Monmouth College Senior Anna Caster began her time at Warren Achievement Center as an intern, launching her ‘Achieving Greatness’ program, and has continued helping out part-time with achievers experiencing dementia and pre-dementia symptoms:
“I took some of the achievers that were struggling a little bit with dementia and pre-dementia symptoms, and I worked with them on an exercise and movement program to help with those things. Exercise is really helpful for everyone, but especially for people who are struggling with dementia. It really helps improve memory and push off those dementia symptoms. Exercise releases a lot of great things, but the thing that I love to talk about the most is called Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor. It is one of the things in our brains that does so many things mentally and physically, it increases our memory, helps us release dopamine so we are in a better mood, which can also help with depression and anxiety in people. It can also help us be more motivated.”
Caster will be graduating from Monmouth College this May, but in the meantime has been working with Professor Dr. Kari Shimmin and Warren Achievement Center on having another student continue the ‘Achieving Greatness’ program in the future.
