Perris Jones '18 Is Just Getting Started

Perris Jones ’18 is making his mark as a third-year student at the University of Virginia — both in the classroom and among his football teammates. A fictional short story he wrote during his first year was recently published in the anthology “Equality and Justice: An Engaged Generation, A Troubled World.” A talented writer and rising social-justice advocate, Jones uses writing to understand the world around him, especially in these turbulent times.

Jones transferred to Episcopal as a junior after two years at Bishop Ireton when his head football coach left the school. He remembers his first visit to campus, saying, “It was a bit surreal to me at first. I had never seen a school like EHS.”

To Jones, Episcopal felt like “a community focused on success” in every aspect. “There was a oneness on dorm,” he remembers, that made Episcopal feel like home. He immediately thrived, settling into academics and athletics with equal dedication and rigor. Despite playing his senior season with a cast on his broken wrist, Jones, a running back, ended his career at Episcopal as the IAC’s offensive player of the year.

Jones, who at 5’8” is smaller than typical of a back, always dreamed of playing college football but did not get any Division I offers while at Episcopal. He began to consider UVA after speaking with defensive coordinator Nick Howell, who urged Jones to join the team as a walk-on. “He believed in me,” says Jones. The academics at UVA served as an added bonus in his college search. “It’s challenging but interesting. It makes you want to learn.”

Jones, already accustomed to juggling football and school, wrote his story “Will It End?” after being inspired by his English professor’s willingness to confront issues of injustice head on and discuss them as a class. His assignment was to examine a social injustice. Before starting his research paper, however, he wrote a story focused on police brutality against a young Black man. “I just wrote. I didn’t think about it much,” he says. “I wanted to make it seem as real as possible.”

Jones’s story — “based on too-often true events,” he says — tells the story of a Black mother whose son is killed by police in a case of mistaken identity. “He never committed any injustice, but he was the victim of one,” writes Jones.

As a young Black man, Jones often thinks of his mother, who fears for his safety every time he leaves the house. He chose to tell the story through the victim’s mother’s eyes, putting himself in his own mother’s shoes. “Every time I leave the house, I give her a little more of a hug,” he says.

English teacher Mitch Pinkowski, who taught Jones, remembers his talent in the classroom. “Perris was led into literature by his unwavering fascination with characters and the conflicts they faced,” Pinkowski says. “He was guided by an empathy for the plight of those characters, and his identification fueled his appreciation of texts on a level quite personal at times.”

Jones’s ability to see himself in literature benefitted his entire English class. “When Perris spoke in class, we all listened because we knew it mattered; he spoke for the characters and for himself in a way that spoke for all of us as well,” Pinkowski adds.

At UVA, Jones is known for his toughness and work ethic. As a walk-on, he starts each day with an earned-not-given attitude. “I always prided myself on working hard, so I just continued to do that day in and day out,” he said in a recent UVA article. “I didn’t say, ‘Hey, I want to be the starter,’ or ‘Hey, I want the majority of the carries.’ It was more, ‘How can I best benefit the team?’”

As for the future, Jones dreams of playing in the NFL one day. “When that vehicle runs out of gas, I want to pursue a field in social justice and promote change,” he says. “I want to make the world a better place than when I came into it.” 

He particularly wants to work with children. Like Coach Howell did for him his senior year, Jones hopes to “encourage our young kids to be great, because there’s nobody telling them they can’t.”