For Isabelle Roes, a single decision to attend Bucknell University as a track and field athlete wasn’t just about sports; it was the starting block for a journey that led her to discovering her true passion, ignited at a Women’s Sports Foundation event that forever changed the course of her life. The Harrisburg, Pa. native played several sports throughout high school including track and field, basketball, lacrosse and volleyball. It wasn’t until later on in her high school career that she began to focus on track and field.
“I went through my junior year, which because of COVID, was my very first track season and I kind of realized that it was really working for me,” said Roes. “It was kind of the first time in my life that I felt at home in a sport, especially with my teammates and being surrounded by strong women.”
For the young, strong woman, there was always the consensus growing up that female athletes had to be smaller, faster and lighter, but the world of track and field encouraged those same female athletes to value strength and muscle, which Roes found to be comforting and powerful.
“When I joined track as a thrower, everyone wanted me to be strong and to get in the weight room and that was a really cool thing for me,” said Roes.
Once honing in on track and field, the thrower began her senior year and her search for collegiate athletics opportunities.
“I met Coach Protzman, who is the throws coach at Bucknell, during my senior year of high school,” said Roes. “Then I took a visit in December and I really loved the school and the area, so I applied early decision, got in and decided to commit to Bucknell as a thrower for the team.”
At the time of committing, Roes would have never expected the journey she would have with the Bison and the result that would come from it. The Harrisburg native walked across the stage four years later, confident in herself and what her passion in life would be, and it all started with her coming to Lewisburg.
“Being in a sport, especially track, has been really like a saving grace for me throughout college,” said Roes. “It’s the glue that's kept me together in college because it keeps you on a schedule. Some people would think that it gets a little bit monotonous, but it really doesn't. I go to class, I do all these things, and I could be having a bad day but when I get to practice, it doesn't matter because once I get around my teammates, my problems kind of go away.”
The track and field culture at Bucknell has been a backbone for Roes in all four of her years because it really is a group that is more than just teammates.
“I know that it’s a cliche, but for us, it’s the truth. Those girls really are true sisters, like they are going to be at my wedding and stuff like that,” said Roes. “Having that familial connection with people that you really met by chance because what are the odds and what are the chances that you all end up in the same place, is just so amazing and it's such a special bond.”
One of the senior’s favorite memories throughout her time as a Bison throws athlete, shows her determination, grit and perseverance as well as the supportive connection that her team has. Roes, whose main event is the weight throw in the indoor track and field season, worked towards one goal her entire time at Bucknell; making the top 10 list for that event.
“I literally couldn't do it. I had knee surgery and then three months after that, I tore my patella tendon in the other knee,” said Roes. “I kept going back, but then I’d miss an indoor season. I was really supposed to get it by my sophomore year, but sophomore year passed and I didn't have it, so I thought okay maybe junior year. Then junior year passed and I didn't have it. I was always right there, like a couple of centimeters under it.”
When Roes got to her senior indoor season, she struggled with pain in her knee which resulted in a tough season. With just one home event and two meets remaining in the final indoor season of her collegiate career, she was still determined to meet her goal of a top 10 mark in the weight throw.
“On my second throw I finally got it and it was just such a cool feeling because I felt complete. I didn’t realize that I was carrying such a huge weight on me the entire time and the second I knew I got what I needed, I just felt like such a lighter person.”
The senior’s teammates and parents were all at the meet and once they realized that she had met her goal, something they all knew about, they immediately began to scream and cheer for their teammate, sister and daughter.
“That was something that really defined my senior season and something that I'm really proud of. I am just so grateful for Coach Protzman sticking by me through that journey. I remember after I got it I ran to him and hugged him and he just told me I got it. That was a really nice moment.”
While track and field was a cornerstone of Roes’ experience at Bucknell, it is what doors being a student-athlete opened for her that truly shaped the future of her life.
“I got involved in a lot of different things at Bucknell and I am really grateful that I did,” said Roes. “One of the first organizations that I got involved in on campus my freshman year was Bucknell’s chapter of Morgan's Message. I was involved in that freshman year and then I decided to become an ambassador for the chapter my sophomore year which is really cool. I get to do a lot of different things for that. We do dedication games and a couple of different meetings every month. I get to talk with the national leaders of the organization too which has been a great experience.”
Morgan’s Message, a cause that supports student-athletes’ mental health, is something that is very near and dear to Roes as it is something that she sees in her own personal experiences.
“I credit my interest in the topic of student-athlete mental health not only to my personal experience, but from my experiences working with Morgan's Message as well. Being able to work with such an amazing organization like that these past four years has just been a great experience. The cause is truly something that is reflected in a lot of what I do as well.”
Roes is also an ambassador for Bucknell’s Athlete Ally chapter which is LGBTQIA+ support for student-athletes. Additionally, she has been a part of initiatives like Igniting Leaders and the Round Table Student Leadership organization through student-athlete enrichment at Bucknell.
“I think I will definitely take the lessons in organizational qualities that I've learned from all of these different experiences, especially from the Igniting Leaders and Round Table programs that student-athlete enrichment has run,” said Roes. “I've learned so much about leadership and about organizing a group. I would like to continue to be involved in Morgan’s Message post-graduation since that has really shaped my college experience quite a bit and as a student-athlete. Mental health has always been a cause that's just near and dear to me and even outside of college that passion will never leave me.”
Next in Roes’ journey came the air horn that marked the start of her passion and future, being invited to attend the Women’s Sports Foundation Athlete Leadership Connection event in collaboration with NBC in New York City.
Not only was Roes invited to the event, but she was one of 18 student-athletes representing 16 colleges and universities across nine sports to be invited into the NBC Sports Student-Athlete Mentoring Program, an initiative designed to inspire and support female student-athletes in translating the valuable skills they have acquired on the field of play, into successful careers. The thrower was just the second athlete from Bucknell to be selected for the exclusive honor in 2024.
“That Women’s Sports Foundation event literally changed my life,” said Roes. “We were there for two days and it was really the first time in my life that I sat in a room full of successful and powerful women. It was this experience of seeing exactly who I wanted to be in front of me. That feeling sticks to me to this day because it was just so cool.”
The then junior had been struggling up until that event to figure out what she wanted to do with her life after graduation. She had switched her major four times and still hadn’t found the right fit for her.
“When I went to this conference, I spent the day listening to these women speak and making a bunch of connections and it just felt right,” said Roes. “It made me really think about what I wanted to do and see the different possibilities with my personal athletic experiences.”
At the end of one of the days, Roes was able to talk to Coach Lisa Bluder, the former head coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes in a five-minute one-on-one conversation.
“Oh. My. God,” said Roes. “It changed my life. My hands were shaking, that’s how excited I was to talk to her and this was also the year following her winning a national championship, so it was like, so cool. We talked about female leaders in sports and the thing that I remember the most was something specific she said to me. She told me ‘Do whatever you want to do. When you find that thing, do it.’”
Roes firmly believes that that event was a turning point for her and it is her absolute favorite memory throughout her time at Bucknell as well as the thing she is the most grateful for. For her, if you weren’t the one in the room during that event doing the uplifting, then you were the one being uplifted and that was something special. Following the event came her NBC Sports Student-Athlete Mentoring Program which ran from November 2024 through April 2025. Participants, including Roes, engaged around topics including career development, networking and personal branding, interpersonal communication, interviewing skills, and navigating the workplace.
The NBC Sports mentors shared their professional experience, insights, and networks, while the Women's Sports Foundation facilitated monthly sessions. Throughout the program, participants worked together to complete a group project focused on a topic of shared interest by the Women's Sports Foundation and NBC Sports. Each group then presented their project at the culmination event at NBC Sports Headquarters in Stamford, Conn.
“We worked for nine months on how to increase female viewership of NBA platforms, which was a problem specifically identified by NBC Sports as something that they wanted student project feedback on,” said Roes. “I basically got to survey a range of women from the age of 16 up to 60 plus, and we developed a research model that we then went up to Connecticut to NBC Sports headquarters to present to the NBC executives, which was such a cool experience even just being at the headquarters. You walk in and see the big Olympic rings and stuff which is just so cool. A huge shoutout to Eline Vermeulen for getting me started with that first conference that snowballed into all of this because it truly has shaped my life.”
After the whirlwind of life changing experiences for the junior, she came back from the mentorship program with a passion and determination for a career in sports media. That next semester, she got an internship with the Bucknell Athletics Department and began doing exactly what Coach Bluder had said: find what you want to do and then do it.
“I was a student photographer for the Bucknell athletics, so I got to go to any of the events and take pictures or do some social media, just kind of really learn how to do all of that,” said Roes. “I spent that semester and the following summer basically learning the craft and developing in the world of sports media. Then this year, my senior year, I got a full-time spot as a Student Creative Intern with Bucknell Athletics.”
Within her year in that position, Roes has gotten to do a plethora of different things like photography, videography and social media.
“I love seeing all of the sports from a different perspective, I think that's why I love doing this so much and why I think I have been able to grow within the media space,” said Roes. “I know what it's like to be in front of the camera as an athlete and I know these other people too, like they are my friends and I think that’s something in my art that I really try to portray. Just showing these athletes as people and I’ve been able to do that throughout my journey.”
On top of her position within Bucknell Athletics, Roes also began working as the main social media manager for the Bucknell Bison Throws program.
“It's really great to show more of the personal aspect of the team for me,” said Roes. “It’s kind of funny cause I am a part of the throws group as an athlete too, but I'm really proud of running our social media account because we've grown our following by over 30 percent in nine months.”
One of the most unique aspects of Roes work with Bucknell Athletics has been the journey of herself being a student-athlete while also being a photographer.
“Personally, I've never found it weird but other people do find it weird especially because in the past when I was in season I would compete and then shoot,” said Roes. “My event was always in the morning, so I would compete and then literally change my shirt, grab my camera, and within 15 minutes after competing, I was shooting. Other photographers and coaches would see me and be like, what are you doing? So maybe it's weird to other people what I’m doing, but for me it feels like a natural transition.”
When an athlete takes on athletics photography, they are immediately strapped with a unique lens for coverage. As an athlete themselves, they know what it feels like to be competing at that level and it allows them to have a better grasp on finding the unique and emotionally driven moments of competition.
“Awareness is a huge part of what I do and I don't think people realize how much awareness goes into finding those moments that most people wouldn't notice within an athletic event,” said Roes. “It really is an art form trying to find those things. My personal style definitely tends to be more of the dramatic stuff because I know when those moments are and how to capture them.”
For Roes, being an athlete while taking on athletics photography and finding her footing in the realm has been a true blessing that she feels will help her for the rest of her career. Since she discovered her true passion in media, Roes began to take some media classes at Bucknell, one of which was a video production class within the Film and Media Studies department where she got to pick a topic of her choosing and make a film depicting that.
“I knew I wanted to do mine on something following women in sports and something to do with student-athlete mental health because those are really the two big themes that I care about and everyone knows that,” said Roes.
The concept of the film was focused around student-athlete mental health as well as the experience of being a female student-athlete and how that experience differs, especially when it comes to the internal conflict throughout one’s athletic journey.
“It’s not all doom and gloom, but it talks about those experiences and the pressures you may face and ultimately how you overcome them which is something I really wanted to highlight because of my personal journey,” said Roes.
The thrower faced multiple injuries throughout her time as a student-athlete at Bucknell. Through all of the injuries and the internal and external struggles, she remained persistent and always found the positives that surrounded her which was really something she wanted her film to portray.
“I’ve had a lot of injuries,” said Roes. “Which has not been fun, but you have to set your mind to getting better so that you can actually get there and that was a personal experience of mine that I wanted to come out of this film. Things are going to hit the fan, but they will also then get better.”
Circling back to track and field being Isabelle Roes’ true family and support system, they also got involved with her film, some of them were even featured in it.
“God, I have such amazing teammates,” said Roes, because I went to our track girls and told them that I had an idea for a film and asked them to be in it, I expected maybe like two or three people to agree but I literally got 20 people that said they would be in my film. It got to the point where I had to actually tell people no because I only really needed six people. It just again speaks to the family atmosphere of our team because some of these girls weren’t even in my event group and I may not have known them super well, but they still wanted to help. It was a really cool experience to work with them and have them put their trust in me because it's not that easy to put yourself in front of a camera and be an actress or to ask people to do that. Two years ago if you told me I was making a movie, I’d be like ‘girl, bye’ and it may be a bit cliche, but seeing it on the big screen was super exciting.”
The big screen that Roes is referring to is the Campus Theater in Lewisburg where her film, alongside other students’ films, were shown as a part of the spring film showcase.
Overall, the senior feels lucky that all of her experiences at Bucknell have led to her finding her true passion since that is something that people rarely get to discover in their entire lifetime.
“The media opportunities I have had have been so absolutely life changing. I'm just really grateful because that very first WSF conference and then my internship just snowballed into this amazing thing of being able to find my passion,” said Roes. “This is the thing that keeps me up at night and I am just so lucky that from those experiences I found what I wanted to do.”
Since finding her passion and beginning to develop her craft in sports media, Roes has truly begun to envision what her career may look like after attending graduate school.
“I would like to stay in sports photography specifically because I am very passionate about it and I love the sports atmosphere that I've been interacting with my whole life. Honestly, there’s nothing like it,” said Roes. “From there I would also like to transition to more of a creative director, so maybe working at an agency or something like that on creative shoots would be super fun.”
After her film was shown at the Campus Theater, Roes had one box left to tick off at Bucknell; graduation.
“It’s been a super exciting time,” said Roes. “But, it’s also been a bit of a surreal feeling because it’s almost like I have one foot in and one foot out. I mean I was taking Spanish finals while trying to find an apartment, so it’s been a really weird time where I just try to stay in the moment and spend a lot of time with my friends while planning my next steps.”
It has also been a time of reflection for Roes as she looks back on all of the growth she has experienced throughout her past four years.
“Just thinking about the person I was when I came in and who I am now, those are two very different people that I think have been built by my experiences through the organizations I was a part of, my internship, finding my passion and my sport,” said Roes.
The next step for the senior comes in the form of graduate school. She will be moving to Philadelphia to attend Temple University to earn her master’s degree in media studies and production.
“I'm very excited for my graduate experience,” said Roes. “I'm just really looking forward to going to Temple since my graduate program is in the media realm. Since my undergraduate education was in psych, I am excited to finally be able to focus on media work within the Temple athletics program.”
All it takes is one moment, one starting block that you push off of to begin the rest of your life with a dream of a career that you are truly passionate about and for Roes that all became a reality for her during her time at Bucknell University.
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