Hi my name is Nina Brown and I’m a recent graduate from Salisbury University who is excited to be starting my masters program this fall in social work. During undergrad, I was involved in campus life through various academic programs and in my role as a Resident Assistant. For my AmeriCorps service term, I’ll be building upon the Community College of Baltimore County’s Bridges to Success program, an educational equity initiative. I’m looking forward to challenging myself, growing personally and professionally, and hopefully making an impact.
Nina Brown VISTA Project Updates!
Nina Brown is serving as a TMA AmeriCorps VISTA member at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), where her work is focused on one of higher education's most critical transition points: the moment a student earns their GED and begins to consider what comes next.
Nina began her service year by building the foundation before anything else. Rather than moving directly into programming, she developed a comprehensive process map to identify where GED students were falling through the cracks — where the path from diploma completion to college enrollment lacked clarity, connection, or support. That diagnostic work has shaped everything that followed.
From there, Nina designed and implemented a series of targeted strategies to strengthen that transition pipeline. Within GED testing centers, she created resource displays to ensure that students finishing their high school equivalency have an immediate, visible sense of what their next steps could look like. She also led professional development sessions for GED faculty and transition specialists, equipping those closest to students with the tools and knowledge to guide them toward CCBC's career pathways. To support ongoing engagement, she has integrated CRM software into the outreach process, allowing for more consistent and timely communication with students as they reach key academic milestones.
The throughline of Nina's project is intentionality — the understanding that a student's experience does not end when they pass a test, and that the institutions serving them have a responsibility to keep that door open and clearly marked.
For Nina personally, this service year has also been a period of significant professional growth. As a recent graduate stepping into her first professional role, she has approached the work with curiosity and a willingness to learn, immersing herself in the structures of higher education and the range of career possibilities available to the students she serves.
Her project is a meaningful example of how VISTA service can address systemic gaps — not by adding programs on top of existing ones, but by taking the time to understand where and why students are being lost, and building more intentional bridges in those spaces.