HHP graduate profile: Claire Manning, child life

Graduating students were nominated by College of Health and Human Performance faculty this semester for a graduate profile. Learn more below about child life graduate Claire Manning.

Name: Claire Manning

Major: Child Life

Hometown: Middlesex, N.C.

Hobbies/interests: Volleyball and Singing.

Favorite class: HDFS 3413, The Hospitalized Child.

Favorite place on campus: The library.

An ECU memory you would like to share: I loved going to get Taco Bell with my roommate after a long day!

Post-graduation plans: I am currently applying to work as a certified child life specialist in the hospital setting.

From faculty Priti Desai: “Claire is completing her capstone child life internship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh. This internship is sought after nationally, is extremely competitive to obtain and certainly is an achievement to boast. Claire is challenging herself to grow in her ability to provide psychosocial support for children with cancer, those receiving organ transplants, or are seeking care at the hospital for other illnesses. She is also working with their families. She expressed to me that she is learning to practice cultural humility and is appreciating the opportunity to work with Amish children and families who live in this part of the country. Claire was an excellent counselor for camp WholeHeart in fall 2022. This is an annual camping weekend which I direct for children living with complex heart defects in eastern N.C. I then recruited her to serve as the camp’s leadership student for fall 2023. In this role she assisted me tirelessly and always with a smile to manage all the logistics of implementing camp successfully. Claire is a member of our ECU child life student association and participated actively with the group’s service activities, including serving on its executive committee. She maintains a high GPA while being engaged in extracurricular activities.”