November 13, 1998
Middlebury College Announces 1998 Recipients of
the 20th Annual Ward Prize in Writing for First-Year
Students
Three Students Also Receive Honorable Mention
The 20th annual Paul W. Ward ‘25 Memorial
Prize in Writing for first-year students at Middlebury College
was awarded this year to first-place winner Daniel Xavier Choi
of Auburndale, N.Y., for his essay “The Joy and Pain of Knowledge.”
The $500 prize is presented annually to the first-year student
whose writing best exemplifies, in the words of the bequest, “The
use of basic English as the writer’s most necessary tool: precise
and exact usage of words, exact meanings, phrases expressed lucidly
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Choi wrote his paper, which explored several philosophers’
views on knowledge, including those of Socrates and Nietzche,
for instructor Martha Woodruff’s seminar “Ancient Greek Philosophy
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This year the prize was expanded to include two runners
up, each of whom received $250-Kris Anderson of Portland, Ore.,
for her paper “Everything Changes,” and Sofi Hall of
Saugerties, N.Y., for her paper “The Apple of Knowledge.”
The Paul W. Ward ‘25 Memorial Prize was established
by Ward’s widow, Dorothy Cate Ward ‘28, in 1978. Ward, who won
a Pulitzer Prize and received the French Legion of Honor, enjoyed
a life-long career as a journalist and diplomatic reporter. The
award is sponsored by Tom and Marren Meehan of Bethesda, Md. Mrs.
Meehan is the daughter of Dorothy Cate Ward.
In presenting the awards, Mary Ellen Bertolini of
the English department noted that she was especially impressed
this year with the range of interests the students’ writing represented.
“It’s especially gratifying,” she said, “because
when Middlebury College committed itself to requiring writing
in courses throughout the curriculum, and not only in English
courses, we committed ourselves to an idea about the place of
writing in a liberal arts education.”
Receiving honorable mention for the Ward Memorial
Prize in Writing were Laurel Cadwallader of Kingsport, Tenn.,
for her paper “Do Dreams Come True?;” Zach Robert of
Littleton, Colo., for his paper “Disobedience: A Commentary
on Plato’s Crito;” and Julie Russell of Pittsford, N.Y.,
for her paper “Variations of Affection: Three Looks at Jane
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