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The first recipient of the NAACP Bonner Springs branch Education Committee scholarship award graduated this month from Howard University in Washington, D.C., and will begin graduate school there this fall.

Alexis Kimbrough is a 2004 graduate of Bonner Springs High School and received her bachelor's degree in business administration and accounting.

She's also the granddaughter of the president of the Bonner Springs NAACP, Mary Kimbrough and the daughter of Nina Kimbrough Smith, Edwardsville, and Brian Tolefree, Lawrence.

Alexis Kimbrough said she used the NAACP scholarship to buy books for her first year.

Howard University was the only school Kimbrough applied at, so she said she was "pretty excited" to learn she was accepted, both for undergraduate study and recently for graduate school.

"It's one of the best historically black colleges," Kimbrough said.

Washington, D.C., is "nice; a lot different than what you see on TV," Kimbrough said. "It's a nice atmosphere, and there's a lot of historic stuff to see and do while you're there."

Kimbrough said she'd visited all the monuments and museums along the National Mall, and liked best the Washington Monument. Also, Kimbrough said she enjoyed going on riverboat cruises on the Potomac.

When the Brown v. Board of Education decision came up for review before the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2006, Kimbrough participated in a march to the court with other Howard students in a show of support for the historic 1954 decision. And just last month, Kimbrough took part in a "March For Babies" with the March of Dimes, for which she was an ambassador.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama spoke at the school for its opening convocation for the fall 2007 semester, Kimbrough said.

"That was a pretty big deal," she said.

Kimbrough said she planned to work for two or three years in the field of taxes for an accounting firm after graduate school, and then she wants to open her own company, though where, she's not sure.

The NAACP Bonner Springs Branch will announce its 2008 scholarship award winner at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, May 31, at Sister's Restaurant, 11657 Kaw Drive.

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