Personalizing Her Education, Her Way
Writer and Owner, Everyday Arthritis
Brianna McKenna’s linguistics electives led to a minor, which then led to a conversation with her professors—and a new direction for her life’s path.
Brianna McKenna (Biomedical Engineering ’19)With her interest in researching autoimmune diseases, Brianna McKenna declared her major as biomedical engineering and thought that her career path was set. As she took her elective courses, however, McKenna discovered that she instead wanted to direct what she was learning in her major coursework to topics raised in her linguistics courses, such as the biological origins of language and the language abilities of animals.
McKenna declared herself a linguistics minor and spoke with her Armour College of Engineering professors about a future where she could utilize her developing biomedical engineering skills set and newly discovered linguistics interests. Today, McKenna is writer, owner, and designer of the website everydayarthritis.com, which provides support to individuals with autoinflammatory arthritis. She reaches more than 1,000 readers each month. She also uses her unique background as a Project: VISION STEM tutor for students in grades 9–12.