PITTSBURG, Kan. — The high school journalism students who gained national attention after uncovering discrepancies in their new principal’s credentials — which led to the woman’s resignation — have been invited to attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday, April 29.

Those who have been invited to attend are Pittsburg, Kansas, high school students Maddie Baden, Gina Mathew, Trina Paul, Connor Balthazor, Kali Poenitske and Patrick Sullivan; adviser Emily Smith; and Eric Thomas, of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association. The invitation, they said, comes courtesy of The Huffington Post.

“I think we are all pretty excited,” Smith told the Joplin, Missouri Globe. “It was not anything like we were anticipating; we thought things were dying down. We’re very honored and flattered that they thought of us.”

An investigation last month by the student newspaper, The Booster Redux, into Amy Robertson raised concerns about her credentials. The Pittsburg Board of Education had hired Robertson, who worked with an education consulting firm in Dubai, to take the role of high school principal after she was recommended for the position by a hiring committee.

The Booster Redux investigation uncovered that the university from which Robertson said she had received her degrees was unaccredited. It also reported that Robertson did not have a Kansas administrator’s license, and it questioned whether she would be able to obtain one by August 2018, the deadline given in her contract.

After the publication of that report at the end of March, Robertson resigned her position on April 4. The story quickly went viral, as major national media outlets reported on the role that The Booster Redux played in the situation.

At the Washington, D.C., event, which is a red carpet, black-tie affair, the student journalists will be rubbing elbows with some of the biggest names in journalism — recent Pulitzer Prize winner David Fahrenthold, of The Washington Post, as well as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, journalism icons of the Watergate era who will present awards on behalf of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Hasan Minhaj, a comedian and senior correspondent on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” will serve as the entertainer. Neither President Donald Trump nor members of his staff are expected to attend.

The White House Correspondents’ Association represents reporters and journalists on news coverage, access and travel with the U.S. president. Proceeds from its annual dinner go toward scholarships and awards that recognize aspiring and accomplished journalists.

Younker writes for the Joplin, Missouri Globe.