Rose Amburose, Class of 2025, was awarded the Equity for Women Award (Student) as part of the Equity for Women Awards on Feb. 27, 2023. The Equity for Women Award is sponsored by NC State’s Council on the Status of Women, which is a faculty and staff-led university standing committee. It is an award that recognizes one award winner in these categories (faculty, staff, students, and groups) for their outstanding dedication to establishing equity for women at NC State University.
Amburose was nominated by a friend, Susanna Cox. In her nomination, Cox said, “Rose’s dedication to service and leadership when it comes to gender-based equity is strategic, thorough, and impressively sophisticated. Having seen how hard she works, I cannot let her efforts go unnoticed.”
As a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, Amburose is passionate about women’s rights. She has interned and worked at an investment fund CARBON, the Carolina Abortion Fund and educational nonprofit Beyond The Five. Amburose also started a group at NC State, the Progressive Students Task Force (PSTF). PSTF advocates for equality, democracy and inclusivity on campus. She built connections with local political groups, acquired financial support from various funding sources and secured an advisor.
In November, Amburose organized the Reproductive Rights March, which had over 200 attendees. As event director, she oversaw and managed 25 volunteers, marketed the event to the public, and organized the speakers and performers. Amburose also worked closely with other local partners and reproductive health resource organizations so that attendees could learn about additional resources and ways to get involved in advocating for reproductive healthcare.
“As a queer woman of color myself, I grew up experiencing personal challenges of misogyny, gender expectations, racism, and homophobia from my family and community,” said Amburose. “When you’re marginalized in such critical ways, a desire for resistance blooms from self-defense. The work that I do is so much more personal than what could be conveyed with the word ‘activism.’ I fight this fight for gender equity and abortion rights for myself just as much as I do for others.”
Amburose credits the Park Scholarships program for supporting her passions and emphasizing the importance of leadership and service.
“Career readiness and tapping into leadership potential have been a huge focus of the Park Scholarships program for years,” said Amburose. “Because I’ve been immersed in a community of high-achieving students, I’m always mentally prepared to take on leadership roles. When you’re surrounded by intelligent and generous leaders who have impacted their community so intensely, it’s pretty impossible to not do the same things yourself.”
Amburose says her experience at Learning Lab I helped inspire her to take action.
“We studied the foster care system and I remember listening to lawyers and community activists who focused on foster issues through an intersectional lens. It was during that event that I realized that I can use my personal abuse experiences to fuel my desire to achieve justice for other suffering women, children, and families.”
Amburose is now working on a special project: Reproductive Justice Activist Training. These training sessions are from 5-7 p.m. on April 3 and 4. On April 5, a Students Advocacy Day will be sponsored by the Carolina Abortion Fund during which students will have the opportunity to lobby legislators directly for abortion freedoms. The training sessions will include guest speakers, presentations on important reproductive activism topics, and workshops on how to lobby legislators and critically analyze abortion legislation.