Growing up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Terrell Jana had never heard of the University of Virginia; he barely knew where Virginia was. But as his fourth year at the University comes to a close, the football star reflected on how UVA has helped him find his calling, both on and off the field.
“I got really lucky to be able to come here and be part of this community,” he said.
Recruited from the Woodberry Forest School (where he’d landed after meeting a Woodberry student at a summer football camp), Jana became co-captain of the Cavalier football team and will graduate this May with a bachelor’s degree in public policy and leadership from the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and an impressive record of leadership in student activism. His passions came together in a yearlong independent study project, presented at a recent Batten Hour, on how athletes can shape public policy – work he hopes to carry forward into a professional football career.
The path wasn’t always so clear. Jana had long dreamed of playing professional football, but academically, “I was wandering around UVA like a little lost pup,” he laughed. Then, in the spring of his second year, he enrolled in his first Batten class: “Public Policy Challenges of the 21st Century,” with professor Gerald Warburg. It proved to be transformative.
Jana “always sat in the front row,” Warburg recalled recently. “That’s how we got to know each other.”
That happened almost by chance, Jana said. Seats in the classroom were tightly packed, and Jana was in football camp at the time. “I would come after practice, so I’d would be really tired, my legs would be tired, and I couldn’t sit in those tight seats because I would cramp up,” he said. In the front row, he could stretch his legs out.
The proximity paid off. Jana, who’d been fascinated by American politics, began to realize that policy could be a more effective way of creating change and helping others. He started lingering after class to chat with Warburg, who introduced him to other Batten faculty members. “Once I understood what the Batten School stood for, [I thought], ‘This is exactly what I want to do,’” he said.
