About

Brenna Sifford is from Charlotte, North Carolina and graduated in the spring of 2019 with a degree in biology. Brenna was a Resident Advisor (RA) for three and a half years, starting during the second semester of her freshman year. She enjoyed being an RA and hearing from her students about their successful endeavors at UNCP. She said, “Having the opportunity to impact someone else’s life was very rewarding.” Brenna also worked as a wellness ambassador to coordinate and plan wellness programs in partnership with the office of Student Health Services. She enjoyed the different types of classes the honors college offered to students. Brenna said, “During honors seminar classes we had the opportunity to choose what topic we wanted to focus on and apply it to the assignment we were given. I really liked being able to choose and study specific topics that interested me.”

For her senior project, Brenna coordinated a service-learning project alongside Dr. Robert Poage that studied how collegiate students’ health and well-being impacted their academic performance. The major task for her service-learning project was taking students' blood pressure and providing them educational information about what the two numbers mean and how to make healthy lifestyle choices to regulate their blood pressure. Although none of the students’ blood pressures were recorded, she also informed students of various resources on campus that can help with health and well-being education. In coordination with Student Health Services, Brenna posted flyers on campus about how students can make healthier choices during their collegiate years.

After graduation, Brenna attended Winston Sales State University to obtain her Doctor of Physical Therapy in January of 2020. She advises honors students to “not wait until the last minute to complete everything, because getting started early pays off.” Brenna also encourages students to choose topics that they want to learn more about because it will be more interesting. She also said, “Do not be afraid to speak up and ask for help.” She was thankful for everyone within the MHC office for all their help throughout her time at UNCP. Her greatest memory at UNCP was being a Compass Scholar and attending field trips through that program. She had the opportunity to travel to Wake Forest, Wilmington, NC State, and Chapel Hill for site visits to see their research labs, learn more about graduate school programs, and more.

Senior Project

Mentor: Bob Poage

Health and Well-being and Academic Performance in Collegiate Students