As her four-year journey at UMass Dartmouth comes to an end, crime and justice major Rashelle Noncent ’18 has proven that hard work pays off.
By: Leesa Prescod
As her four-year journey of being a student at UMass Dartmouth comes to an end, crime and justice major Rashelle Noncent ’18 has proven that hard work does pay off. From interning at the West Palm Beach County Courthouse, to applying for grad school at the prestigious Howard University, Noncent’s experience at UMassD has helped shaped her and taught her how to get what she wants.
“I feel like UMass Dartmouth has made me work for what I want, it made me really work for what I want to get,” Noncent said. “I’m not here just to graduate and be done with it…It has me wanting to do more.”
The biggest and proudest moment
Noncent has achieved a great amount of success during her years as a student, such as making the Dean’s List multiple times and being a peer mentor to her follow students. But her biggest and proudest moment was giving a speech at the College Now: Share the Dream banquet. She was honored to have the chance to speak about the hardships she overcame to be the student she is today.
“That was a beautiful moment for me,” said Noncent. “The number of people that came up to me telling me how good I did, how inspired they were – it made me feel really, really awesome and proud that my story inspired people.”
The opportunity to work with inmates
As a major in the crime and justice department, Noncent had the opportunity to participate in the department’s Inside Out Program. The program provides students with the opportunity to take classes with prisoners inside a local prison.
“We do life building exercises with them, we actually sit down and do work with them,” Noncent said. “We read out of textbooks, analyze problems, and we discuss questions…just being able to work with an inmate is a good feeling itself.”