Bree Smith

After completing a master’s degree in psychology with a concentration in childhood and adolescent psychology, Bree Smith (Certificate in Neuroscience `21; Certificate in Creative Writing `22) found herself at a crossroads. “I was, in that moment, very interested in psychology and the brain,” she recalls, “but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go into clinical practice or something more research-oriented.” Seeking a credential that would help her map out a career path—and help improve her candidacy for future graduate studies—Bree enrolled in Penn LPS Online’s Certificate in Neuroscience. “It checked all the boxes: I could see what it’s like to study neuroscience and whether it would be the right fit for me moving forward,” she says. The flexible online format also made it possible for Bree to work around her demanding schedule at a shelter for homeless women and children. “It would be 100% impossible for me to be in a classroom, even if the classroom was two blocks away,” she explains. “I am on call for emergencies seven days a week. If someone goes into labor or someone’s kid has a fever, I am needed. For me to do this on my own time, in my own way—that is the only reason I was able to do it at all.”

Despite her previous graduate studies in psychology, Bree found the Certificate in Neuroscience courses highly technical and academically challenging. “It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I studied more than I have ever studied anything in my life,” she laughs. Immersed in the science of the brain and behavior, Bree found the clarity she was searching for: neuropsychology is not the career path she wants to pursue. She forged ahead in her courses nonetheless. “I was determined to gather all the information I could to make a good decision. I wanted to prove to myself what I was capable of,” she explains. In the meantime, she says, the coursework shed light on her work with women and children at the shelter. “The big questions I had when I entered Penn were how to continue my work with people experiencing trauma: how trauma affects the brain, how trauma affects us genetically, how trauma affects our personalities and our behavior, how to engage in trauma-focused therapy,” she reflects. “The Certificate in Neuroscience reiterated to me that there are many more questions than answers.”

Before Bree finished her final course in the Certificate in Neuroscience, there came a spring term when there were no behaviorally-focused neuroscience courses on the roster. Rather than putting her online learning experience on pause, Bree looked for another subject to explore. “I want personal growth. I want a feeling of intellectual wisdom in my daily life. I want the feeling of learning new things,” she says. “So I thought, maybe I should do something that is fun and creative and interesting.” She enrolled in a creative writing course, remembering a lifelong interest in storytelling that had taken a backseat to her career and graduate studies.

Creative writing, she says, was “like coming home. It was like sitting in the kitchen with an old friend, and pouring them tea.” Although Bree wasn’t able to attend the optional synchronous sessions, she applied the same dedication to the writing workshops as she had to neuroscience courses, and committed herself to providing close attention and generous feedback to her peers’ work. “I learned so much from feedback,” she says. “It wasn’t writing in a vacuum; it was writing with others, reading other people’s ideas. That was really game-changing.” While the positive reception to her writing encouraged and motivated her, Bree says, constructive feedback from peers and instructors was particularly meaningful because it helped her define her unique style and process as a writer. “I started realizing all kinds of things about myself,” she recalls. “I needed the structure of the writing prompts to put my pen back to paper. I need time to think and contemplate. I also realized that creative nonfiction is more in my wheelhouse than fiction—writing about a place or an experience seems to be more of an open door to me.”

In nonfiction, her interest in psychology and trauma found a new expression: “By the time I got to creative writing, I was starting to think about trauma in a more biological and physical way,” says Bree. “I was able to take the concrete information I internalized in neuroscience, and build on that in a creative way.” But once she finished the Certificate in Neuroscience and began working toward the Certificate in Creative Writing, Bree valued the opportunity to push her own boundaries in the safe space of a workshop. For example: “With poetry, it was like getting to the end of a diving board and diving off,” she muses. “I never knew what was going to happen. It was new each time.”

Since then, Bree has kept cultivating a creative practice alongside her professional life. “I’m already a writer in so many ways. I even have the word ‘grant writer’ in my title,” she laughs, “but I never considered myself a writer until I started seeing all the different forms it could take.” Bree published “Shelter,” a braided essay that draws on scenes from her work. She participated in The 30/30 Project at Tupelo Press, writing 30 poems in 30 days to help raise funds for their youth writing center. And—equipped with a portfolio of fresh writing samples as well as recommendations from her Penn LPS Online workshop instructors—she was accepted into a remote Master of Fine Arts program at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

“By the end of these two certificates, I knew myself and I knew where I was headed,” Bree concludes. “Because of the experiences that I had, because of the collaborations and relationships we made in those classes, because of all the times I got to the end of the diving board and jumped, I knew I wanted to pursue writing in a meaningful way.”

“And from this online community, I had the support to move on to the next phase,” she adds.