The White House Correspondents’ Association awarded a $5,000 tuition grant in 2012-2013 to Omar Hasan Rahman, McLean, VA
Omar H. Rahman is a master’s degree candidate at Columbia’s Journalism School in New York and a Scholar in the International Fellows Program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He arrived at Columbia an accomplished, published, multi-platform journalist with an unusual background.
Omar found his first job in journalism as a television stringer correspondent for the AP: employment he landed with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and experience as an intern with Al Jazeera in Washington, DC. He considers himself fortunate to have been able to cover President Barack Obama’s 2008 election and first year in office. After one year with the AP, Omar made a personal decision to free-lance for three years in the Middle East. During this time he covered many of the most difficult socio-political problems in the region. His articles were published in Rolling Stone, Foreignpolicy.com, The Guardian, Vice Magazine, Al Jazeera English and The National.
As an Arab-American of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, it is one of Omar Rahman’s goals as a journalist to help Americans better understand the complex issues that exist in the Middle East.
