EXCELLENCE AT HOWARD
THREE STUDENTS WIN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS’ ASSOCIATION SCHOLARSHIPS Three Howard University students were awarded scholarships at the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) annual dinner on April 25. Winners were sophomore Brandi Hopkins, juniors Jourdan Henry and Precious Osagie-Erese. Henry, a broadcast journalism major and sports administration minor, received the Harry S. McAlpin, Jr., Scholarship, named for the first black reporter to cover a presidential news conference at the White House. Henry said he’d found out about the WHCA scholarship program from his mother, who watched the televised broadcast of winners from Howard University a previous year, and encouraged him to apply. Rejected the first time he applied, but not deterred, he submitted again during the following year’s scholarship cycle and won. “I was pretty much waiting that entire year to apply again and thinking about what I’d write in my essay,” said Henry. “I spent over a month working on my essay. So, when I found out, I was ecstatic.” Henry was told of his win in late March, and even now, is in disbelief that he met President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, who both attended the dinner. “It was really surreal. I still can’t believe it. And, everybody was talking about, beforehand, how it’s usually kind of noisy when the scholarships are announced,” said Henry. “But, I feel like the attention was pretty much on us the whole time. CNN cut it off (the live broadcast) and went to commercial, but everybody in the audience was respectful and recognized our hard work and achievements. Afterwards, a couple of people came up and talked to us and congratulated us.” Osagie-Erese, a junior from Nigeria and editor of Howard University’s newspaper, The Hilltop, and Montgomery, a sophomore broadcast journalism major and speech pathology minor, received the WHCA scholarship prize at the dinner. “The School of Communications is very proud of Jourdan, Precious and Brandi as recipients of 2015 White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship awards,” said School of Communications Dean Gracie Lawson-Borders. “They are the communicators of the future we look to who will continue the tradition of excellence in their academic and professional efforts.” Henry will be putting his $7,000 scholarship — the same amount awarded to Osagie-Erese and Montgomery—towards the upcoming semester’s tuition, and plans on interning with ONE World Sports for the summer. He will also received the National Association of Black Journalists Larry Whiteside Scholarship award in August. Henry, Hopkins and Osagie-Erese represent three of 27 students from Howard who have received WHCA scholarships since the inception of the organization’s scholarship program in 1991.