Gracey Bryant
For senior psychology major Gracey Bryant, Tennessee Tech University was the clear
next step in her academic life. She didn’t expect how much it would shape her future
though.
“The reason that I chose Tennessee Tech is because I live in Sparta, so I live really
close to here,” Bryant said. “I did my first two years at a community college, Motlow
State, and because I took advantage of the Tennessee Promise, it was easy to jump
straight into Tennessee Tech and commute from home.”
Bryant transferred to Tech as a junior with an associate’s degree in psychology. But
her college experience looked different than a lot of students.
“When I came here to Tennessee Tech that was actually my first time being in person
classes, so I was able to actually meet my cohort as a junior coming into college
and that was actually really cool,” she said. “I met a lot of people that were not
only interested in the field that I’m going into, but I made some really, really close
friends, really good study groups through that.”
Bryant originally planned to become a teacher but realized the classroom wasn’t where
she could make the biggest impact.
“I thought I wanted to teach, and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to help children
in the way that I wanted in my education,” she said. “I would kind of be tied down
as a teacher, and so I decided to go into psychology to see if I could help in that
side. And I’m looking at doing school psychology right now.”
The field of school psychology will let her advocate for students within the school
system itself.
Tech’s faculty has been critical in preparing her for this path. Professor Natasha
Wilkerson, who has a background as a school psychologist, teaches child psychology
and gives students real insight into the profession.
“Getting to know the faculty and what they do outside of teaching, and how they work
in professional clinical settings, has been really valuable,” Bryant said.
Her learning has gone beyond the classroom. Bryant volunteers at Capshaw Elementary
and shadows a practicing school psychologist.
“I go for a full day, and I stay there with her and kind of just shadow,” she explained.
“I go with her to different schools and watch how she does testing, how she does paperwork,
all kinds of stuff. And then I get to come back to my classes and do group setting
and discuss what we did at our internships because everyone’s at a different placement
and we learn from one another.”
Outside of academics, Bryant is also involved in Psi Chi, the national psychology
honor society. The group raises money for the Jessica A. Kelly Memorial Scholarship,
which supports Tech psychology students.
One fundraiser stands out in her memory: students paid to throw whipped cream pies
at psychology faculty members.
“They were such good sports about it, and we raised a lot of money for that because
our faculty are so willing to work with the students,” she said.
So far Bryant says that her involvement on campus with much of her personal and professional
growth.
“Tech is what you make it,” she said. “You can choose to be involved; you can choose
to stay outside of that. Being involved has been a huge part of me growing just as
an individual, as a professional. Also, getting to know professors has been the biggest
part of that. Not only learning how to talk to them and communicate with them on a
professional level, but even outside of that on more of like a friend basis. You really
can get to understand what they did through their career and how they chose to go
into the career field that they’re in.”