Wilkes-Barre’s Shamonie Rose exemplifies leadership on and off the court
This is the fourteenth and final in a series of feature stories during the fall 2023 semester. Each campus will be featured once throughout the semester as we highlight happenings, people and interesting stories from around the PSUAC.
Story courtesy of Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - For Shamonie Rose, a third-year Corporate Communications student at Penn State Wilkes-Barre, being a leader comes in many forms.
Rose, a native of Washington, D.C. who starts at center on the women’s basketball team, says she knew in high school that she wanted to attend Penn State Wilkes-Barre to compete athletically. “I also wanted to be a business major, and they have a really good program here,” she added.
What she found is that Penn State Wilkes-Barre has been a great place to hone her interests—business and basketball—while exploring new things and developing as a leader both on and off the court.
Rose has celebrated individual and team successes as a Lady Lion. She was named a PSUAC John Fritz Sportsmanship Award recipient for her performance in the 2021-2022 women’s basketball season. “This Award is given to a student-athlete who displays excellent sportsmanship and ethics,” said Athletic Director Scott Miner. “Shamonie outwardly showcases and shares her positive attitude and good character with others. She was well-deserving of this leadership award.”
Rose also received an internal coach’s award (The “Pops” Hammett Award) for the 2022-2023 season. The Award was named in honor of former Penn State Wilkes-Barre men’s basketball assistant coach Leroy Hammett, father of men’s and women’s basketball head coach, LeShawn Hammett. Leroy Hammett aimed to instill in players a strong work ethic, senses of personal and team accountability, values that LeShawn Hammett prioritizes when coaching and guiding student-athletes like Rose.
Rose has started in all seven women’s basketball games so far this fall, the Lady Lions tallying four wins and Rose scoring 23 points and making eight steals.
Off the court, Rose’s endeavors have ranged from supporting her peer, Kiarra Moore, in establishing Penn State Wilkes-Barre’s first Black Student Union (BSU) this year, to serving as a work-study in the campus’ Office of Strategic Communications, where she collaborates with a team on a wide range of written and visual content for Penn State Wilkes-Barre Athletics and the campus more broadly.
Founded this academic year, BSU serves as a safe space for those in the Black community to be themselves at Penn State Wilkes-Barre.
“The goal [of BSU] was also to have more culturally diverse events to broaden all students’ horizons and perspectives,” Rose said.
She currently serves as treasurer of BSU, a role that helps her hone her business skills and leadership qualities.
“Since the club got its official start in September, we have been able to run different events and fundraisers, such as a snack fundraiser at one of our home women’s volleyball games. We had success with it, and we have many ideas about how we want to grow our involvement on campus and in the community.”
The group also volunteered at a local soup kitchen this fall, already expanding its reach beyond the Wilkes-Barre campus.