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

and gracefully.”

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

and Poetry.”

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

Austen’s Mr. Knightley.”