Scholar Alumus: Rustin Smith

A Passion for Learning Finds a Home

contributed by Mara Lemos-Stein

Scholar Alumnus: Rustin Smith

Rustin Smith always enjoyed studying and learning, so when he heard that an academic enrichment program for middle schoolers was starting up in his neighborhood, he knew he had to join it. 

In the summer of 1995, Rustin enrolled in the first class at Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia (then Summerbridge). He can still remember feeling amazed when he met the Teaching Fellows, and even thrilled when he understood that they, too, were passionate about education. “I just remember it being a really cool experience, and the teachers were all young as well,” Rustin said. “I remember them being very energetic, very excited, and just ready to take on the world.”

Rustin attended Fitler Academics Plus, in Germantown, at the time, and participated in Breakthrough's summer program for two consecutive years. Besides the academic boost, Rustin also found his social footing in the Breakthrough community, where others shared his joy of learning.

“I was kind of socially awkward, and…one of the positive parts of the program was being around students like me,” he said. “I was really into school – I like learning, I like studying... and a lot of the students were like that as well, we just kind of clicked.” As an only child, Rustin spent long hours by himself after school. At Breakthrough, he connected with kids his own age, he said, “so the program was beneficial in that way as well.”

Among some of his fond memories, Rustin recalls composing and painting a mural on Coulter Street by Gaffney’s Fabrics, singing and putting on shows, and reading books and analyzing literature. “It was vastly different [from regular school]; it made me appreciate reading a lot better,” he said.

Inspired by his mother – a cardiac nurse – Rustin grew up thinking he would be a doctor, but he didn’t want to work directly with patients. He approached medicine from behind the scenes. He attended Carver High School of Engineering and Science and participated in the Healthcare Career Advancement Program (HCAP), where he did some research work and decided he would definitely stick with the sciences.

Rustin then enrolled at Temple University before transferring to Gwynedd Mercy University, in Montgomery County, as he preferred smaller learning environments. He studied biology and majored in medical technology / clinical laboratory science. The urge to pursue a postgraduate degree and maybe even a Ph.D. never quite left Rustin, but it was on the backburner as his career in microbiology gathered speed and carried him to success at a fairly young age. 

He worked in hospital labs before joining Merck Pharmaceuticals as a contractor encoding for clinical trials. At 24, he became a lab supervisor at Merck. After a brief stint in the cosmetics industry, testing personal care products, Rustin was recruited by Becton, Dickinson and Co., a global medical technology company, and worked in different regions of the U.S. for the past 13 years. He is currently an application specialist at BD, training hospital staff on specialized equipment. 

After a couple of false starts, the Covid-19 lockdown gave Rustin enough time to balance his work load and finish a graduate course. He completed a master’s degree in clinical microbiology at George Washington University in D.C. in 2021.“I have to really like what I'm doing to stick with it – I just can't fake it,” he said. Following his true passion is, in a way, Rustin’s superpower, one that he hopes every Scholar & Teaching Fellow at Breakthrough can also find as a resource for a meaningful life. “Just remember you don't have to have all the answers right now,” he said. “Be yourself and that is all that matters – don't worry about what other people think or say about you, or what other people want you to do. At the end of the day, we get one life and time is precious, so take advantage of it.”