Senior Spotlight: Brandi Seawood

What have been some of your favorite moments at Andrews?

I've enjoyed exploring Michigan when it's not cold. I love the fall season and exploring different places and of course going to the beach is nice as well. I've loved just the little things, hanging out with friends, going roller skating, as well as the barn parties. Another thing that I really loved is DMC, which is Deliverance Mass Choir if you don't know. I've been in DMC all four years of college and I've thoroughly loved it. We've gone on trips, we've done choir retreats, we've done concerts, and it's just been a lot of fun, and I've made some really good friends. It's really like a big family and I love music so it's a great way for me to express myself, and also connect with God. I have also enjoyed volunteering, specifically in H.E.L.P.––which stands for Human Empowerment Life Project. Hanging out with the kids there and teaching them and mentoring them has really been a life changing experience, and has helped me to learn to look beyond myself and find ways that I can help others and serve my community.

How have you adjusted to the increasing workload as a bio major over these last four years?

I've picked up on new study techniques and the way that the biology program works here at Andrews is that you start off with a lot, taking Foundations of Biology, but it's pretty much only that one biology class for your first year. So as the years progress, you start taking more biology classes at a time, and things do get more difficult, but I feel like they gradually build you up and work your way up, so that it's kind of not even noticeable that the classes become more difficult because of the increased workload. The Biology program here is really great and I think that it's difficult and challenging but they don't make it impossible for you to succeed. I feel like for those that really give 100% and work with their professors, they'll be able to find success.

Are there any particular study hacks that have helped you succeed?

Yes, I have picked up a few tips and tricks. One of them has been taking condensed notes. So I started taking condensed notes my sophomore year and it's basically really simple. You just take all the material and condense it into notes so that you have a few pages of notes. I really love this method because usually professors have a lot of slides, like for example, in one of my classes now one chapter will be like 87 slides, but then I can condense it down to a page or two. I'm just taking out the key information, and really making it easier for me to memorize so I don't feel too overwhelmed. Another method I've used is using online flashcards, specifically Anki. So Anki is a program that allows you to do spaced repetition of flashcards. For example, one card will pop up one day and then it'll pop up within the next three days or the next five days, according to how well you know the information. It's really useful, because it's like a way of self quizzing yourself and you know you're not cheating yourself by just assuming you know it. It really challenges you and requires you to really use active recall and that's really the best way to learn. Another study hack I've learned which is also quite simple, is to always find a partner to study with or two people, not too big of a group. This way you can quiz each other right before the test and you can share notes or resources and send each other quick facts right before the test. It's a good way to just engage yourself. Everyone has a different take on a different information and a different way of learning. So it's extremely useful to see how others learn and to kind of get their take on the information because oftentimes they'll know something that you don't, and they'll help you succeed and you'll help them succeed.

Do you have any advice for incoming freshmen or freshman starting off as bio majors?

Yes. My biggest piece of advice: if you are religious, definitely keep on top of your religion, whatever it may be. For those who are Christians keep God #1, and He'll definitely help you along the way. It's encouraging to know that there's someone out there that's helping you when you feel like you don't have enough to give. It helps when times get tough, and they will get tough, to have a higher purpose and a higher calling to know that you aren't just your grades and God has a purpose for you. Another piece of advice I would give to freshmen is definitely start strong your freshman year, literally give it your all, and try to figure out a plan for what you're going to be doing years after. I'm not really big on planning super far into the future but I feel like for college--well I know for biology majors--the way that the pre-medicine and pre-dentistry paths are set up you need to plan very far in advance because you have to do shadowing, you have to take certain exams, and you have to take certain classes, so it's best to just try to figure it out early. I know it's tough to figure out, but if you have an idea, try to figure out a track that you're going to follow, and then start off strong. Start off strong because no matter what path you take, your future self will look back and thank you for getting those A's in freshman year, when you have to write down your grades on grad school applications. Your senior self will look back and thank your freshman year self for getting in those shadowing hours or being that officer of that club or doing the small things. So just start off as strong as possible. You don't want to have to build up your GPA, you want it to just be high, and then have room later on in case you ever get a low grade.

What are your plans after graduation?

So I'm very excited to say that after graduation, I will be attending University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry. I will be attending dental school for four years and will be moving to Alabama, so I'm really excited about that.

How was the process of applying to dental school and studying for the DAT?

So this kind of goes back to my advice for the freshmen, because the process for applying for dental school really starts freshman year. I started off undecided but I was still taking some biology classes so thankfully I was able to get everything done in four years. It started off with taking biology classes, shadowing several different types of dentists in different specialties to get volunteer hours for your applications, and leadership positions, such as being a club officer for the pre-dental club and things like that. Then the summer of my junior year was when everything really was kind of hardcore: I registered for the DAT, which is a Dental Admissions Test, and I started applying for dental schools. I had to make a list of dental schools and start selecting which ones I was interested in. I studied for the DAT this past summer for 10 weeks and I took my DAT on August 4, so basically I was studying all summer. While I was studying I was also working on my applications, which is a very lengthy process, but luckily I was able to submit them in July. After that, it was just a waiting game until I started hearing back from schools. They started contacting me and thankfully I got some interviews. So during this past fall semester, I had a lot of interviews and meet and greet sessions to attend, and then during winter break, December 15th, was the first day that schools could get back to us. Thankfully I heard back from some schools, so that's when I first got my acceptances. Then after that, throughout the break, I was trying to compare pros and cons with different schools to decide which school I was going to attend. Then in January sometime after arriving back to school for spring semester, I selected UAB. So as you can see it was a very lengthy process. There's a lot of steps, but I was really happy to have mentors who supported me and helped me along this journey.

Tell us about your blog. What inspired you to start it, and where can we follow?

Thanks for asking! So my blog is actually on Instagram and TikTok. I was inspired to start this blog because one of my goals as a future dentist is to help inspire people, especially minorities, to pursue dentistry, because right now only 3.7% of dentists in America are black. I really want to help motivate other minorities to pursue dentistry and show them that people like me can do the same thing. I didn't see a whole lot of minorities with dental blogs, so I decided to start one. I post vlogs on there and just all sorts of fun stuff, so you should definitely go check it out. The handle is @drseawoodloading. Please follow me, I'll follow back. My goal is to document my journey, so I started this summer, capturing some of the pre-dental journey and then I'm going to be capturing my journey through dental school as well. So stay tuned!