out on the court," she says, "but I'll also be excited to just watch the games without worrying about what I'm doing every timeout."

Next Stop: Duke Medical School Awaits Cheerleader Captain

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