Brendan Kearns, a Master of Journalism graduate from the University of Melbourne and current cadet at News Corp Australia, was named as the 2024 Student Journalist of the Year at the Melbourne Press Club Quill Awards.
He was recognised for his investigation “Energy drink companies using unis to get students ‘hooked’”, published in the Weekend Australian.
Last year, Brendan’s story was also awarded the 2024 Democracy’s Watchdogs national award for student investigative journalism.
Fellow CAJ alum, Chancy Quan, was shortlisted for the prize for her story in “Sunshine Station to receive $63.5 million boost but local concerns remain” published in The Westsider.
Brendan is the fifth CAJ graduate to win the coveted Quills Student Journalist of the Year award in the past six years. Previous recipients include Sasha Gattemayr (2023), now a freelance journalist; Petra Stock (2021), now a journalist with The Guardian; Jess Malcolm (2020), currently reporting for The US Sun; and Liam Petterson (2019), a Fact Checker Producer and Sub Editor at Australian Associated Press.
CAJ Alum Petra Stock was also recognised at this year’s Quills, and was highly commended in the category of Excellence in Science, Medical and Health Reporting for her story, “Do fish have feelings? Scientists believe they’re getting closer to an answer”, published in The Guardian.
The list of winners from the 30th MPC Quill Awards can be found here.
