Yesenia Roman is pursuing a master’s degree in higher education leadership at The University of Texas at Austin. Her professional interests include student success initiatives and issues of social justice, equity, and diversity in higher education. Roman holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During her time at UIUC, she was a Ronald E. McNair Research Scholar and studied bilingualism and language acquisition in Latino children. After graduating, she joined Teach for America and taught middle school and high school Spanish. Roman is currently a Graduate Assistant for the Office of Student Success and Recruitment in the College of Education. She also works with Student Programs and the Events CoSponsorship Board at University Unions.