EHHS senior, Fabiana (Fabi) Ruggiero was sitting at her computer on a weeknight when she opened her most highly-anticipated email of the year. She heard bulldogs barking when she opened the email and she knew that everything was about to change.
For many high school students, attending an Ivy League school is a dream. For Fabi, that dream is becoming a reality. After years of hard work, she will be attending Yale University this fall to study English.
Yale first became an option for Fabi when she was young. “My family is close with Yale.” Her father works there, and her grandfather is close with them. She felt like she was always surrounded by it. “I’ve been aware of it since I was young. I knew it was close by and felt like I was always looking over my shoulder since it was only 10 minutes from home.” She started to set herself up for a positive future in middle school. She was always giving 110 percent. It hit her during the beginning of senior year that this is what it all comes down to. She felt that the culmination of 18 years of life was going to be determined over these next couple of months. She cites her work ethic and drive motivated her the most. “Part of it is making my parents proud. I want to meet their expectations. Don’t let any door be closed. Do whatever you can to get any opportunity. I knew I didn’t want any doors closed,” Ruggiero states. By the end of January 2026, her grade point average stood at a 4.9.
Getting accepted to Yale was the result of years of effort. Throughout high school, she balanced academics with extracurricular activities such as dance, student council, Books and Brownies, peer mentoring, FBLA, Hive TV, The Comet, and started her own capstone peer mentoring program. She explained that she managed these responsibilities by having a consistent schedule that was repeated everyday. She did all of this while maintaining straight A’s. She shared: “Wake up, go to school, do work, come home and go to dance. Repeat 5x a week. Lots of late nights and early mornings. Stress, anxiety, and reaching out to people that I needed to ask questions. Paying attention in school. Relying on [the] resources I have.” During the summer before senior year, she also was on the youth services commission board and now attends bi-monthly meetings.
Fabiana also started her own capstone experience, which is a graduation requirement. At the end of her sophomore year, she remembered that the Yellowjacket peer mentor program was just being created. She was interested and was part of the program during her junior year. She was very involved and close with Mrs. Dwyer and Ms. Torpey. Fabi said, “They needed someone to help run it and I said yes.” By the end of junior year, she was deciding between all of her options to fulfill her capstone/MBDA graduation requirement. She was taking a writing center class. She knew she wanted to join the newspaper, which is also Capstone class. But she also wanted to do something with the peer mentoring program. Fabi prepared all summer to get the program to where it is now. She shared, “Since then it’s been a lot of planning, activities, and things for the kids to do. I put together the booth and presentation board to represent the program during the EHHS wellness fair.”
The moment she found out she was accepted to Yale was one she will never forget. A week after her birthday she discovered the news by opening her email. She remembers feeling shocked as those bulldogs started barking. She didn’t even trust that she really got into Yale, she kept thinking she must have misread. And, truly, that is what most people really know about her: how humble she is. She chose Yale after applying to Brown and Columbia. She was waitlisted by Columbia University, then saw she got into Yale. Since Fabi has wanted to go to Yale since she was young, she was very excited, but a bit hesitant. Choosing Yale was a really difficult decision for Fabi, and even after committing, she wasn’t completely sure if she had made the “right” choice. She had narrowed her options down to Amherst College, Hamilton College, and Yale. Although she originally applied to Yale because of peer influence and because it had been a dream of her young self, her reasons for choosing the university became much deeper and important to her.
One of the most important factors was Yale’s academics. Fabiana wanted the freedom to explore her interests in college and didn’t want to feel restricted. She was specifically interested in creative writing but Yale’s did not have a specific writing program. Only English courses.
As decision day approached, she thought carefully about where she could see herself for the next four years. Location became an important consideration because she wasn’t sure she was comfortable moving too far from home. Yale offered the strongest financial aid package and was close to home, making it a strong choice for her.
Before making her final decision, she called Anthony Arcangelo, a 2025 EHHS graduate attending Yale, to ask questions. She went into the conversation hesitant and with a whole list of concerns. By the end of the phone call, she felt comfortable, excited, and confident in her decision. That was the moment she realized Yale was going to be home for the next 4 years.
When she told her family, she walked out wearing an Amherst shirt before revealing a Yale shirt underneath. Her family’s reaction was a special moment they could all share as they realized that her dream was becoming a reality.
This success did not come without sacrifice. Some challenges she faced throughout high school was her social life. She shared, “I sacrificed a lot. I’ve lost a lot of sleep and it was a lot of stress and it definitely had physical side effects. It became normal. When I’m not at dance or school I’m home on my computer.” Other challenges included friendships. The application process, mental health, and maintaining a social life. “Its always been school. I like to think I was always a hard worker, even in JMMS and elementary. It’s a mindset.” She believes that she held herself to a standard that she felt was acceptable. She did the best she could in school, dance, in everything else she did.
Behind this success is a strong support system. Fabi felt extreme support from the EHHS guidance department, Mrs. Vesneski, Mrs. Gardner, her family, her parents, and her friends. “Definitely my sister, she is my other half. I feel like everyone in my family has supported me. My sister comforts me, my mother grounds me, and my father supports me and my brother is just adorable,” Fabiana stated.
Her recommendation for younger students is to “Take every opportunity but don’t kill yourself for it.Work hard enough so you have every opportunity so you can take what ones you want. Do what feels right to you, don’t do what you think colleges want to see. They want to see passion. They want to see you have an impact.”
As Fabiana prepares to begin this new chapter at Yale University, she leaves behind a legacy of hard work, determination, and involvement at East Haven High School. Her journey shows that with perseverance, support, and dedication, students can achieve goals that once seemed out of reach.
