Pageant Winner From Marlboro On A Mission To Educate About JD

MARLBORO, NJ — Siena Branch, now a senior at Marlboro High School, has hit the ground running in the new school year.

As with most high school seniors, she has a lot on her calendar.

She sings; she is taking college courses at Brookdale; she works as a babysitter. Then there are her high school classes and college applications - and her pageant involvement.

And, in the midst of all this, she manages the juvenile diabetes she was diagnosed with at age 12.

How does she do it? It was a conscious decision she came to after her diagnosis, she says.

"I knew I had two options. I could push inside, keep it all a secret, hold it in. Or I could push outside and inspire people," the student in the Freehold Regional High School District said in a recent interview.

She chose to inspire. And it's a role that comes in many forms for her.

For instance, as Miss Ramapo Valley Outstanding Teen, her former title, she has pledged to educate others about juvenile diabetes.

With Rufus the stuffed bear - and her title crown, she makes appearances at schools to make sure young children understand about JD and recognize that if they don't feel well, they need to tell their parents as soon as possible. Rufus, by the way, is the mascot of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Her own symptoms came on, for the most part, gradually: "I was very tired all the time. I had to take naps. I was thirsty. I had a big water bottle with me wherever I went. Then there was the weight loss. "I lost 30 pounds in a month," she recalls.

Knowing about her condition sooner would have saved stress on her body, she said, so she is committed to the need for education about the disease.

Siena has a busy schedule ahead of her. Apart from classroom talks, she is planning to compete in the Miss New Jersey Outstanding Teen preliminaries in November. She is also participating in Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation One Walks to raise money for research. There are three walks coming up between Oct. 16 and 30, she says. Oct. 16 is the One Walk Jersey Shore.

At a Nov. 6 JDRF walk she is singing the National Anthem, which brings us to her love of singing.

She was honored in August as the RWJBarnabas Health Amazing Save at a Jersey Shore BlueClaws’ game at ShoreTown Ballpark in Lakewood.

Siena performed the National Anthem prior to the game and sang “God Bless America” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch. She also threw out the ceremonial first pitch, the health system wrote in a news release.

Early on in her diagnosis, Siena was treated for a potentially life-threatening complication of JD at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Monmouth Medical Center’s Unterberg Children’s Hospital, a part of the RWJBarnabas Health Children’s Health Network, the news release said.

"Singing is a big part of my life," Siena said, adding it's a passion but ultimately a hobby.

She takes voice lessons at Musician's Workshop in Manalapan where she has been a student for years. She enjoys pop, country and classics from performers such as Ella Fitzgerald.

She even auditioned on "The Voice" at age 14. "I wasn't ready for it," she says with a laugh.

But professional singing isn't her ambition - teaching is.

She would like to be a kindergarten teacher and hopes to attend either the College of New Jersey or the University of Delaware.

She knows singing can be a part of education for young children, so she'll to perform with them in the classroom.

Siena's other interest is history, and she plans to focus her college major in history education, particularly European history.

Her social side of life has been enriched with her pageant involvement, she said.

Her mother is her inspiration - Tricia Branch was Miss New Jersey 1988. And competing in the pageant trials makes for strong friendships, she said. Her dad David and younger brother Andrew make up the rest of her supportive family network - and that might include the injured box turtles she rescues, fosters then releases.

Her school involvement put her in the thick of school life: She has been a sports team manager, a peer leader at Marlboro High School, takes a college course in Brookdale Community College under Dual Enrollment, for example.

But her JD also gave her a "deep maturity," Siena says.

"I had to grow up the moment I was diagnosed. I knew I was no longer a kid."