Balancing work, school, and home life for the past two years has required Jasmine Parker to put her time management skills to the test and model self-care intentionally. Time is relative, she says, and how one utilizes it makes the difference. She further believes that getting enough sleep is crucial to a productive day, and she builds in breaks or grace periods between activities and responsibilities to maintain her energy. 

Jasmine is spending her time preparing to enlist in the National Guard and matriculating to William Peace University. She plans to major in Biology and study to become a neuro physician.

She’ll reach those goals by using the strength she says her late Uncle David taught her while he lived his life and pushed through illness. 

“Overall, he keeps me strong because he stayed strong for as long as he could,” Jasmine said. Family is who motivates her, especially her mother, the DSA administration, friends and colleagues.  She loves road trips with family and friends and enjoys riding horses. She also practices self-motivation.

“I know hard work pays off,” says Jasmine, quoting April Byrd, who once said, ‘Tough times don’t last, only tough people do.’ One success that I have is grasping the ever-changing world around me. That alone is what assists me with the challenge of keeping myself grounded enough to persevere.”

Her grounding drives her to engage with her younger peers for inspiration. 

“My biggest accomplishment so far is a mixture of visiting the classrooms of the middle school students (eventually high school) and talking to them about representation in the programs, clubs, and organizations around the school. So that when I leave, I have left something embedded in the culture of the school.”