The 76th Miss Central State University once walked the halls of Maple Heights City Schools as a student, leader, and athlete. Raven Golliday is a 2020 graduate of Maple Heights and will serve in one of the highest student leadership positions at Central State University (CSU) in the 2023-2024 school year.
The Royal Court holds a long history at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), such as CSU. Students from each class (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) serve as Mr. and Miss. for their classes, while a senior Mr. and Miss. are crowned to represent the entire student population. “Being on Royal Court is a very important leadership role on HBCU campuses,” said Golliday. “Serving as Mr. and Miss. for the university is one of the highest forms of leadership you can obtain on campus.”
As Miss Central State University, Raven will represent the school at all major campus events, participating in speaking engagements, attending meetings, and serving as a leader and mentor to her peers from her April election through her May 2024 graduation. “My job as Miss Central State is to represent the university well and advocate for the student body to make changes and get things done,” said Golliday.
Securing the title begins with a two-week campaign season for student votes. Raven held four campaign events to spread awareness of her platform points which centered around holistic wellness, enhancing school spirit, and the importance of alum engagement and connections. She also created a website to showcase her platform and share her background.
The Miss Central State Pageant on April 23 featured five segments and an opening dance number. During the introduction, contestants were tasked with wearing business attire and introducing themselves to the judges. During the Marauder Wear portion of events, the focus is on school spirit attire and asking questions to test their CSU knowledge. Raven showed off her artistic talents during the talent portion and presented a spoken word poetry piece to the audience. Each contestant also had to write and perform a speech. In the final segment, Raven and her fellow contestants were asked questions that had a wider scope - thought-provoking questions about politics or current events or public initiatives that challenged the students to think critically on the fly. Between a combination of the student votes, and the judges scoring, Raven was crowned the 2023-2024 Miss Central State.
Outside of her Miss Central State duties, Raven serves as President of Illmatic Expression, a campus tour guide, a member of Womanhood Wednesday, and Crown’d. Her campus involvement dates back to her days at Maple Heights. “Maple Heights grew me as a leader tremendously and taught me so many lessons and skills that I did not have before,” said Golliday. “Two of the biggest lessons were, if everything is important, then nothing is important, and that two key components of leadership are respect and the heart of the people.”
During her time at Maple, Raven was Class President, Varsity Cheer Captain, a member of the National Honors Society, a member of the Student’s of Promise program, a member of the First Ring Schools Collaborative Student Leadership Institute, a member of the National Honor Society, and served on the Superintendent's Advisory Committee while simultaneously taking college courses. “Maple taught me how to work with others in a variety of different environments and situations and how to manage my time and prioritize,” said Golliday, “It taught me how to lead in different capacities such as sports, academics, and artistry. It also introduced me to two of my current mentors that I still keep in contact with today.”
The most impactful lesson Raven still credits from her Maple Heights days is that being inquisitive while intentionally working to be the best you can get you very far. It taught her to focus on growth and goals that were most important to her. She carries that lesson, knowing the importance of serving CSU this coming school year as Miss Central State University. Congrats, Raven, on this achievement and your future success.