Najha Marshall smiles for a photo after her graduation ceremony in December 2020. Photo courtesy of Najha Marshall
Najha Marshall knew early on her passions for social justice and science would have a strong influence on her life. After a lupus diagnosis at the age of 7 and growing up in the grips of a flawed health care system, deciding what she wanted to write her honors thesis about was not a difficult decision.
Recounting her own struggles with lupus treatment, Marshall, who graduated from Texas State in December 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in microbiology, approaches the issue of health inequalities through a social justice lens. Her Honors College thesis, âHow Lupus Crossed the Color Line: Chronic Illness and the Reproduction of Racism in Health Care,â addresses the treatment and diagnostic disparities faced by women of color with lupus.
Students, including Tafari Robertson (center), gather around the Fighting Stallions during the March on Clegg, Monday, Feb. 5, 2018, on the Quad. Star file photo
Editorâs Note: For the remainder of the school year, The University Star will take on âThe 11% Projectâ, an examination of Black students at Texas State through History, Election, Hometowns, Activism, Creatives and 10 years from now.
It took Tafari Robertson two years post-graduation to process the trauma he endured as a student at Texas State.
âIn the year [following] everything that happened on campus.I had graduated, but I was still in San Marcos,â Robertson says. âThat was just, like, a really rough year for me because it was leaving the activist space. You know, it s hard to look back on and feel like you really did everything you could have.â
Demonstrators gathered outside the stallions statue on campus and marched around the Hays County Historic Courthouse Oct. 1 to protest racial injustice across the nation.