(Posted April 23, 2007)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Christopher Burlingame, a sophomore from Altoona, Pa. and the son of Jay and Patty Burlingame, has been chosen to receive the prestigious Andrew Mutch Scholarship from the St. Andrews Society of Philadelphia. Only five students from 19 participating colleges and universities in and around Philadelphia are selected to attend one of the five universities in Scotland for one year. Burlingame is the 18th Juniata College student to receive this prestigious award since Juniata's affiliation with the program in 1979. He will study at St. Andrews College during his junior year, the 2007-08 academic year. To be considered for the scholarship, a student must first be in the top fifth of the sophomore class. The candidate then completes an application and interviews with the president, provost, dean of international programs, international education committee, and the scholarship committee. From these interviews, each institution selects one candidate who then travels to Philadelphia to compete for one of the five scholarships. Burlingame, who is studying English, hopes to take part in the college's yearlong fiction writing program. Burlingame is considering a secondary emphasis in his major on creative writing. Last summer, he was accepted into the prestigious Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, a weeklong intensive conference for new and established writers at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. In addition, the sophomore has already published a novel, "In the Stacks," while he was still a student at Altoona Area High School. He published the novel at a print-on-demand Web-based publisher.
Burlingame also works as the sports editor and movie reviewer for the Juniatian, the college's student newspaper and has submitted stories for Kvasir, the college's student literary magazine.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.