Student attends 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner
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President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden greet White House Correspondents’ Association scholarship recipients at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C., Saturday, April 27, 2024, before the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. (Official White House Photo by Erin Scott)
Graduating senior Eli Boldt was very grateful for the opportunity to return to Washington, D.C., this April after interning at the Smithsonian Affiliations Office last summer.
This time it was to attend the 2024 White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) Scholarship luncheon and the annual WHCA Dinner.
“It was a lot of fun,” they said. “I felt very lucky to be able to go and to be there.”
Boldt was able to travel to Washington thanks to the Carter Holland Memorial scholarship. UT alumnus and longtime Reuters’ White House correspondent Steve Holland and his wife, Lucie Holland, established the scholarship in honor of his late son Carter, a promising young journalist who died in 2020.
The annual scholarship helps cover the costs for a student to attend the WHCA scholarship luncheon and annual dinner. Boldt said they were able to meet Steve Holland and thank him personally for the opportunity.
Boldt had never visited the White House before so touring the building was one of the highlights of the trip for them. They had a first-hand opportunity to see professional journalists at the White House in action and even meet President Joe Biden, who greeted the students.
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Boldt said meeting the White House journalists was also very exciting for them as an aspiring journalist. This experience, along with other opportunities they’ve had at the College of Communication and Information, has only deepened their passion for the field. Their faculty’s enthusiasm and joy for teaching journalism has greatly impacted them as a student.
Their positive classroom experiences led them to get more involved on campus by working for The Daily Beacon. Boldt started off as a contributor before being encouraged by their peers to apply for the news editor position.
“I feel very grateful for them,” Boldt said. “I just love writing and I have really loved seeing the campus through the lens of journalism over the last few years.”
They’ve come a long way since their love for storytelling first started in high school. Boldt’s high school teacher recruited them to work on the school’s yearbook, and they enjoyed interviewing and getting to know others so much they decided to pursue journalism as a career.
That all led to this pivotal moment in Washington where they met both professionals and student peers alike who share their passion for journalism.They were overjoyed to have so many students there and to have the chance to interact with everyone. The journalists gave advice about breaking into their industry, shared stories about their experiences in college, and more.
As part of the visit, students were matched up with mentors. Boldt said their mentor was Spectrum News Washington correspondent Cassie Semyon. Mentors are matched up with students for a year and will connect with each other several times throughout that time.
“It was just such an awesome time to be able to meet with somebody who does what I want to do, and see how much joy they get from watching us succeed as well,” they said.
In addition to getting to meet famous journalists, Boldt also met celebrities at the White House Corresspondent’s Dinner. Boldt said their favorite celebrity they met was actor Chris Pine, who sat near their table at the dinner.
“It was a pretty epic weekend,” Boldt said. “It just felt very surreal and exciting.”
Student attends 2024 White House Correspondents’ Dinner written by Ernest Rollins and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.