Nyla Holland did a little bit of everything.
Acting onstage. Playing saxophone. Crocheting with her grandma. Weightlifting. Throwing javelin and shot put. Serving in UF’s Reserve Officer Training Corps. Riding horses — and teaching kids to do the same. But more than the sum of her talents, Holland was a radiant extrovert whose warmth and openness made people feel at ease.
Holland, a UF animal sciences sophomore, died in Gainesville March 2. An oncoming car struck Holland while she was driving her moped into the parking lot at Southwest Recreation Center, where she exercised daily. She was 20 years old.
She is survived by her parents, Jaime Holland and Rebekah Santiago, her 21-year-old brother, Jaime Jr. and 16-year-old sister, Moriah.
Family and friends remember Holland as a resilient, energetic and loving jack-of-all-trades. Santiago, Holland’s mother, said her drive to explore new passions was rooted in her love for people.
“When people think of her, I hope that they treasure their connections,” Santiago said. “That is what she loved.”
Humor, too, was one of Holland’s strong suits. Her stories always had “color and pepper and salt,” Santiago said.
“Sarcasm was her native language,” she said. “She saw things for what they were. They were not romantic at all — it had so much humor.”
Born on Sept. 14, 2004, in Lake Worth, Florida, Holland graduated from Park Vista Community High School before attending UF. There, she became a dedicated member of the university’s ROTC program and attained a three-year U.S. Army scholarship. She planned to follow in the footsteps of her father, Jaime, and enlist in the Army after graduation, with dreams of becoming a military veterinarian.
Holland’s passions were diverse, but her heart belonged to animals — especially horses and dogs. Her love began early, with relentless requests for a dog. One Christmas, her parents gave her a toy dog, but that didn’t quite “quench her thirst,” Santiago said.
So once the Hollands replaced their home’s carpets with hardwood, they adopted Lexi, a boxer whom Nyla loved dearly.
Her bond with animals only grew as she got older. As a teenager, Holland began volunteering at Big Dog Ranch Rescue in Loxahatchee Groves, Florida, the largest cage-free, no-kill dog rescue organization in the United States.
“She was at peace when she was with an animal,” said Jaime Holland.
“If you asked her to clean her room, that was torture. But if you asked her to bathe 10 dogs, she’d do 30,” Sanitago said.
Holland also loved riding and taking care of horses, even if it caused her physical harm from time to time. Up until her death, she excitedly recollected when a horse stepped on her foot, showing the scar off to her mother.
Her passion for animals carried into her studies at UF, where she recently earned a certification in artificial insemination. She had plans to start a club aimed at reducing mistreatment and stigma toward pit bulls, especially prevalent near her home in South Florida.
After Lexi, the Hollands’ dog, passed away several years ago, Nyla urged her parents to adopt a rescue. The Hollands ended up taking in Sephora — a shar pei-pitbull mix.
Holland was also deeply rooted in her Christian faith. She attended Salt Church and participated in several Bible studies at UF. Moriah, Holland’s younger sister, will inherit a cross her parents gifted her in high school.
“She knew Jesus. He was in her heart,” Santiago said.
Faith was a source of friendship for Holland, who regularly attended YMCA camps. Vanessa Marguex, a 20-year old health and society sophomore at University of Texas at Austin, said when she met Holland at camp in 2023, it felt like she’d known her for years.
“Nyla was the kind of person who could light up any room just by walking into it,” Marquex said. “She had a warmth and energy that made everyone around her feel at ease.”
For Elizabeth Schellhase, a 19-year old early childhood education freshman at Penn State, meeting Holland at a YMCA camp was “a breath of fresh air.” First-day campers were nervous to meet each other, but Holland quickly brought them out of their shells, dancing and singing to old music camp counselors had put on.
“Soon after, none of us were shy and we were all singing and dancing at the top of our lungs,” Schellhase said. “She simply was the embodiment of Jesus Christ on Earth.”
Holland never failed to make people laugh or cheer them up, whether that was at camp, college or home.
Journey Gordon, a 20-year-old UF construction management sophomore, said Holland was like a sister to her. The two were “bus buddies” in middle school and lived together for the past two years at UF.
Gordon recalled one night last year in their dorm, when she broke down in tears at 2 a.m. Despite the late hour, Holland woke up and took Gordon on a walk to calm her down and talk.
“Her presence was just always so comforting,” Gordon said. “She just always did things to help people.”
J’nyah Brooks, a 20-year-old UF biology sophomore, met Holland during her first night at UF. Brooks was walking around campus when Holland introduced herself to her and her friends during a group conversation.
“Her energy was indescribable,” Brooks said. “After that day, we were inseparable.”
Brooks described Holland as resilient and always putting her best foot forward. She woke up at 5 a.m. for ROTC every day and continued working out into the night. The two went together to some of those workouts, where Holland constantly encouraged Brooks and strengthened her confidence. On top of her resilience, Holland was extremely caring.
“She never missed a phone call or text message,” Brooks said. “If you needed something, she would be sure that you would get it.”
The night after Holland’s death, more than 200 people gathered in a field near Southwest Recreation Center for a candlelit vigil in her memory. Family, friends and fellow ROTC cadets circled around a table decorated with bouquets and stuffed animals.
“We will see Nyla again,” Jaime Holland told the crowd. “She is in the arms of God, and there's no better place.”
Holland’s family is holding a memorial service March 13 at Christ Fellowship South Campus in Palm Beach Gardens. They are inviting people to donate to Big Dog Ranch Rescue in her honor. You can donate at https://www.bdrr.org/donate.
Michael Angee contributed to this report.
Contact Shaine and Garrett at sdavison@alligator.org and gshanley@alligator.org. Follow them on X @shainedavison and @garrettshanley.
Garrett Shanley is a fourth-year journalism major and the Spring 2025 university editor for The Alligator. Outside of the newsroom, you can find him watching Wong Kar-Wai movies and talking to his house plants.
Shaine Davison is a second-year journalism major and the university graduate school and Santa Fe reporter. Outside of classes, she enjoys spending time with friends and studying at coffee shops.
