WC's Kim Last to Appear on CBS Early Show, April 3: Junior Receives Scholarship from New York Women in Communications

Chestertown, MD, March 30, 2006 — Kim Last, a junior American studies and political science major and editor of Washington College's student newspaper, will appear on the CBS Early Show Monday, April 3, and then mingle with some of the most powerful women in the communications industry when she joins a group of young journalists being recognized by New York Women in Communications, Inc. at the 2006 Matrix Awards.

Kim, of Rego Park, New York, is of one of 15 scholarship winners selected by the women's communication organization to be feted in Manhattan at an awards ceremony that will include presentations by Katie Couric, Susan Sarandon, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The ceremony, sponsored by the Oxygen Network, will be hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, who will also receive a special Humanitarian Award, presented by Diane Sawyer.

Among this year's Matrix honorees and presenters are Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times, actress Geena Davis, Beth Comstock, President of NBCU Digital Media and Market Development, and Cynthia Leive, Editor-in-Chief of Glamour Magazine.

The organization considers mentoring young women an important part of their mission, offering career guidance as well as scholarship support. In anticipation of their television network appearance, NYWICI is helping the scholarship winners dress for success with a makeover featuring Ann Taylor career wear.

"Yes, I get to keep the suit, the shoes, the bag, everything," says Kim. "I know I shouldn't be excited about the clothes, but I am."

The NYWICI scholarship winners will be helping David Price do the weather from the CBS Early Show studio sometime between 8 and 8:30 a.m.

This is Kim's second WICI scholarship; as a high school student, she was one of five recipients of a $10,000 scholarship for college.

"The membership of WICI is very much a sisterhood, and these women believe in me," says Kim. "They really have taken me under their wing. I've been able to go to them for advice and guidance about what I can do to become a journalist. Before college, lots of women I talked to told me to take the liberal arts path; that's the reason I'm here. What better way to learn what it takes to enter the communications industry than to talk to an expert in the field? When I got the call about the scholarship, Barbara Brennan [Vice President, Lifetime Television] told me she recognized my name and wanted to be the one to call me. She was one of the first members of NYWICI that I met."

Kim is considering a career in print journalism and hopes to get her start as either a political writer in Washington or a general assignment reporter in New York.