Carver helps young people build networks of support, develop important skills, and expand their horizons. Carver surrounds students with interconnecting rings of learning and assistance. Jasmine Brown exemplifies Carver’s purpose and the accomplishments of educational equity. But only Jasmine gets credit for her courage and prudent strength, and for devoting herself to a career of caring for others.
Jasmine belongs to that rare and interesting group of young people who contrive, without ever intending to do so, to make an art of their careers. Jasmine’s story is like nothing that has been written before in this series of alumni profiles and will likely never be repeated.
Jasmine was a supervisor at a provider of residential and mental health skill-building services to people with intellectual disabilities and mental health challenges until she recently left to pursue a second graduate degree, this time at Virginia Commonwealth University. Jasmine still works in the mental health field as a counselor while she pursues a Master of Social Work degree (MSW). This degree offers more professional opportunities in direct service in the medical, mental health, and education fields, providing support as therapists, healthcare social workers, school social workers, and clinical social workers. The MSW typically takes one to two years to complete.
Jasmine previously graduated with honors from Virginia State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology. VSU is a historically black college (HBCU), America's first fully state-assisted, four-year institution of higher learning for Blacks. She then attended Sacred Heart University in Connecticut where she also graduated with honors with a Master of Arts in teaching.
Jasmine always works to pay for her academic journeys and accomplishments. In addition to working as a mental health counselor today, Jasmine owns a small cleaning service and she is a licensed real estate agent in Virginia.
Jasmine found Carver many years ago through a Stamford community-based organization that recommended her to us. Our annual spring College Tour caught her interest at first, but that was merely the beginning of Jasmine’s years-long relationship with the Carver community. She commuted via public transportation from Stamford each day to fully embrace all the after-school opportunities she found at the Carver Community Center in Norwalk. On that spring College Tour, Jasmine and Virginia State University (VSU) found each other.
One of the points of these annual far-flung trips to colleges and universities across the country is to awaken the hopes of youth whose circumstances would otherwise deflate aspirations for higher education. Jasmine had her own life challenges to overcome, and she did.
VSU accepted her. They gave her scholarships and other grant support, but she still remained significantly short financially. At the time, Carver did not have the funds to help, so we encouraged her to begin her college career at Norwalk Community College where she earned her spot on the Dean’s List and into the hearts of her professors and peers there. With a scholarship from Carver, Jasmine then attended VSU.
When Carver’s next annual spring College Tour bus full of aspiring Carver students arrived at VSU, Jasmine Brown was there to greet them and introduce them to the campus. Jasmine became and remains a stunning role model for Carver youth and staff alike.
Jasmine’s career is always advancing. The exploration of the full range of Jasmine’s potentialities is not something she apparently leaves to the chances of life. It is something she pursues avidly. Following Jasmine through the years, it seems as though she looks forward to an endless and unpredictable dialogue between her potentialities and the claims of life — not only the claims she encounters but the claims she invents. And by potentialities, we mean not just her powerful intellect and booming skills, but the full range of her capacities for sensing, wondering, learning, understanding, aspiring, and valuing and tending to the needs of others.
Given all the upheavals and challenges we face as a country, the renewal of society can go forward only if there are people like Jasmine, people with boundless compassion, splendid skills — and untold potentialities.