Shardea Croes is a heavy hitter on and off the softball field. An outfielder, Croes helped lead her team to its first NCAA postseason tournament appearance this year and scored second-team All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) honors in 2008. Croes, a rising junior at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, is expected to earn her second PSAC “Scholar-Athlete” citation in 2008-2009. No stranger to community service, Croes served as an ambassador of Aruba in the Global Young Leaders conference in 2008 and as a coach for this year’s selection of Aruba’s Kingdom Games team. She played in 35 of her 44 games, batted .350 with three doubles, four triples, one home run, 10 RBIs and 23 runs scored all while maintaining a 3.7 grade point average as an exercise science major.

Lamarra Currie, a top sprinter at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is not motivated by accolades although she’s earned many. With the help of her teammates, Currie brought three consecutive conference titles to Charlotte during both the indoor and outdoor track seasons. In 2008, Currie was named Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Most Outstanding Track Performer and Student Athlete of the Year by the Atlantic 10 Outdoor Track & Field league. She also earned her first ESPN the Magazine Academic First-Team All-American Award this year. When Currie is not busy with her track commitments, she dedicates her time to the Black Student Union and keeping up her 4.0 grade point average. Currie works with the UNC Charlotte Psychology Department as a research assistant. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.