Sapphire Jones is remembered for her undeniable intelligence, desire to help her fellow Aggies and her want to make the world a brighter place.
To help her achieve her ambitions, Sapphire Jones volunteered at the Student Counseling Services HelpLine and had plans to attend medical school following her graduation.
MaryAnn Jones, Sapphire’s mother, said she will always remember Sapphire’s love and respect for her family.
“She was super sweet, for me, she never treated me, or her sisters, disrespectfully,” MaryAnn said. “I really think a lot of that was just, Sapphire was so easy going, she wasn’t that kind of person who got upset.”
MaryAnn added that Sapphire was a loyal friend, who was able to maintain friendships even when rifts in her friend group came around. She said Sapphire did not allow others to sway her opinions of her friends, and stayed close to those who she cared about.
“She was always, always there for her friends,” MaryAnn said. “She just honored her friendships that much, she was that kind of person.”
An academic stalwart, Sapphire majored in psychology and was awarded a full scholarship. By her sophomore year, she was a member of several prestigious honor societies, including Phi Kappa Phi, Sigma Alpha Pi National Society of Leadership and Success, National Society of Collegiate Scholars and Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society.
Among her bevy of achievements, her admission to the Texas A&M’s Pre-Med Fellows Program, a program that is offered to 10 sophomores each year and guarantees an early admission to Texas A&M College of Medicine, stands out.
“She was incredibly bright,” Susan Vavra, HelpLine coordinator, said. “Her admission to the Pre-Med Fellows program, she was one of the 10 who got into that program. One of the things that [admissions to the program] shared with me, was that when she interviewed for one of those 10 spots, it was a unanimous decision for them to bring her into that program.”

Tim Jones, Sapphire’s father, said that Sapphire’s love for others bled into other areas of her life, including animals and pets.
“The thing that makes Sapphire Sapphire, is that she was just a humble and caring person,” Tim said. “She had this incredible fondness for animals. She would spend every weekend going to the humane society and caring for pets. Caring, for her, is just something that she did.”
Tim said that her empathy for the plight of others is what drove to to volunteer at the HelpLine, and that she once cited completing the training as the proudest moment of her life.
An aspiring physician, Susan said that Sapphire would have gone on to help more people after her undergrad and medical school graduations.
“One of the things that hurts my heart so much is thinking about what a great Aggie doctor she would have made,” Susan said. “She just made really easy connections with people, and when I think about what the world is going to miss out by her not being able to have patients of her own, that part of it just … she would have been fantastic in that role.”
MaryAnn said that of all the memories she has of Sapphire, one in Ireland stands out.
“I often smile to myself, we were in Ireland one time, and we had been like two hours, so we got out to admire the view,” MaryAnn said. “She just got out of the car and started sprinting, like a wild pony. And it was so beautiful … like a young colt, she was just running. All the bystanders were just looking at these two beautiful girls just running in the fresh air. It was such a beautiful sight. The freedom and the expression of that spirit, makes me smile.”