Q&A with Coppin State volleyball star, Puerto Rico native Ashley Roman

Ashley Roman, Coppin State volleyball’s all-time leader in digs, did not want to leave her home in Isabela, Puerto Rico, as a teenager with noticeable talent in the sport — talent many around her knew could change Roman’s world.   

“I was in my comfort zone, but the amount of people that would constantly say, ‘Ashley, there’s a whole entire world out there. There’s so many opportunities. There’s bigger things that you can achieve.’ I think it just took me being more mature, growing as a woman, to realize that I had to make that huge step,” said Roman, a fifth-year student-athlete for Coppin State.

That huge step started by doing mass outreach to NCAA volleyball coaches during her senior year of high school, only to realize she was late to the recruiting process by then. Roman eventually resigned herself to the fact that she wouldn’t leave the island — due to a lack of options, not a lack of interest on her part.  

Her fortunes changed when a YouTube video of her training with the Puerto Rico national team caught the eye of the coaching staff at Coppin State, located in Baltimore. The rest is, quite literally, history. 

In addition to holding the school record, Roman became the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference all-time leader in digs early this season when she surpassed the previous career record of 2,066. 

Roman’s impact extends well beyond the back row, too. She’s also a strong advocate for Hispanic and Latinx student-athletes, who make up 7% (34,068) of all NCAA student-athletes in championship sports, according to the latest NCAA demographics data. Roman serves on the MEAC Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month Committee, which started in 2022 as part of the league’s “We Are MEAC” yearlong diversity and inclusion initiative. Additionally, she founded Latinix Unidos, a club for Hispanic and Latinx students at Coppin State. 

As the NCAA and its members celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, Roman spoke to us about her heritage, her journey being far from family and her desire to leave a lasting impact for future Hispanic student-athletes with similar backgrounds. (Note: Answers have been condensed.)  

What does your Hispanic heritage mean to you?

My Hispanic culture means my roots, where I come from. I carry that with me everywhere I go. It represents who I am, my family. It represents who I grew up with. It’s very important for me to bring it everywhere I go because that’s just a part of my life and part of who I am as a person, my values and everything that I’ve owned my entire life.

How has your Hispanic heritage and culture shaped you?

My culture and my heritage have definitely had a huge impact on the person that I am. I have been able to appreciate very important and special things in life. Everywhere I go, I always have in mind where I come from, my culture, my family, Puerto Rico, which is where I’m from, and it helps me to get through a lot of stuff that I do throughout the day. It’s what I look to to guide me with a lot of stuff that I do because I always want to make the people from back home proud of who I am.

How do you celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month?

During Hispanic Heritage Month, being here in the United States so many miles away from home, we try to involve our culture as much as possible with other cultures and other people from our school and our community. It’s a very special month because we feel like we have our own space and place to share who we are, to express to others how proud we are of our roots, of our family, of our culture, of everything that represents us as Hispanics. It makes us feel very special, and we appreciate that a lot, that our culture and where we come from is always appreciated.

How difficult is it being so far away from family, and what’s helped you through that? 

Being far away from my family has been really, really tough. I am a very family-oriented person, so the whole journey from leaving Puerto Rico at 18 years, my home, and coming by myself to the United States, starting a whole new language in English and a whole new culture, having to just see my family through a phone and through videos, it was a very hard transition. But thanks to the community that I’ve had here at Coppin State, my friends, my teammates, my coaches, all the staff here at Coppin State, it has made that process feel less stressful and less tough. I’m very grateful for that.

What can you tell us about your involvement in the MEAC Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month Committee? 

After the pandemic, the MEAC has provided more exposure to Hispanic student-athletes. I’ve been very excited about that. I’ve been very involved in that because I always wanted to make sure that Hispanics have our month to celebrate and our things to put out to the world. Last year, we did have our first Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month Committee with the MEAC. We were able to do some activities with the MEAC Instagram page where we were able to share our flags, where we come from, some of our music, and it’s just going up from here. It’s growing little by little. I’m here for it. I’m very excited for it. 

You also started a club for Hispanic students on campus. How did that begin, and why was it important for you? 

Last year I was able to found a Hispanic club at Coppin State called Latinix Unidos. Right now, I’m the president of the club. We’re working on doing some activities on campus to get other people involved, to get people to know our culture, who we are, and not only for Hispanic Heritage Month but throughout the year. As I graduate, I would like to keep up with that culture here on campus so it can keep growing and growing every year because there’s a lot of student-athletes who are Hispanic coming in every year, even regular students who are Hispanics, and we just want to keep promoting our culture and letting other cultures know who we are and getting everyone involved and making it a big thing.

Ever since I got to Coppin State I wanted to do it, but as a freshman or a sophomore I didn’t have enough experience, my English wasn’t good enough yet to actually talk to other people and start this big thing on campus, but as I kept maturing and growing and learning more and more, I said, “This is my time to do this because I feel like if I don’t start it now I don’t feel like anyone else is going to start it.” Before I graduated, I wanted to leave something of me on campus so people can always remember something special that we did for our culture, which is very important. I felt like we needed something bigger because the amount of Hispanic student-athletes and regular students on campus is insane. We have so much to bring to the world. We’re so talented that this cannot go to waste. We need to step it up, put in some work on campus and actually start to show the world who we are and the amazing things we can do. For me it was something very exciting to do, and I’m just very excited to see what things are going to come from it.

What advice would you give future Hispanic student-athletes following a similar path as you? 

No matter what the world brings to you, always trust and believe in yourself. Try to remember why you decided to come to the United States, which is a huge thing to leave your family, to leave your culture and leave your friends, leave the life that you’ve been used to having. Now that you decided to come to a whole new place to experience new cultures, experiences, just always have in mind what made you do that. If that idea was put in your head, it was for a reason: because you can do so many amazing things. Everything has a purpose in life. Just always trust yourself. Always, no matter what’s going on around you, keep being your true self, keep being the humble person you are and always never forget where you come from and your roots. Always try to embrace it as much as you can no matter what you do.