Nedric Joseph Miller, a Sacramento State graduate, has overcome the adversities of his past after being incarcerated for 18 years.
Miller works for Project Rebound. Project Rebound Director Aaron Greene helped Miller acquire a paid fellowship position at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in Oakland. While there, he is learning how to write policy aided by local legislators. LSPC is the parent organization to “All of Us Or None”, a chapter of Project Rebound.
“I want to change legislation to help youth in the lower socioeconomic areas,” Miller said. “I want to help people who are facing incarceration and even those impacted.”
Miller said he envisions that the policies he would be involved with will help create greater change that will provide programs and so much more.
“A lot of times, especially in the urban communities, there is an influx of opportunities and the community has access to a lot of things, but they are not aware of what they have access to,” Miller said.
This is why Miller said hemakes the commute to the Bay Area two times per week for this cause. Miller said he is grateful and he credits Greene and the Project Rebound program for the opportunity to work for all three organizations.
“Project Rebound opened a lot of doors for me as well as everyone else,” Miller said. “I’m using every opportunity and I have the chance to learn something especially when it comes to legislating.”
Upon being released from prison at 36 years old, Miller enrolled in Woodland Community College and earned an associate’s degree in natural sciences and mathematics in Spring of 2020.
Miller said there have been positive people surrounding him along the way ever since he has been out.
“I met a guidance counselor, her name was Laney and she stuck with me until I graduated and transferred to Sac State,” Miller said.
Miller said he avoided Project Rebound when he arrived on the Sac State campus until he met Greene. Greene said he was immediately impressed by Miller.

“Nedric has been one of the most stellar students that I have ever met,” Greene said.
Greene said he was drawn to Miller and felt he could depend on him, so he created a place for him in Project Rebound. Greene said Miller represented Project Rebound as an African American member on the Sac State campus when he was invited to speak for the Chancellor’s office.
“I always knew that I could count on him to be a representative of our population,” Greene said.
Miller said he grew up in a challenging environment in South Central Los Angeles. At an early age, he said he found himself chasing a false sense of family in the wiles of gang life.
“I grew up in L.A, of course I was doing all the wrong things. I got incarcerated at a very young age, at 18,” Miller said.
Miller said he was aware of the negative reputation of the gang, but it was all he had to relate to at that time. He said that there was camaraderie and brotherhood, but they were misleading and trouble often followed.
“When I started that lifestyle of gang-banging, I always put on a mask,” Miller said. “I put on a mask trying to be accepted, to be somebody else because I didn’t really understand who I was or what I was capable of”.
Miller said that kind of lifestyle all you do is turn off your brain and you could do anything. It was that “anything” that landed Miller in prison for 18 years.
One fateful day, after having the Miranda rights read to him one last time, Miller said he felt sad and ashamed.
“I had a tear coming out of my eye, and it dawned on me that I was tired,” Miller said.
Miller said he had an epiphany about his future. He was ready to go home and start anew.
While still in prison he said he had continued to wear that mask to survive in the negative environment of what he called “bizarro world.”
“I was reading, and I was educating myself,” Miller said. “I felt like I could do more and be more. I knew I was greater than sitting in there.”
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Although Miller is not a member of the Black Honors College, his story reached the desk of the Black Honor College’s Dean of Students, Boatemo Mosupyoe. She said she agrees that Miller’s story needs to be told.
“Our Black students should not be viewed [as] deficient, they should be viewed as brilliant and capable as any other student,” Mosupyoe said.
Miller graduated from Sac State in spring 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. He said his degree allows him to explore the functionality and capabilities of the human body through nutrition and exercise.
During his study of kinesiology, Miller said he became fascinated with neurophysiology and he will be petitioning for a master’s degree this month in biological research.
Miller said he feels like he is overcoming every obstacle and defying stigmas about formerly incarcerated Black men.
“You don’t necessarily have to be defined by your challenging past,” Mosupyoe said, “You can emerge from that and become brilliant, show your excellence and become an example.”