Penn State alumna Brianna Washington-Banks, class of 2019, has made a name for herself playing professional sports and helping others in her community.
MEDIA, Pa. — Penn State alumna Brianna Washington-Banks, class of 2019, has made a name for herself playing professional sports and helping others in her community.
Washington-Banks began her Penn State journey at Brandywine in 2016. She chose to attend Brandywine because it’s affordable and she really liked the human development and family studies major.
“Penn State Brandywine was very close to home. It was very affordable, and I really loved the human development and family studies major because it was so broad, so I had a lot of different careers to choose from with that major,” she said.
Washington-Banks was very involved during her time at Brandywine. She played on the women’s soccer team, recorded basketball games, was a ball runner for the men’s soccer team, served a Lion Ambassador, and was a member of the Black Student Union. Her experience on the soccer team was one of the highlights of her time at Brandywine.
“I would say my favorite memory from my time at Brandywine was during my fourth year. We won the Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) championship that year,” she recalled.
“We were down one to zero, then we were tied. Then we were down two to one and tied again. We went into overtime, and I scored the game-winning goal. When I scored the goal, the game was over, and we came together as a team. The energy was great, and I loved the fact that we were able to be resilient and bounce back after not losing the entire season.”
In addition to her involvement, Washington-Banks also studied abroad in Rome and Malta during spring break of 2018.
Upon graduating from Brandywine, Banks went to graduate school at West Chester University, earning a master’s degree in social work. After completing her degree, she learned about an opportunity to play professional soccer in Peru with one of her friends.
“I have a friend who went to a different college in Delaware, and she had been trying to play soccer overseas for a while,” she said.
“She reached out to me, telling me we should try to play for a team overseas. I sent my Brandywine highlights to different teams, and a team in Peru, Athletico Trujillo, got back to me and my friend and told us to try out. We ended up making the team and stayed in Peru for seven months.”
Currently, Washington-Banks is a medical social worker at Oak Street Health, a primary-care center focused on providing care for older adults. In her role, she helps prevent readmission to the hospital by doing assessments and wellness checks. In addition to this, she works part time as a psychotherapist for Walnut Psychotherapy Center, and she is a soccer coach and intervention and prevention coordinator for the Kensington Soccer Club.
When asked what advice she has for current Penn State students, Washington-Banks said to start planning for the future while they’re still in college.
Start planning out your life now and create a timeline of what you want to do and when you want to get it done.—Brianna Washington-Banks , class of 2019
“Start planning out your life now and create a timeline of what you want to do and when you want to get it done,” she said.
“Obstacles are going to come up that might not be a part of your timeline, but make sure you have certain things planned out and lined up for your life because it’s so short and you never know what could happen. For example, don’t get your master’s degree or an advanced degree if you don’t have a plan for it afterward.”
