Karissa Braxton

The White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship prize is a one-time award of $7,000. This year’s recipients are three students from Howard University.

Karissa Braxton, a junior at Howard University, dates the beginning of her interest in politics, news and media to Barack Obama’s first Presidential Campaign. Karissa has made the Dean’s List as a Broadcast Journalism major in both the College of Arts and Science and the School of Communications. Since 2011, she has interned for the Trinity Broadcast Network, Urban Forum Northwest and a law firm in Seattle. Karissa has also been a tutor in math and reading in the District of Columbia, a news reporter for the Spotlight TV Network and she has experience in sales and office management. Karissa is a Scholar in the Student Mentor Program and a recipient of a New Beginnings Christian Fellowship Scholarship.

Candy Crowley’s strong and even-handed job as moderator of the second Presidential Debate during the 2012 election left a profound impression on Karissa. It reinforced her belief in the importance of journalists who work beholden to truth and facts rather than politics. Karissa hopes one day to emulate Candy Crowley’s strong, inquisitive and irrefutably accurate brand of journalism.