Guard Honor Culpepper (’24 MCC) and the team landed a 51-41 victory against Smith College on March 16, 2024.
NYU Steinhardt student and student-athlete Honor Culpepper (’24 MCC) recently celebrated alongside her teammates as the NYU women’s basketball won the NCAA Division III Championship for the first time since 1997.
Culpepper, a guard on the Violets, is a senior in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC) – a program she chose to give herself a broad foundation for the future.
“When I was considering where I wanted to attend college and continue playing basketball, I was really interested in sports journalism and broadcasting, but I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself,” says Culpepper, who is originally from Tampa. “My teammate Jenny Walker (’23 MCC) was already majoring in MCC, and she spoke really highly of the vast and flexible curriculum.”
Culpepper did her research on the MCC program and was hooked. “All of the classes teach you to be a better reader and writer, which is so critical for so many kinds of roles,” she says
In the summer after her sophomore year, Culpepper moved to Atlanta to intern at CNN Sports – a position that made her realize that she enjoyed sports journalism but was more interested in bigger-picture issues.
“While at CNN Sports, we weren’t just reporting on who won what games, but also on the debate surrounding [transgender NCAA Division I champion swimmer] Lia Thomas,” says Culpepper. “The next year, I interned at CNN Opinion in Hudson Yards, where I got to work and copyedit with amazing writers across the spectrum, which sparked my interest in politics.” She then interned at Fox Nation working on short films, as well as at CBS Evening News with the research team.
After graduating from Steinhardt this spring, Culpepper is heading to law school. She hopes to potentially become a political correspondent to dovetail her love for journalism with her legal education, or perhaps work in media and communications law on issues such as First Amendment rights.
“I have known since my freshman year of high school that college would be the last step of my basketball career, and a huge part of me has always known that once the ball stops dribbling, I would have to go do something else,” says Culpepper. “NYU has made me feel well prepared for the future, and winning the championship game after an undefeated season was a really exciting way to conclude my time here.”
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