“She was just really a lovely person to be around and it was just really clear that her energy was present, both in her writing and in her personal life,” Sasha Poma said as she reflected on Maggie Bringhurst.
On Aug. 6, 2022, Bringhurst, a former opinion writer for the Daily Utah Chronicle, died in a car crash while on a road trip through Nevada just before her senior year.
In her memory, UStarter created and is fundraising for a scholarship in her name, “The Maggie Anne Bringhurst Memorial Scholarship in Communication.”
The scholarship is intended to support communication majors, who, like Bringhurst, “pursue interests in journalism through student media at the University of Utah,” according to the site.
In light of fundraising, former Chronicle opinion editor Zahra Saifee and former assistant opinion editor Sasha Poma reflected on the writer and person Bringhurst was during her time at the Chronicle.
Poma said Bringhurst had a “spark” editors noticed early on in her hiring process at the Chronicle.
“She just immediately stood out as a candidate for the opinion desk,” Poma said. “It was clear that she had a lot to say and that she could do it articulately. She was very poignant with every issue that she did.”
Saifee said Bringhurst set the bar high at the opinion desk, writing with integrity and covering stories to promote a better campus and society.
“She was always looking to learn more and always looking to be a better writer,” Saifee said. “She would figure out the story and figure out the angle that was going to push forth what she thought was a better world.”
Bringhurst’s opinion articles with the Chronicle included topics of transgender and abortion rights and focused on campus and state legislation and politics.
Poma remembered Bringhurst loved working as a team with the opinion desk.
“She was very receptive to feedback and community building like she always wanted to collaborate with people and try to work an angle with somebody she just liked,” Poma said. “We just noticed that she gravitated towards certain issues and she wanted to be paired with people who would work on those issues with her. She was just a very friendly person who wanted to get to know her team and work with your team.”
Bringhurst’s legacy, according to Saifee, showed what it means to be a curious student and said what Bringhurst left was “really having genuine interest and curiosity about learning more about the world,” she said. “She just genuinely had that drive to go seek answers and find stories and highlight people and issues and solutions and problems that other people glazed over.”
Poma said Bringhurst’s legacy was honest and rigorous reporting. Poma said she would inspire her teammates to develop energetic pitches and find purpose behind what they wrote.
Poma also reflected on Bringhurst’s humor, referencing a photo displayed on Bringhurst’s news X account featuring characters from “That 70’s Show” posing as “The Last Supper.”
“She was just very fun in the moments where we could talk about stuff other than her writing,” she said.
Saifee said she is thankful for the moments they shared together.
“I just had a lot of confidence in her and I’m just really grateful that I got to spend time with her.”
The U “invites friends, family and community members to support The Maggie Anne Bringhurst Scholarship in Communication to celebrate Maggie’s life and honor her legacy.”
The scholarship has funded about $5,000 of its $25,000 goal so far and is still accepting donations.
