Judge graduating seniors Emily Andrews and Matt Kirkegaard awarded 2011 Salt Lake Tribune journalism scholarships

The Salt Lake Tribune has awarded scholarships to 20 Utah high school graduates for their excellence in student journalism. Each student receives a $500 college scholarship from The Tribune. Honored from Judge Memorial Catholic High School are Emily Andrews and Matt Kirkegaard.

Emily was the editor of Judge Memorial’s Bulldog Press. She led the transition from newsprint to a magazine format for the newspaper. The move gave more appreciation to photographers and designers, whose work Emily thought looked better on the slick-paper format, and it allowed readers to download the publication and read it on iPAds. In addition to overseeing this transition, Emily wrote several articles, including a Letter from the Editor column. As a senior, she was a first place honoree in the 2011 English Quest for Photo Essay-Digital, and was awarded first place in Book Cover Design as a junior. Emily was also the editor of the Judge History Project, a book of storied collected from alumni who have shared their Judge Memorial and St. Mary of the Wasatch experiences.

Matt was a member of the Judge Memorial’s newspaper staff for four years. He wrote editorial pieces on topics ranging from politics to the environment. Matt also volunteered with river cleanups, removing invasive, non-native plants along the Green River. He volunteers with The Nature Conservance, Utah Rivers Council, the Utah Food Bank and the St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center. He was involved in humanitarian projects in South America along the Amazon River in Peru. Matt represented Judge Memorial at the annual Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program as a sophomore, and was a 2010-2011 National Merit Foundation commended student.

The 20 students receiving 2011 scholarships represent the following high schools: Bingham, Brighton, Davis, East, Granger, Highland, Judge Memorial, Kearns, Riverton, Skyline, Taylorsville and West.