Core Values Scholar highlights importance of service
Shawniqua Green still remembers the stress of applying to college. “Setting up tours, completing the FAFSA – some of those processes are pretty complicated,” she says. “No one in my family really went to college, so I had to do a lot of that work by myself.”
Now in her third year at Wichita State and firmly rooted in a supportive community on campus, she’s not just working by herself anymore. “I think I just felt lost before going to college,” Green says. “Joining clubs, getting involved and making a difference on campus, and finding people who were in the same boat as me, that helped me discover who I am, and who I want to be.”
Green says she wants to be a person that shows up for others, a goal that compelled her to join the Community Service Board in 2024. Through this organization, she’s volunteered at food banks, campus clean-up days and local shelters. “These opportunities have opened my eyes to the needs of our community,” she says. “Even though it may not be the most noticeable work, I believe that this is where real change starts: people showing up and caring for others.”
Last semester, she participated in the Alternative Spring Break program, a volunteer opportunity for WSU students to gain exposure to the complex social needs of communities across the country. Green and her peers visited Chicago, volunteering at several of the city’s organizations and shelters. “That experience made it really clear to me that the support system I have here at Wichita State, the opportunities that are available to me,” she says, “not everyone has access to those same resources.”
She’s committed to making the most of the opportunities afforded to her. With the long-term goal of becoming a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in a nonprofit or higher education sector, she sought to enhance her classroom education with an internship at the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement. “I want to help organizations that serve others and manage their finances effectively, ethically and sustainably,” she says. “Working with the accounting team here is showing me how to put those goals into practice in this field.”
Green, who is one of the WSU Foundation and Alumni Engagement’s 2025 Core Value Scholars, says she strives to represent the organization’s guiding ethics of collaboration, excellence, service and integrity in all that she does – be it at work, in school or through community service. Staci Rongish, assistant controller at the WSUFAE, would agree. “Shawniqua is sincere, hardworking and reliable, making her a great asset to our team,” Rongish says. “She consistently brings a positive attitude and collaborative, helpful spirit to everything she does.”
For the accounting junior, the scholarship represents yet another opportunity to pour into others. The reduced financial burden, she says, frees up her time to participate in more community service events. “This isn’t just a gift to me, it’s an investment,” Green says of the scholarship. “And it’s an opportunity to give back in the ways that I can.”
