In 2008, when Jasmine Burton (BA ’17) was in eighth grade, she carefully created a Power Point presentation to convince her parents to allow her to open a Facebook account.

“It was about 15 slides, weighing the pros and cons,” said Burton, who grew up in Los Angeles. “My parents were both enamored and weirded out that a child had just made this for them.” In the end, they were swayed by their daughter’s arguments.

It’s a favorite family story her parents tell, she said, and it was also their first inkling that they might be raising a future attorney.

Today, Burton works as a senior associate at the Raben Group, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm in Washington, D.C. A graduate of the Howard University School of Law, Burton has also worked in the Business Affairs Department of ABC Studios and served as a judicial intern for the Federal District Court in Maryland.

Burton would not be in her current position, which she calls her dream job, without her experience at Batten, she said. Her time at the school supercharged her interest in policy and “propelled” her to law school, all the while providing her a community within a university that until then had seemed vastly different from Los Angeles. “I was able to find people within Batten who reminded me of people at home — people who were just rooting for me and had my best interests at heart,” she said.

It’s those relationships she built that keep her connected to the community as a member of the Batten Alumni Advisory Board, and passionate about sharing with current students both the highs and lows of her burgeoning career. Burton is not afraid to discuss moments of deep uncertainty — such as the months she spent living back home with her parents after the financial fallout of the COVID pandemic eliminated her planned job after law school — and she encourages current students to go easy on themselves.

We spoke to Burton about the road to her legal career, learning how to deal with stress, and her time as a Batten student and captain of the UVA women’s volleyball team.

Q. What inspired you to apply to Batten?

A. I came to UVA on a volleyball scholarship, and so sports consumed a large portion of my time. I had always loved school, but never really thought about a career. My second year of college I tore my labrum and was out of play for about six months. It was the first time I realized: “Oh, you're not going to be able to play sports for the rest of your life.” A few of my teammates were applying to Batten for their third year, and I had met a few Batten students already, including [current Indiana Pacers guard] Malcolm Brogdon. So, I applied.

At Batten, I could talk to people about my actual life — sports, relationship-building at UVA and how profoundly different my environment felt here on the other side of the country. I never thought that a school could be a home in the way that Batten was for me. I was there every day after practice, just talking to professors and students.

It's fascinating because we all came from so many different backgrounds and political parties, but we all just worked together. Today, the world feels more polarized. But I was able to talk with all of my classmates about anything and feel completely safe, which I think is really beautiful. I don't think a lot of people get to experience that.

Q. Do you think being a student-athlete played a role in your career success?

A lot of the work you do in the public policy world is with teams. So, you need to know how to work with others and collaborate with others. On the volleyball team, I learned to work with different personalities, learned to work under pressure, and learned to work with different communication styles. Some people are yellers. Some people are hesitant. I came to realize those styles are just people's personalities, and to not to take anything personally.

I think the competitive aspect is something that I love, too. I'm still the person that's overly competitive at Mellow Mushroom trivia now, just trying to relive the glory days, you know?

Q. What are your favorite parts of your job as a lawyer?

When I went to law school, I did not know what type of attorney I wanted to be. I had a lot of interests spanning from domestic violence law to entertainment law. The summer after my first year of law school, I interned at the U.S. District Court in Maryland under Judge George Russell. When I secured that, I was ecstatic. But I think I underestimated the mental tumultuousness that comes with being in a courtroom every day.

So, I did a complete shift and went to ABC/Disney my second summer, working under Vice President Jacqui Grunfeld in Business Affairs. At that time, “How To Get Away with Murder” was our show, as well as “Scandal” and “Grey's Anatomy.” That's when I realized that entertainment law was my complete and utter passion.

My current job is actually a public policy firm that also does strategic communications in entertainment. And so I feel like it infuses all of my interests a little bit. Finding it was definitely a blessing because I was not thinking that that was my path.

Q. Why wasn’t your current job on your planned path?

A. I was intending to go back to ABC after graduating from law school [in 2020]. But there was a large hiring freeze because of the COVID pandemic. On top of that, I was also waiting to take the California bar exam, which was pushed back from July 2020 to October. In January 2021 I found out I had failed the bar. So, I went from feeling like everything to feeling like nothing. It was a complete mental shift that I had never experienced. I had to figure out how to maintain my mental wellness and to do some deep digging to see what I really wanted to do.

Q: How did you hold it together during that time?

A: This is something that I am still working on to this day. When you're so used to being stressed constantly and worried about school, you almost don't know how to rest. Even after I retook and passed the bar this past July, I was still so stressed about it, because I just associated the whole experience with just the utmost stress. I’m learning how to listen to my body, to rest, and to give myself a little bit of grace.

This is why I'm so passionate about talking to current students who might be defining their identities on whether they get a certain job or not.

Q. Do you have any other advice for Batten students who will be attempting to enter the workforce this summer?

A: Yes. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to work out. Take it from someone who found out that they weren't going back to their planned job. I had to move back home with my parents for a few months. Now I'm at my dream job working with clients I never even thought I'd touch this early in my career. I know we just put so much pressure on ourselves, but it will all work out with time.

If you're interested in going to grad school, there are so many Batten alumni out there. I'd love to speak with you, and can connect you with anyone else who would as well. Most of the resources that you need are already within Batten (I still bother Dean Solomon if I have a question these days!). Keep up with the people within the community because we're all here to help.