Alumni Profile: Caroline Jones (2015) – Mississippi to Texas to India
From Issue 10
Caroline Jones, Class of 2015, has made a major impact on the people and world around her since graduating from Jackson Prep. In high school, she was a Pacer from 10th-12th grade and 2nd Lieutenant as a senior. She was involved in Spanish Club, National Honors Society, Mu Alpha Theta, Patriot League and Spanish Club all throughout high school. She was her class Salutatorian, was inducted into the JP Hall of Fame, and was a National Merit Commended Scholar.
Her favorite subject in school was English,”I LOVED English! The honors English department at Prep shaped me.” She also enjoyed Art, Spanish, and Calculus with Ms. Van Uden.
Outside of school, she danced with the Mississippi Metropolitan Ballet all throughout her Prep years. She would go most days after school to improve her technique and learn new choreography. She took ballet, jazz, contemporary, modern, and pointe. She misses the creative outlet and a way to process her emotions that dance gave her. “I called the studio my second home, my instructors my second moms, and I am so grateful for the lessons I learned there.” This extracurricular activity forced Caroline to learn useful time management skills. Her schedule started at 8 am with school; she then went to pacer practice and after went to dance rehearsals that wouldn’t end until 9 pm. “Ballet taught me discipline and time management that really helped me all throughout college and my current life.”
Caroline has one younger sibling that also graduated from Prep: Duncan Jones, class of 2018. Duncan is now finishing his
Junior year at The University of Mississippi and is planning to go to law school. Caroline and Duncan have always been very close and would each consider themselves one of their favorite people in the world.
Caroline loves coming back home to Jackson to see all of her high school friends that she is still in touch with. When Caroline graduated, she was eager to leave Mississippi but has grown to become fonder of her home over time.
Caroline graduated from Texas Christian University in 2019, where she was a Chancellor’s Scholar, meaning she received a full-tuition scholarship. She was on the executive board of Chi Omega for two years as the Panhellenic Delegate and Director of Programming. Caroline entered TCU as a dance major then switched to pre-med before she found her way to double majoring in Political Science and Design Studies. She was very involved in an on-campus organization called International Justice Mission’s college chapter at TCU all throughout college. “IJM fed my desire to learn more about anti-human trafficking work, and I held leadership positions sophomore through senior year,” Caroline remembers. She received a few research assistant jobs related to anti-trafficking and had the chance to intern with IJM HQ in Washington, DC the summer before her senior year in college.
Caroline got the opportunity to study abroad for two weeks in India after her sophomore year in college. She knew immediately after the trip that she wanted to go back and do more mission work. Caroline went back to Kolkata, India a second time as a Fulbright-Nehru grant and taught English in a government school. She stayed in Kolkata from June 2019-March 2020 when COVID hit.
Caroline’s experience in India was one that nobody could ever forget, “I lived in an apartment with my fellow Fulbright girls – there were 5 of us placed in Kolkata, all women, and we became the best of friends. I lived on the most colorful street—no really, our street hosted an art festival each year so the street was painted with bright color blocked squares. Each day, I would take the bus to my school, about a 20-minute ride, with my friend Liz. We would walk to our respective schools and begin the day. Sometimes preparing lesson plans and heading to the printer down the street to make copies, or talking to the other teachers. The teachers and students at my school spoke Bengali, the primary language of West Bengal, and not much English, with the exception of my coordinating teacher. She spoke perfect English and is my role model – she is the most incredible teacher and cares for the students so well. She is currently in America on a Fulbright Grant to receive an additional English teaching certification! In my classes, we worked on conversational English and creative thinking—singing songs, playing games, coloring, writing poetry, and reading books. On the weekends, my friends and I would explore Kolkata or travel outside the city. We were able to take some really amazing trips – from Mumbai to Dehradun and Mussoorie up north, the ancient holy Hindu city of Varanasi, Jaipur, Goa, Delhi, and the beaches of Kerala.” Caroline is forever grateful for the experiences she had in India that shaped her into the wonderful person she is today.
Caroline is currently pursuing her Master of Public Affairs degree at the University of Texas’s LBJ School for Public Affairs. She plans to graduate in May of 2022 and is excited to see what her future holds for her. At some point in her life, she hopes to end back up in Mississippi to help strengthen the infrastructure and education programs. But before her long-term goal, she hopes to work for an International development organization in South Asia to gain experience in program and design management.
In her free time, she loves to read, cook, run, and find more ways to implement dance, her old passion, back into her life. The one thing that Caroline would change about her choices in life is that she wishes she would have kept dancing because it was a big part in her life. She made a huge impact on those around her with that talent. However, she could not have wished for a better college experience and would do anything to relive some of her favorite memories.
Caroline Jones an inspirational person who has done amazing things with her life both in, during, and after high school, and a great role model for students still at Jackson Prep.
