A Passion for Storytelling

Friends from her high school years already knew that. Those who met and worked with her during her four years at Elon University knew as well. Those who tuned in to WECT-TV in Wilmington, N.C., the past year and a half also knew. Now, those who view the news on NBC12 in Central Virginia are learning first hand.

 

“Jasmine is always very professional,” said Karla Redditte, a colleague at NBC12. “As soon as we met her, we fell in love with her because of her personality and work ethic. She’s great with people. She knows how to ask questions and get people to answer them and give you more. She’s very genuine. When she smiles, she makes other people smile.”

 

Jasmine arrived on North Mooreland Road as a freshman in the fall of 2007 and quickly immersed herself in the life of the school as an athlete, dancer, singer, actress and participant in a variety of activities including Mosaic and the Collegiate Community Council.

 

She was a three-season-a-year distance runner who won the League of Independent Schools and VISAA championships in the 3200 in the spring of 2010 and earned All-State and All-League honors in cross country the following fall.

 

She was a regular in the fall musical and spring play, sang in the choir and somehow found time for after-school dance. She even sang the national anthem before Collegiate athletic events including some in which she competed.

 

“I had a great experience,” she said. “I had no problem getting involved when I got to college.”

 

At Elon, she continued her pedal-to-the-metal pace. She sang in the gospel choir. She became involved with student media, advancing from occasional appearances on the Elon Local News (now the Elon News Network) to anchoring a live half-hour newscast to anchoring a morning show as well as reporting stories. En route to her B.A. in broadcast journalism, she spent her summers interning at WXII in Winston-Salem, NBC4 in Washington, D.C. and at 60 Minutes.

 

She never considered another career path.

 

“It was always communications,” she said on a recent visit to her alma mater. “I knew I needed to be out in the community somehow, whether it was behind the camera producing stories or in front of the camera. I realized I really liked interviewing. Story telling is my passion. I had to figure out how to do that. For me, it’s been every-day, on-air reporting.”

 

In Wilmington, she covered hurricanes, trials, education, crime and pretty much any other story that came her way.

 

One in particular stands out.

 

“It was about a man named Ray Bauer who had severe dementia,” she said. “His family believed that his time on Earth was coming to an end, so they wanted to give him one last hurrah. He had been a basketball coach. So I went out and spent the entire afternoon at his assisted living home where volunteers and staff members’ children did a Guys-versus-Girls game and gave him the honor of coaching one last time.

 

“It’s stories like that where you watch Ray sit on the sideline – he’s pretty much non-verbal at this point – smiling, giving advice. It was beautiful. I don’t think I’ll ever forget.”

 

In early October, she joined the local NBC affiliate and in one of her first assignments told the heartwarming story of Brian Evans, a 36-year-old Richmond man who was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in July 2015 and had recently returned to work as a business consultant at Bank of America Merchant Services.

 

“Brian had done the right thing by taking a friend who had had too much to drink home,” Jasmine said. “He dropped his friend off, hopped back on his motorcycle, had an accident and ended up paralyzed.

 

“His employer held his job for an entire year through his recovery. They made his office accessible. They changed parts of his building to make it accessible. He’s overcome this humongous obstacle. It was beautiful to see. He’s now working 32 hours a week, providing for his family and showing that a person with a disability can contribute and have a wonderful life like anyone else.

 

“You realize the power of your job when you hear people like Brian say, ‘You never know how great you are until you’re faced with what seems like immovable objects.’”

 

Everywhere she’s gone, Jasmine has made an impression. In fact, she was so highly regarded at Elon that as a junior, she was selected to serve a four-year term on the University’s Board of Trustees.

 

She’s endeared herself to colleagues and subjects of her stories at each stop in her broadcasting career. Her personal style, sincerity and ebullience play well on television.

 

Call her a celebrity, though, and she begs to differ.  

 

“You can’t get caught up in being known and being seen,” she said. “You have to show people that you’re as much of a human being as they are. You can’t be above them. Far from it.

 

“I’m humbled every single day when people entrust me to share their life. I can’t take that lightly. People say to me, ‘Thanks for getting my story out there.’ No, it’s thank you for being brave enough or taking the time to share a part of yourself with me.

 

“Everyone has a story. There’s something to be learned from every person you encounter. You don’t realize what a gift a person is until you stop and start talking to them. That’s so beautiful.”

            -- Weldon Bradshaw