\u00a0
Sherrod, who was born and raised in Alabama, began playing basketball at seven\u00a0years\u00a0old. \u201cI\u2019m very competitive,\u201d she said. She strives to match the academic success of her mother\u2014a chemist who was valedictorian\u2014while also giving her all to her sport. That conviction led her to CU Boulder at 17 years old, where she played for the women\u2019s basketball team and earned two bachelor\u2019s degrees in three years, one in sociology and one in philosophy, and a master\u2019s in organizational leadership in a fourth year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because\u00a0she\u2019d\u00a0lost a year of playing time at CU Boulder due to the pandemic, she\u00a0was eligible to play\u00a0one more\u00a0year for the team. That allowed her to\u00a0pursue\u00a0another degree in the CU system, and she chose\u00a0CU Denver. The university\u2019s\u00a0master\u2019s in criminal justice<\/a>\u00a0piqued her\u00a0interest. \u201cI\u2019ve talked to so many people that when the ball stops bouncing, it\u2019s very, very hard to find your identity,\u201d Sherrod said. \u201cI just didn\u2019t want to be in\u00a0that\u00a0situation.\u201d\u00a0She\u2019d\u00a0long been interested in forensic work, and this was\u00a0a golden opportunity\u00a0to explore that.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Flexibility to Achieve Great Things<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Sherrod\u00a0opted to take all of her courses online so she could make her practices and games.\u00a0The program<\/a>, like\u00a0many<\/a>\u00a0others<\/a>\u00a0at CU Denver, allows students to be fully in\u00a0person,\u00a0fully online<\/a>, or they can opt for a hybrid courseload. The classes challenged her, but her professors prepared her for it. \u201cIt helps, too, when your professors have a relationship with you in some aspect, to know who you are and know your circumstances as well,\u201d\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Sherrod\u00a0was able to complete her required internship at the Boulder Police Department, where she spent time with the crisis management team and first gained experience with teams that integrate mental health best practices with law enforcement. \u201cI think working with them kind of pushed me into what I\u2019m actually passionate about,\u201d Sherrod said. Now, she can see herself pursuing a future in that\u00a0field,\u00a0when\u00a0the time comes to\u00a0move\u00a0on from basketball and\u00a0make\u00a0a different\u00a0play.\u00a0\u00a0 After that internship, Sherrod\u2019s life took a major turn. She\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0done with her degree from CU Denver yet, but she signed on to play for the New York Liberty\u2014a\u00a0WNBA team based in Brooklyn, New York. \u201cMy circumstances are a little different than the average,\u201d Sherrod said. But because the classwork was already online, and because she was able to proactively communicate with her professors, she stayed on top of her coursework and grades\u00a0while playing on the road. \u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0had to tell professors, \u2018I know\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0due Sunday, but I play a game Sunday, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0going to be on the flight.\u00a0It\u2019ll\u00a0be done, but it might not get sent out\u00a0for\u00a0an hour or two later, just because of my circumstances.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She also chose not to take any classes over the summer, which is in the\u00a0middle\u00a0of the WNBA season. Fortunately, SPA\u2019s master\u2019s degrees,\u00a0like many\u00a0of CU Denver\u2019s programs, are already designed to be workable for busy adults at any stage of life, be they professional athletes or working parents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Forever a Lynx<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Today, Sherrod is playing for her second WMBA team: the Minnesota Lynx (no relation to Milo!). She\u2019s completing her capstone project, which is an examination of emerging use cases for AI in law enforcement, and proudly gearing up to be a full-time professional athlete\u2014with three diplomas hanging on her wall. \u201cI\u2019ve learned so much, and I\u2019m so glad that I\u2019ve done it, because 24 [years old] with three degrees in my family is huge,\u201d Sherrod said.\u00a0<\/p>\n And as much as she loves basketball and is still committed to the game, she knows that no career in sports lasts forever.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0more than ready for whatever comes her way. \u201cThree years ago, if you\u00a0would\u2019ve\u00a0asked me, I would have been like, \u2018I don\u2019t really want to do anything else outside of sports,\u2019\u201d Sherrod said. \u201cAnd if you ask me now,\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0so passionate about mental health \u2026 and\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0enjoyed it.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaylyn Sherrod has two major priorities in life: learning and basketball. And she puts the work in to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":425232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[198094,38917,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-425231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-fall-2025-commencement","9":"tag-spa","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/S0A4058.jpg\")
\nThe Big Leagues<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n