Julius Hamilton

Julius Hamilton

This Dr. J scores big as campus leader, future team physician

  • Hometown: Conway, S.C.
  • High School: Conway High School
  • Major: Biology major with a minor in business
  • Video (0:48)

Julius Hamilton is used to being part of a large family whose background is living in big cities like Philadelphia. So it wasn't a leap for him, the sixth of 11 children, to decide to move to Columbia and attend the University of South Carolina.

“I wanted all the opportunities of a state university and a city,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton wasted no time in getting involved in college life and leadership. He was a University 101 presenter, an alcohol and drug peer educator and a prayer leader for Impact Movement, a student religious organization. He served as vice president of both Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and Fraternity Council and as president of National Panhellenic Council. At Honors and Awards Day last month, he earned the Caroliniana Award and the I DeQuincey Newman Award.

He says he will always remember spring break of his sophomore year.

“Students in Impact Movement went to New Orleans to gut a house in the Ninth Ward so that it could be rebuilt. The devastation from Katrina was everywhere, and the work was hard,” Hamilton said. “I'll never forget it.”

Finding a balance between academics and student involvement was challenging, he said.

“The college experience helped me grow as an individual,” he said. “I learned resilience after losing my LIFE Scholarship and having to get a job to pay for my tuition. I got them all back for my junior year and worked hard to get into medical school.”

Hamilton will enter the Medical University South Carolina this fall to pursue a degree in sports medicine and become a primary-care team physician. He credits biology Professor Dr. Bert Ely, with whom he worked on two yearlong research projects, for teaching him humility and how to do research.

This summer, Hamilton will spend three months in Branson, Mo., working with Kids Across America, a sports camp for inner-city youth.

“I love helping people, and I love sports. I was even named after Dr. J—‘Julius Irving’ Hamilton,” he said.

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