Ready For College, Hillhouse Senior Persevered

School board student representative Ma’Shai Roman is on track to graduate from Hillhouse High School in less than two months to pursue a college degree in political science with the goal of one day becoming a U.S. congresswoman.

If you had read her that sentence two years ago, Roman likely wouldn’t have believed it — as she was in the midst of transferring to her third high school while struggling with her mental health, all against the backdrop of the isolating and education-disrupting effects of a global pandemic.

All to say: it was not preordained that Roman, 18, was going to reach the finish line of her New Haven high school journey. A finish line she’s now just weeks away from crossing.

During a recent interview with the Independent, Roman, who is one of two students representatives on the city’s Board of Education, spoke about the highs and lows of her past four years as a New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) student: about struggling to find her voice, about moving from high school to high school until she found the perfect fit, about the social-emotional and mental health impacts of remote learning, about navigating the college application process as a student with a low GPA. 

Roman met with this reporter on ​“decision day” to tell the story of how she went from resigning herself a year ago to not attending college to now having gotten 47 acceptances to colleges and universities all over the country with the help of over $600,000 in scholarships. This Monday, she said, she decided she will be attending Morgan State University in Baltimore to study political science.

Struggling Through Remote School

Roman was born and raised in New Haven, and grew up in the Dwight neighborhood. 

She spent her freshman year at the West Rock environmental charter school, Common Ground High School. While there she realized she didn’t have an interest in agriculture, and needed to find a new place to study. She then transferred to Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS) for her sophomore year, but found that the technology and STEM fields were also not of interest to her. She remained at ESUMS until the end of the first semester of her junior year. She then transferred to Hillhouse High School, a comprehensive school that worked best for her and that she is now set to graduate from.

Roman’s high school journey came during the the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which shuttered New Haven public high schools to in-person learning from March 2020 through September 2021. Roman quickly found remote learning taking a toll on her education and mental health. 

“When my mental health problems kicked in, I begged for academic and mental health supports, but no one heard me,” she said. 

She struggled most from the loss of establishing in-person connections with her peers and educators. 

“I would wake up every day, stay in my bed and just turn over to log into class but couldn’t even pay attention because it just felt like my walls were caving in on me,” she recalled. 

She described the year of remote learning as a time when she lost hope in herself completely. She said she wasn’t alone among her peers in feeling that mental health hit. ​“So many of us felt this way and nobody cared to notice,” she said. 

When asked why learning remotely was a struggle, Roman said she felt that she had ​“no one getting to know me” and learn how best to support her. 

Covid’s peak was Roman’s most difficult time with her mental health in her life, she said. 

In 2021 Roman joined the Board of Education as one of two student representatives with a goal to help NHPS provide students like herself with better mental health help and resources. She was then still at ESUMS. ​“This year has been rough for many students, including myself,” she said in an interview with the Independent at the time while speaking out about the mental health challenges of online-only school.​“I knew I wasn’t the only one so I decided I’d speak for all of us.”

Asked more recently what would have been the biggest mental health help at the time, Roman said she and her peers would have benefited from remote social work services during Covid’s peak and more grace periods when it came to work deadlines.

“It didn’t make sense that we had the same expectations and we weren’t getting the same learning connections anymore in-person,” she said in a phone interview Friday.

Finding Home At Hillhouse

During the second marking period of her junior year, she transferred to her third and final high school, Hillhouse.

It wasn’t until Roman got on the Board of Ed that she learned from mentors like Hillhouse retention specialist Darrell Brown that ​“I’m tired of being quiet because being quiet isn’t getting anywhere.”

In an email comment provided to the Independent for this article, Brown said that since first meeting Roman, he began ​”trying my best to steer her in the direction of calmness and thoughtfulness in order for messages to be received with all the intended authority.”

“Helping her to understand there is power in her words and to use them wisely and sparingly,” he continued. ​“Sometimes people think always being heard to the best way to deliver our messages but I believe that strongest words are used with intention and tact.”

As a student who has ​”faced adversity, change, and conflict with consistent tenacity,” Brown said about Roman, ​“she doesn’t give up nor does she shy away from addressing topics to whomever she needs to.”

He added that Hillhouse is known as ​“The Academics” because that’s what they prioritize so their students can recognize just how important post-high school learning can be. To do this, the school meets the students where they are and helps them to map out and plan their futures. ​”Having a focus on success and whatever that looks like is where I believe Hillhouse does better than any place in this city,” he said.

“I finally found my place,” Roman said, recalling her arrival at New Haven’s second largest school, on Sherman Parkway.

She joined the school’s student council and has since been elected as her senior class president. It was also the first time since she had gotten to high school that her 504 Plan was accommodated, she said. 

After taking an advanced placement (AP) government and politics course at Hillhouse, Roman discovered her interest in political science. That’s when she first starting setting her goal to help increase the representation of Black women in Congress.

However, because of the stressful remote learning period and her struggle to adapt to her previous schools, Roman’s GPA had dropped to a 2.0 and it was time for her to begin thinking about continuing her education after high school.

She said many people told her she should not even consider making plans for college because of her GPA or to only apply to community college. She had to convince her guidance counselor to allow her to still submit applications to colleges through the Common Black College Application, which allowed her to apply to dozens of HBCU’s for a $20 fee. 

Roman told the Independent that she was supported during her application process by Board of Education Secretary and elected school board member Edward Joyner. 

“Anytime when I doubted myself he was there to be helpful and make sure I was motivated,” she said of Joyner. 

Joyner, who taught Roman’s grandmother in a summer history class years ago and knew of her mom, spoke highly of his school board colleague in a comment provided to the Independent for this article. 

“She showed a passionate interest in social justice and I wanted her to understand that her own self care was first and then it should radiate from her to her family, friends, and community,” Joyner said. ​“I stressed developing critical thinking skills, a strong moral compass, and building on the courage she has been gifted with.”

Joyner kept in contact with Roman and her family as she worked to provide for her mom and younger brother throughout her high school journey, at one point working at Urban Air Trampoline and Adventure Park and a second job. 

“She is a resilient and remarkable young woman with uncommon courage, compassion, and intellectual curiosity,” Joyner said about Roman. ​“After attending several schools she found what she needed at Hillhouse and this is a tribute to the staff and students there.”

Joyner described Roman as a ​“coalition builder” and said he plans to stay in touch to offer mentorship to Roman as she pursues her dreams. 

Roman wound up applying to 40 HBCU’s and 18 other colleges for a total of 58 applications. Of the 58, Roman was accepted into 47 different schools in total. 

“The district just tells us that everything is based on GPA and that made me unmotivated to even go to college. Even when I applied I constantly felt down on myself because I thought I wasn’t going to get accepted,” she said. ​“But all these schools wanted me not based on GPA but based on me being me.”

Roman said when she first walked into Hillhouse, staff, students, and administrators approached her with open arms. She described the school as a safe and welcoming place that ​“encouraged me to be the best version of myself.” 

She added that staff like Lauren Cianciulli, a Hillhouse English teacher, welcomed her and saw her potential when she arrived at the school. ​“She let me use her room as my safe place at any time,” she said. 

Reached for comment via email for this article, Cianciulli recalled meeting Roman in her junior year in a small half-year SAT prep class.

“One day Ma’Shai just came and started talking to me during independent work time and we really clicked. She is one of the hardest working and most conscientious students I have ever met,” Cianciulli said. ​“She also puts an immense amount of pressure on herself — I was very similar as a student. Oftentimes, Ma’shai would stop by my classroom if she was feeling overwhelmed or just struggling with a situation. I would let her tell me about it and then try to walk her through her options and give her some insight from an adult perspective.”

Cianciulli described Roman as exceptionally considerate and an outstanding advocate. 

“I truly admire Ma’shai’s self-awareness, passion and strength. My conversations with Ma’shai have been one of my favorite parts of the day over the past two years. I have learned just as much (if not more) from her as she has from me,” Cianciulli added. 

When asked what she wants the community to know about what it’s like to be a student at Hillhouse High School right now, Roman said ​“it’s nothing like the stereotypes” and that school leadership keeps true to its mantra known as ​“GOT,” meaning ​“graduate on time.”

“It’s safe. It pushes its core values every morning. It’s family,” she said. ​“It’s not the bad place that everyone makes it seem.”

"Advocate For Yourself & Speak Up"

When discussing her experience on the Board of Education Roman described it as both fun and stressful. She said due to her being a student she felt she was ​“constantly met with push back” and the excuse that the district’s lack of funding is the reason it could not follow through on supporting students’ needs. ​“It was hard to hear that all the time because they put money into admin and superintendents all the time,” she said. 

She added that it was also stressful that the burden for change is always left to the students. ​“It’s stressful because we always have to bother them, push, and bring up the same stuff over and over until we’re heard,” she said. 

Roman said she looks forward to how this year three candidates are running for her soon-to-be-vacant student representative seat. 

She advised them all that ​“no matter what happens during the election you can always be an advocate.” 

When asked what she is most proud of doing during her term on the school board, she recalled last year’s student-led school walkouts that called for more mental health support in schools. 

As Roman nears the end of her senior year, she has already completed 125 hours of community service this year, founded and is CEO of Ma’Shai’s Creations, a balloon artistry business, and works full time at Walgreens. 

Roman offered her peers, and those heading to high school, three departing pieces of advice; ​“The only way to be successful is to advocate for yourself and speak up,” ​“Sometimes you just have to hit a dark spot to find the light,” and ​“Don’t believe the stereotypes about Hillhouse.” 

See below for other recent Independent articles about teaching, reading, working and studying inside New Haven Public Schools classrooms.

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