The last time Perris Jones appeared in UVA Today, he was leaving the University of Louisville’s Frazier Rehabilitation Institute and headed home to Charlottesville following the spinal injury that ended his football career.
Now, 13 months after one hit on the field led to emergency surgery, Jones, a two-time University of Virginia alumnus and former Cavalier running back, has embarked on the next chapter in his life as a motivational speaker.
Earlier this month, UVA Today traveled to a community center in Richmond, where Jones shared his moving testimony with members of Saving Our Youth, a nonprofit organization and after-school program helping underserved teenagers transition to adulthood.
The 23-minute speech anchors our next story on Jones, which will be featured in the UVA Today Weekend edition.
“I feel like every time I do it,” Jones said of public speaking, “it’s just more affirmation that I’m going down the path that I’m supposed to be going down.
“It also makes it easier to deal with the injury as a whole, in a way that I didn’t think it would help. It’s therapeutic.”
