The Story

Judd Kennedy ('08) Awarded Marshall Scholarship

Dec. 10, 2007 | By Jake Robert Nelson, DSJ Staff Reporter

Judd Kennedy (’08) was recently awarded the Marshall Scholarship, which provides American students with funds for graduate study in the United Kingdom. The last student at the College to be given this honor was Danielle Sepulveda in 1993. Kennedy is only the third student in the history of the College to receive the award.

In a press release on Kennedy’s accomplishments, President Gene Nichol said, “We’re delighted that the British government shares our boundless esteem for Judd Kennedy… He’ll bring much, including a humility all the more striking for his attainments, to the University of London--and no doubt make us proud for many years to come.”

Kennedy recounted the night during which he first found out about the scholarship. “It was the night of the JMU football game and a laundry night,” he said. “Then I saw a random missed call and a voicemail on my phone. There was a British voice saying, ‘Congratulations, Mr. Kennedy.’”

Kennedy’s reaction left his nearby friends dumbfounded. “I think that people thought I was crazy,” he said.

Kennedy, a Middle Eastern studies major, has been deeply involved with international politics and social justice since his arrival at the College.

He spent his first two years here in the Sharpe Community Scholars Program, which emphasizes service learning and research. Kennedy, who participated as both a Sharpe Scholar and Fellow, said that the program affected his views on an individual’s involvement in his community.

“It defined not only my views of justice and civic engagement, but how I look at life,” he said.

Kennedy notes that the College’s access to research opportunities sets it apart from many of its peer institutions. He received a grant from the Charles Center the summer after his freshman year to study the Arabic language and do research in the West Bank. “Studying [in the West Bank] was a catalyst for my interest in Middle Eastern studies, and it helped me stand out,” he said.

His interest in Middle Eastern affairs is evident in his other summer excursions abroad. After his sophomore year, Kennedy used his Monroe Scholar grant to travel to France and Germany and to research the effects of immigration from Northern Africa. After his junior year, he studied Arabic and volunteered with the Middle Eastern Council of Churches in Syria.

Kennedy stated, however, that some of his most meaningful experiences at the College required neither grants nor travel abroad.

“Many of my biggest revelations came from books that professors gave me to read,” Kennedy said. “There was often a spark from reading that made me want to implement change.”

Kennedy also noted two extracurricular opportunities that affected his worldview: the undergraduate Honor Council and the Gentlemen of the College a cappella group. He said that, although the former may have a more direct impact on his studies and career goals, the latter has had just as large an effect on his experiences at the College.

“The Honor Council helped me learn how to make hard decisions, and I learned a lot about myself,” Kennedy said. “Also, as chair of the council, I learned about managing a bureaucracy, which enhanced my study of governments.”

Despite what Kennedy described as “ups and downs” with a cappella, it is the activity in which he notes he is most involved. “It has colored everything I’ve done,” he says.

Next year, Kennedy will be studying at the University of London's School for Oriental and African Studies, where he plans to pursue two master’s degrees in international law and diplomacy and in international management for the Middle East region.

He is unsure, however, of what he will be doing after he finishes at the University of London.

“Maybe I’ll get a PhD, or maybe I’ll go right into a job,” Kennedy said. “It depends on what the world looks like.”

At any rate, Kennedy hopes to live in the Middle East and work with individual people, all the while using his Arabic language skills and a augmenting his knowledge of Arab culture.

“I want to be in a position to make positive changes in U.S. foreign policy and to make sure that catastrophes like [the war in] Iraq don’t happen again,” he said.