Patriots Cheerleader Olivia Kerins Is A Cheerleader By Day & An Oncology Nurse By Night

New England Patriots rookie cheerleader Olivia Kerins isn't just looking forward to suiting up for a regular season game for the first time, she's also looking forward to spreading the word about skin cancer prevention.

That's because in addition to being a cheerleader, she's also a former Miss Massachusetts USA semifinalist. Well, she is that too. But the reason she's looking forward to using her platform as a cheerleader to help spread the word about skin cancer prevention is because she's an oncology nurse.

The New England Patriots cheerleaders during the game between The New England Patriots and the Houston Texans at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images)

Kerins comes from a family of nurses with more than 20 family members taking up the profession. Her parents own and operate a nursing concierge company. Her brother and his fiancée are both nurses and there are aunts and cousins who also work in the field.

"I am one of over 20 nurses in my family," she said. "You're very safe in our house, we like to say. There's a lot of us."

As if being an NFL cheerleader, a beauty pageant semifinalist, and an oncology nurse wasn't impressive enough, Kerins also grew up volunteering with her mother.

"I don't want to say it's coincidental, but growing up, my dad always said that the Kraft family was the gold standard for volunteerism. It just feels right at this point, to be part of the Patriots organization, because that's always been a motto in our house."

Making the Patriots cheerleader roster proved to be more difficult than graduating from nursing school. Kerins finally made the squad on her fourth attempt, coming from a family of nurses I'm going to guess it didn't take that many attempts to graduate.

As she waited to finally make the roster she graduated, discovered her interest for oncology and skin cancer prevention. She also helped to open a philanthropy and fundraising branch of the family business.

Olivia Kerins Really Wanted To Be A Patriots Cheerleader

What might have helped get Kerins over the hump was a change to the audition process. This year they added the requirement to write a philanthropy paper. That was right up her alley and she obviously stuck the landing.

"For me, this couldn't have been more perfect. It felt like the stars were aligning. I'm working so hard on skin cancer prevention and did a lot of research to see how I could tie this in with the Patriots," she said.

"Mr. Kraft and the Patriots Foundation do so much to get involved with cancer prevention and celebrate survivors. For me, it just made so much sense. It felt like the perfect time and it all worked out this year."

If you guessed that she decided to focus on skin cancer prevention because she wears revealing outfits as a cheerleader, you're wrong. She got into it after realizing how underfunded skin cancer research is.

Kerins will now be able to use the platform provided by cheerleading along with the one created by the philanthropy and fundraising branch of her family's business to help increase those funds.

It's been a while since a New England Patriots roster included someone with this much talent.