Andrew Kennedy named Judson University's 2017 Student Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois

Every fall, an outstanding senior from each of the four-year, degree-granting institutions of higher learning in Illinois is awarded the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award and becomes a Student Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

Student Laureates are honored for their leadership and service in curricular and extracurricular activities.

The student who will represent Judson University this year is Andrew Kennedy, a biochemistry/premedical major from Singapore.

As the 2017 Judson Student Laureate, Kennedy along with his parents and Judson President Dr. Gene C. Crume attended a special ceremony on Saturday, Nov. 11, held in the Hall of Representatives at the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill. While there, he was presented with the Lincoln Academy Student Laureate Medallion, a certificate of achievement, and the Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award in the amount of $1,000.

Kennedy is in the honors program and has earned dean's list honors throughout his time at Judson. He has spent the last four years here making the student community a better one. He has spearheaded initiatives to build community within the Department of Science and Mathematics, volunteering to be the student liaison to faculty, organizing departmental meetings each semester and a yearly barbecue social. He has worked as a volunteer with the World Leaders Forum and been a member of student government. In fact, as head of Student Advocacy for JSO, he traveled to Springfield, Ill., to lobby for bipartisan passage of a bill to distribute MAP grant monies. He has planned and served on the Global Outreach team and been on two trips to Belize. And the summer of 2016, he worked with a cancer research lab in Singapore, where he grew up.

Judson University is proud to have Andrew Kennedy as the university's 2017 Student Laureate.