Cierra Brescia

UConn School of Nursing

I was born and raised in Willington, Connecticut. I will graduate from UConn in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing.

I have been a student member of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, which participates in numerous community outreach programs for underserved populations, focused primarily on Hispanic communities. For example, the Association ran the community outreach program Muevete, a prevention program designed to educate underserved children about the importance of nutrition and exercise to health.

I sought out the Urban Service Track/AHEC Scholars Program after participating in the CAPHN Student’s Day Conference. There, I attended a presentation by an Urban Health Scholar, and felt a deep personal connection with the values they and the program expounded. The ideals I had come to hold in my experiences with community outreach matched those of the Urban Service Track; I came to believe that becoming an Urban Health Scholar would improve my ability to give back to my community in the greatest number of ways possible. The UST/AS Program will be a means of moving closer to providing health equity to underserved populations through my nursing practice and through the provision of health resources and education.