Ricky Mark Zipp of Corvallis, Oregon, receives a $5,000 grant.
While a graduate student, Ricky has covered the Pentagon and US-led military operations against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. He and fellow WHCA scholarship winner Oyin Falana spent a week in Guantanamo Bay where they covered pre-trial hearings for Military Commission cases against Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four co-conspirators accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks. Ricky plans to stay in Washington after completion of his Master’s Degree in June. His long-term goal is to focus on national security topics as a foreign correspondent writing from Europe or the Middle East.