Allan Appel Photo
Yale University President Peter Salovey with Western Connecticut State University’s mascot Colonial Chuck and Quinnipiac University’s’s Bobcat.
Who would be more inspirational to invite to your middle school college prep rally: A university’s president? Or its mascot?
That question arose at the festive tenth annual “Snowball” event at the Fair Haven School on Grand Avenue, which 500 kids and adults Friday morning.
These third graders, Kenuell Rosario and Johnathan Romero are also, they say, future UNH students.
The question wasn’t only theoretical. Six university presidents — count ‘em — - were on hand, along with mascots from ten of the state’s colleges and universities to which New Haven schools seek to send their students off onto the college track.
They were there to mark the tenth year of Snowball. That’s the once-a-year dance and song performance extravaganza at the Fair Haven School where kids learn a local college’s fight song, research its history, create and choreograph their own dance, and explore falcons, warriors, owls, blue devils, chargers, and other mascots.
Snowball is far more than a fun-fest. It instills at an early age a college-going culture, said Yale University President Peter Salovey.
That value, he added, is as important as the highly significant financial support provided by New Haven Promise, which is funded primarily by Yale University, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Yale-new Haven Hospital.
Promise, as the name suggests, promises full tuition to a two to four year college in the state if a student (or “Promise Scholar’) maintains required grade point, attendance, and community service requirements.
Central Connecticut State’s Blue Devil had trouble keeping his shorts up during a dance.
Fair Haven School’s Snowball winter college-prep event was established right around the time New Haven Promise was established.So the two were celebrating together, said Promise chief Patricia Melton.
She was was on hand along with Salovey, Southern Connecticut State University President Joe Bertolino, Quinnipiac University’s Judy Olian, Eastern’s Elsa Nunez, Central Connecticut State University’s Zulma Toro, and Gateway’s Paul Broadie. Along with U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, they cheered and, in some instances, took to the stage todance with each grade as its members, clad in appropriate T‑shirt and other gear, sang and danced, and celebrated learning.
One of the chief organizers of the event, longtime gym teacher Sharon Arnold, said that all the presidents came this year because Southern’s Bertolino had shown up last year, and was a hit. So Arnold suggested inviting all the presidents..
Principal Heriberto Cordero, Asst. Principal Morales, Marrero, and school staffer Mary Rosario celebrate.
And six showed up.
It was also a celebratory recognition that no neighborhood in the city produces more New Haven Promise scholars than that around the Fair Haven School on Grand Avenue. About 90 percent of Promise scholars are first-generation college students. Nearly 60 percent come from families with annual incomes below $30,000
A much loved graduate of Fair Haven School and now senior at Cross and going to UConn on a Promise scholarship, stepped forward into the uniform of Willi the Warrior, Eastern Connecticut State’s imposing mascot.
That would be Andrew Marrero. Before he donned Willi’s outfit to cavort on the stage with future students, Marrero was greeted by his former fourth-grade math teacher at Fair Haven, current Assistant Principal,Monica Morales.
“He was a superstar” in math, Morales remembered, even though Marrero remembered hating fractions. His advisor at the school, Mary Rosario remembered Andrew as having from third to eighth grade the best academic average of any student she had ever counseled.
Morales emphasized he was not only academically talented, but, as importantly, helpful, respectful, and good-hearted. Which is why, in part, he had decided to volunteer to be a Warrior although his future is as a Husky.
Marrero also helped me understand that that “Snowball” is far from just fun and games. It really does early on aim kids in middle school, who might come from families not thinking about college, to earn Promise and other opportunities to go to college.
As Fair Haven Principal Heriberto Cordero was on his way to introduce UNH-T-shirt-clad Ivanaliz Zayes to one of the many university presidents miraculously available for eighth graders to meet in person, he paused to underline the key Snowball and Promise value.
“I went to college because my parents insisted. We are a school that is taking that parents’ role. You are a Fair Haven student, [then] you are going to college,” he said.
It’s important to instill that attitude early on in middle school, he added, because when kids hit adversity later on, the Promise — and Snowball — seed flourishes and provides what it takes to overcome obstacles.
Oh, so president or mascot?
Principal Cordero didn’t hesitate with his answer: For the kids, the mascot!