About

Hannah Middleton spent the first years of her life in Canada. Her family made the decision to move to the United States in 2006, and, because of job opportunities, they found themselves in Pembroke, NC. Growing up in Robeson County, Hannah knew that when it came time to go to college, she didn’t want to go far. Her two older siblings were already attending the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, and that paired with the cheap tuition made Hannah’s choice easy. 

Hannah graduated from UNC Pembroke in May of 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in special education. She received multiple scholarships during her collegiate career, including two Friends of the Library scholarships. She also participated in numerous clubs and student organizations on campus. She was a member of the student chapter of the Council for Exceptional Children andCommunity and Civic Engagement. And the following summer, she interned with the Public Schools of Robeson County. Hannah also excelled in her academics throughout her college experience. She was on the Chancellor’s List seven out of eight semesters, landing on the Honor’s List one semester during 2019. She was also awarded Gold Scholar through UNCP’s Center for Student Success for each of her final three years.  

Hannah was, at first, apprehensive about joining the Honors College on campus. She joined as a second semester freshman mostly because of her older siblings’  encouragement. She was surprised by how she was challenged and how much she able to grow during her time in the honors community. She loved working with her peers who shared her work ethic and motivation. Hannah enjoyed the smaller class sizes offered by the Honors College  and benefited from the open discussions and personal support from her professors. She credits a lot of the successes she had during her time at UNCP to the relationships she was able to build through the honors community. 

For her senior project, Hannah created a website that blueprinted a pen-pal partnership between UNCP first-year honors students and those at CIS Academy in Pembroke, NC. She started working as a teaching assistant for Dr. Scott Hicks in the fall of 2017, and the pen-pal project was given to her as her main responsibility. She was in charge of coordinating with the teachers at CIS, delivering the letters, and planning a party at the end of the semester where the students could meet their pen-pals. When she began to prepare for the next year of the program, she was also beginning to think about ideas to center her senior project around. When she had discussions with the teachers and students and realized how much of an impact the program was having, Hannah knew it made sense to center her senior project around the pen-pal project. She created a website that has all the timelines, information, and documents used throughout the semester and published it for all the future leaders of the program to use. 

After graduation, Hannah plans to jump straight into the workforce. Originally, she had planned on going to graduate school, but after some thought, she realized that some time spent actually teaching  will undoubtedly impact her decision of what exactly to study.  Upon graduation she is unsure of what county she will be teaching in to start her career, but down the line, she definitely sees herself teaching in Robeson County. 

Hannah encourages all future honors students to build relationships with their fellow honors students as well as the professors. Those relationships will open doors to opportunities you’d never imagine having and will greatly impact your college experience for the better.