FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship in partnership with the NSU Career Development office have announced their 2020 NSU Wonder Women Award winners and Nova Southeastern track and field sophomore sprinter/hurdler Charissa Bacon was among the honorees as the first-place winner. Nominees for the Wonder Women represent all of the qualities of a Wonder Woman and over 90 nominees were evaluated based on the following criteria: Leadership, Academics Excellence and Career Focus, Community Service, Integrity/Ethics and Female Empowerment.
As the first-place winner, Bacon will receive a $500 scholarship for the upcoming school year.
A marketing major from Lakewood, Wash., Bacon has proven an exceptional leader on and off campus. As a Sharks student-athlete, she has also taken the time to give back to the NSU community through her leadership roles as Athletic Senator for the Student Government, as well as Peer Leader aiding first-year students and their transition to the university, while managing her academics, multiple jobs, athletics and still works to give back to others. Bacon is part of the Razor’s Edge Shark Cage Program for NSU business students who want to become entrepreneurs and is doing an internship with the Emery, the first all-woman co-working space in South Florida, as their Social Media Marketing Coordinator. Last summer, she served as a Marketing Intern for Evolve Learning Community, has worked as a photographer for NSU’s Office of Student Affairs Marketing and was also a photographer and creative team member for the Office of Digital Media and Graphic Design within NSU Athletic Communications.
As a young female entrepreneur, she is committed to empowering strong women and their businesses and has attended the Women Empower X event, as well as the opening of Power Space, Broward County’s first and only black woman owned co-working space. She also co-founded and is the executive director of Heart n’ Hussle, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with the mission of uniting and empowering women with an entrepreneurial spirit.
With the track season cut short, Bacon had not yet made her 2020 debut. However, on the track last season as a rookie, Bacon turned in the Sharks’ top time in the 400m hurdles and produced multiple point-scoring performances at the 2019 Peach Belt Championships to help NSU to a third-place finish – fifth in the 400m hurdles (1:06.52), seventh in a wind-aided 100m hurdles (15.93w) and eighth in the 400m dash (1:00.55), as well as legs on the Sharks sixth-place 4x100m relay and seventh-place 4x400m relay.
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