TIM KELLY PHOTO | Lauren Salmiery and Sara Amalia Maaiki accepted The Suffolk Times' 2011 Student Journalism Awards at a reception in Mattituck Thursday.

Every year The Suffolk Times presents one student from each local high school with its annual Student Journalism Award. Each student is awarded a certificate and small scholarship check.

The students received their awards during a ceremony at the Times/Review Newsgroup office in Matituck Thursday.

This year’s honorees are:

Sara Amalia Maaiki, Greenport High School

Sara has a special interest in Middle Eastern studies, the foreign service, learning Arabic, traveling, writing and reading.

She’s on her way to Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., where she plans on majoring in international relations and political science.

While in high school she served in student government and was vice president of her class, editor in chief of “The Quill,” active in the student council, drama club, high school band, served on the Southold Town Youth Bureau and is a member of the National Honor Society.

Lauren Salmiery, Southold High School

After graduating from Southold High School, Lauren will be moving on to American University in Washington, D.C. There’s no better location for her to pursue her major, political science.

While in high school she was busy with a number of activities, including student council, softball, the Southold Town Youth Bureau, the student newspaper “The Sentinel,” and served as a student representative to the Board of Education. She’s also being inducted into the National Honor Society.

Her special interests include politics, fashion, going to the beach and enjoying Southold.

Claire Leaden, Mattituck High School

In the fall Claire will be attending Manhattan College in Riverdale majoring in communications with a focus on either journalism or public relations. She’s already had the opportunity to write for the student newspaper, “The Quadrangle.”

Claire has been a writer for The Mattitalk,” performed in the schools dramas and a musical, served as president of the French Club and has danced for 11 years at the North Fork Academy of Dance in Cutchogue.

Seems Claire has been bitten by the travel bug. She hopes her trip to France and Greece a year ago is just the beginning and will be followed by other excursions in her college years and beyond.