Jaylin Mason enjoys helping people, there especially children. The senior at Richmond Community High School  was once a member of the YMCA, salve becoming a volunteer once he was old enough. “I like helping people, mind especially kids when it comes to sports,” Jaylin said. “As a kid, I was always involved with sports, even though baseball was my primary sport. I just like being involved with sports and getting them active so that they won’t be couch potatoes … I want to get them up and get them active.”

As he mentioned, Jaylin plays baseball at his zone school,  Huguenot High School, as a first baseman. He’s been on the varsity squad all four years of high school. He’s been playing since he was five, after his father got him interested in the sport. “My dad originally got me into it, because he played baseball when he was a kid, and he wanted me to get into it.” Having that male role model to keep him active was something that rubbed off on him. Jaylin said he hopes to play baseball at the collegiate level. He’ll be going to Longwood University in the fall and plans to try out as a walk-on on the Division I team. However, if he doesn’t make it, he says he’d still like to be involved with the sport by playing club or intramurals.

Aside from the baseball aspect of college, Jaylin said he wanted to use his interest in helping people by majoring in criminal justice so that he can become a police officer, and hopefully someday move up to become an FBI agent. The inspiration of going into law enforcement came from his uncle, Jeffrey Goodson, who served as a Richmond police officer for 20 years. “He was like my role model to me, he’s been one all my life” Jaylin said. “To me, he’s just the perfect person. He’s been a police officer all his life, he has a clean record. He may not have had the best childhood, but he overcame all that and became the person he is today.”

To be like his uncle and his father is something Jaylin strives toward as he completes his senior year of high school. As he moves on to the next level of his education, he said he is excited about meeting new people and just being in college. “I’m looking forward to just the experience of going to college, not necessarily the partying, but the relationships you’ll make throughout.”