The White House Correspondents’ Association is pleased to announce 18 scholarship winners in partnership with Howard University, Northwestern University, Columbia University, University of Missouri, University of California at Berkeley, University of Maryland, and the George Washington University. They are:

Howard University

Rushawn A. Walters of Springfield, Massachusetts, is the winner of the Harry S. McAlpin, Jr. Scholarship, a one-time award of $7,000. Rushawn, a junior, is determined to write about the plight of what he calls America’s “throwaway” people: the homeless on our streets, often mentally ill, who are sometimes ignored in our society.  Rushawn has experience at Howard reporting and editing, working as an administrative assistant, contributing writer, social media director, production intern and assistant digital editor.

White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington DC. 20160430 (Photo by Mary F. Calvert )

Jazmin Goodwin of Columbia, South Carolina, and Miesha Miller of Kansas City, Missouri, are the winners of the White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship prize, a one-time award of $7,000. Jazmin is completing her sophomore year with a membership in Phi Beta Kappa and is the campus editor of Hilltop, the Howard newspaper.  She is also a contributing writer to USA Today College, a digital site with over 500,000 readers. Her professional goal is to become an investigative broadcast journalist who covers human struggles across the globe. Miesha will graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Howard. In 2015, she interned in the CNN newsroom when the Supreme Court ruled on same-sex marriage and the tragic events of the Charleston 9 shooting took place. Her experience as an intern taught her the overwhelming cultural and political importance of mastering speed and accurate communication via social media.

Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism

Jasmine Ellis of Audubon, Pennsylvania and Emiliana Molina of Medellin, Colombia are the winners of the Deborah Orin Scholarship, named for the late White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief for the New York Post. Each winner will receive $5,000. Jasmine decided to attend Medill to hone her skills as a political and social justice reporter. She has covered a speech by President Obama to chiefs of police in Chicago and the GOP debate in Milwaukee.  Upon graduation, Ellis will continue to cover social justice issues and politics in the hopes of becoming a White House correspondent. Emiliana arrived in the United States under a grant of political asylum and now is pursuing a master’s degree at Northwestern. She has covered the Iowa caucuses and spoken with  presidential candidates.  Emiliana has interned for NBCUniversal/Telemundo 15 and worked at iHeart Media.  She hopes to become a political reporter.

Misha Euceph of Rawalpindi, Pakistan is the recipient of a $5,000 grant through the WHCA to help finance a post-graduate degree for a student in the Government and Public Affairs reporting track. Misha is a Chicago-based radio broadcast journalist. She is pursuing a Masters of Science in journalism at Medill where she specializes in social justice, political and investigative reporting. She also works for the podcast, The City, part of WNYC.

White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington DC. 20160430 (Photo by Mary F. Calvert )

Columbia University

Ilgin Yorulmaz of Istanbul, Turkey is the recipient of a $5,000 WHCA tuition grant for 2015-2016. Ilgin has worked for twenty- two years as a researcher and magazine correspondent in Tokyo, London and Istanbul.  She is the author of three books about businesses in Istanbul.  Ilgin is attending Columbia University’s Journalism School in hopes of refining her skills and ultimately focusing on political Islam; problems faced by Muslim immigrants and the way religion in general and Islam in particular is abused by radicals in underdeveloped countries.

University of Missouri, Columbia

The following graduate students are the recipients of $3,000 grants to study in Washington, DC for a semester: Joshua Benson of St. Louis, Missouri; Shih-Wei Chou of Taipei, Taiwan; Karol Ilagan of Maragondon, Cavite, Philippines; Andrew Kreighbaum of Dallas, Texas; Li Lin of Shanghai, China; Moqiu Ma of Suzhou, China; Caleb O’Brien of Columbia, Missouri; Yizhu Wang of Shanghai, China.

Josh Benson is interested in documentary filmmaking as well as investigative reporting. He has contributed work to the Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Associated Press and the Evansville Courier & Press.  He received Best Investigative Reporting and Best Business Story awards from the Missouri Press Association Better Newspaper Contest.

Shih-Wei Chou is a multi-media journalist and award-wining nonfiction filmmaker.  While participating in Missouri’s Washington Program, he worked with the Shanghai Media Group US Center, helping shoot and edit news with a focus on Sino-American relations.  His work has aired on a Missouri-based NPR affiliate for issues of freedom in the press.

Karol Ilagan reported for the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, a Manila-based nonprofit that specializes in investigative reporting, campaign finance and use of public funds.  She also conducted research on practices relating to access of information about budgetary issues.

Andrew Kreighbaum has previously reported on education and local government issues for a variety of newspapers in Texas including The El Paso Times, The Monitor and the Laredo Morning Times. In 2015 Andrew received a Freedom of Information Award from the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors.

Li Lin completed her graduate project as an intern reporter at Marketplace Public Radio where she worked on business news production, people on the street interviews and data visualization graphics. Currently she is working for Bloomberg News in London.

Moqiu Ma spent the semester in Washington with TV Asahi America.  Her work included covering State Department briefings, congressional committee hearings, think tank events and senior level press conferences. Her favorite stories are those that involve issues of corporate social responsibility.

Caleb O’Brien is currently based in Asuncion, Paraguay, writing about the connectivity of science, health and the environment with social justice issues.  He has written about drones, accelerometers and DNA bar coding in conservation and ecology. O’Brien completed his graduate project at Mongabay, an environmental science and conservation news and information website.

Yizhu Wang writes about educational technology for the national digital daily news publication Scoop News Group.  She covers how schools are adopting digital learning and classroom technologies. Yizhu has interned in the Shanghai bureau of Reuters, The New York Times and CNBC Asia.  She is particularly interested in business and economics reporting.

The University of California at Berkeley 

Juan Marcos Martinez Chacon of Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico, is the recipient of a $5,000 grant through the WHCA toward a post-graduate degree for a student in the Government and Public Affairs reporting track. As a reporter in Mexico Marcos covered political and governmental affairs for Grupo Reforma and CNN Mexico’s news site. He has also written about technology and Hispanic communities in the Bay Area for media outlets such as Univision Noticias.

University of Maryland, College Park

Miles Moore of Atlanta, Georgia, is a recipient of a portion of the Frank Cormier scholarship, a $20,000 award from the WHCA that is divided among four students at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Miles, who represents that group, has written and edited campus publications and been an anchor/DJ for campus radio station WMUC.  He does volunteer work with organizations such as the Maryland Association of Black Journalists, the Capitol Area Food Bank, SHARE Food Network and Kaiser Permanente.

The George Washington University 

Nana Agyemang of Accra, Ghana, is the recipient of a $2,500 scholarship as part of a partnership between GW and the WHCA. Nana is a photographer, all-around media specialist and winner of a J. Michael Shanahan journalism scholarship.  An internship at CBS News in Washington provided her with a range of news gathering, reporting, interviewing, production and broadcast experience. Nana founded “Freelance Photographer” and is editor-in-chief of The Ace magazine at GWU.

PHOTOS OF THE SCHOLARSHIPS RECIPIENTS