Janiya Nabinett: Deferred Not Deterred

With RBC’s help, this RBC student is back on track with her academic and personal goals.

By Sterling Giles

Like most of us, Janiya Nabinett’s life was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the absence of facetime with her peers and other complications caused by the virus, Nabinett’s grades began to slip. Because of this, she could no longer go to her top college choices. But that didn’t deter her from pursuing higher education altogether.

The Prince George’s County, Md. native learned about Richard Bland College’s Back On Track program. The federally funded initiative equips high school and college students with additional academic support and workforce skills. It also funds college classes, training courses, job placement support and mental health resources.

“The classes here are smaller, the teachers are really friendly and they guide you,” the first-year RBC student said. “So, if you feel like you need more assistance than others, know you can get that here.”

Ever since Nabinett has set foot on campus, she has thrived.

Last fall, she was elected to the Student Assembly as the Commuter Representative by a sizable margin. A commuter student herself, Nabinett believes there’s room for opportunity to get non-residential students more involved on campus. She is advocating for more event programming during school hours so more commuters can attend and not have to come back to campus later in the evening to participate.

One day, Nabinett hopes to create her own business in the psychology sector. The work she’s currently doing with the College’s Office of Research & Innovation (ORI) aligns with her mission for holistic wellness for all. She’s been very appreciative of the experiences she’s had with the ORI.

“It’s been amazing,” she said. “I got the opportunity to go to a psychology conference in California.

“An opportunity like that helped me figure out what path I want to go on.”

Nabinett has also been instrumental in helping with the office’s Meditation Lab in the Academic Innovation Center.

“The goal was to make the space really calming and inviting for students to be able to decompress and be fully immersed into the virtual reality headsets,” Nabinett said.