Law student stars in World Cup triumph

Photo of Jessica Jonassen with cricket bat
Jessica Jonassen

Jessica Jonassen’s Twitter profile highlights her love for coffee, her desire to master the guitar and her law studies at Griffith University.

On Sunday morning her Twitter profile took on a whole new look. “World champions!! So proud to be a part of the Southern Stars,” she posted.

Jessica played a starring role on the Australian ladies team that defeated England to claim the World Twenty20 cricket title in Sri Lanka at the weekend.

The 19-year-old Emerald native took three key wickets in the dramatic four-run win.

Talking about her emerging cricket career last April, Jessica highlighted her excellent relationship with Griffith University lecturers and tutors as she managed to balance student life with top-class sporting pursuits.

“They know if I am going to be away, and when I get back they always ask how I went,” she said.

“If I’m going to miss exams, they help me by organising another time, which means I have one less stressful thing to think about while I’m away.”

She described how she fitted her studies around a punishing schedule of eight to 10 hours training each week or when cricket tours took her overseas for weeks at a time.

“The Griffith Law School community always provides me with terrific support,” she said.

She will return to Queensland this week on top of the world, signalling the success of that balancing act, and her lecturers and tutors will not have to ask how she went.