Passionate, driven and collaborative. Three words that are all used to describe Yasmin, “Yasi,” Roman of the Fresno State equestrian team.

Roman has competed in equestrian for over 14 years, however, it has not deterred from her academics or extracurriculars. She participates in toy drives, Read Across America with multiple schools and was also trained to be a fellow for Team IMPACT. 

“They’re [Team IMPACT] a non-profit organization who matches kids with different medical situations who may not be able to play a sport and then match them with a college sports team. So they still learn the importance of being a part of a team and have the social support of all that,” Roman said. 

Roman is one of three fellows on campus and even went to Boston to go through training.  

“She is really a go-getter, very creative and collaborative when working in groups. She’s definitely somebody that you can rely on to get tasks, objectives or goals to be met,” said Carlie Corrigan, director of Student Athlete Development at Fresno State. 

Corrigan met Roman not only because she is on the equestrian team but also because she is a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, of which Corrigan is an advisor for. 

The Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is a committee that has at least two leaders from every Fresno State athletic team. They have meetings every month and discuss topics related to the academics and lives, both personal and athletic, of student athletes at Fresno State. This can range from community service to personal development events. 

Corrigan noted they always receive positive feedback and she spoke about the value of service within the community. 

Corrigan looks forward to how Roman can continue to move the student athlete population forward in community service and make their experience at school and in the community more impactful. 

Roman mainly works with children and hopes to continue helping kids in her future career. What drives her is the feeling of knowing that she’s helping people because she often values herself based on how much she is able to help others. 

She has noticed in the past year during her work with Team IMPACT that surrounding herself with likeminded people, it reassures her that she is in the right place.

Roman is originally from Bucks County, Pennsylvania and got into equestrian because of a summer camp that had horseback riding. While her mom worked for the elementary school nearby, Roman was busy horseback riding. That led her to compete at Fresno State where she has found a new home surrounded by people such as her roomate and teammate Mia Nunes. 

Nunes, a third year and civil engineering major, shared that she believes her college experience would have been a lot different if they had never met. 

“I think it would have been a lot harder for me, I feel like she always has my back,” Nunes said. “She’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”

Roman and Nunes both shared how during competitions they don’t ride the same horses every match. 

Roman explained that every horse has their own quirks and they get to ride many different kinds of horses. Additionally,  people will sometimes assume that they race horses. 

“So a lot of people when they hear ‘Oh you horseback ride,’ they either assume that you barrel race or that you race horses and we don’t do either of that on the equestrian team,” Roman said. 

For those who are unfamiliar with what their competitions consist of, Roman was able to explain what each event was, “Two main divisions would be the English and the Western. Within the English side, we have two different events. Those are the two I participate in, which is the show jumping,” Roman said. 

She compared the scoring system to figure skating or gymnastics, because they need to execute a move in the most precise way. They are given a pattern of jumps that are then scored out of 100, with scoring in the 80s and 90s being ideal. 

Roman also participates in dressage. There are no jumps or hurdles but the purpose is to have different patterns where the horse’s step and direction is changed. 

“The Western side, horsemanship has kind of the same objective as the dressage or the flat. They are in a Western saddle and they do the same type of thing making the horse take different lengths of steps and then for all of these you’re judged for your position on the horse,” Roman said. 

Romans’ grit was put to the test as she had gone through an injury earlier in the year that required lots of rehab. 

“That was very tough and mentally challenging. She took it all like a champ to get back to riding and doing what she loves,” Nunes said. 

Roman’s resilience helped her get back to dedicating her time to horseback riding; however she still dedicates plenty of time to her academic success as a kinesiology major. 

Roman said to do equestrian requires a lot of practice and resilience through adversity.

“I would say that you just need an immense amount of grit. Like, you need to be able to stick with it through thick and thin,” Roman said. “I think that people don’t realize that there’s a lot of work that goes into it.”