The Johnson Family Writing Awards honor students for outstanding writing. An award is given to one student per college offering a writing-intensive (W) course, and one student from a First-Year Writing course. Winners are awarded at a ceremony held each April; eligible students must have participated in a writing course during the fall and spring preceding the awards (ex. The awards ceremony in Spring 2019 will award work completed in Spring 2018 and Fall 2018).

Students are nominated by professors to receive recognition for a superior paper written in either a writing-intensive (W) course or a First-Year Writing Course. Nominated papers are evaluated by a panel of writing instructors from a variety of disciplines.

These awards are generously funded by Peter Johnson, who received his B.A. in English from the University of New Haven in 1981. He later went on to receive his MBA from Stern at NYU, worked for 27 years for Eli Lilly and Company (the last 12 as VP of Strategy). He retired in 2014 but presently is a professor at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

Mr. Johnson’s interest in promoting teacher and student excellence in writing stems from what he learned about the importance of writing through his time at the University of New Haven and in his career. He tells us that the ability to communicate was critical to success; central to that was his ability to express himself in writing—whether in emails, memos, or Powerpoint decks. “I was lucky to have been exposed to great writing in the courses I took and I was required to learn how to write in my core English classes and in other courses in School of Arts and Sciences.  That education was foundational in my career. I’m happy to contribute back to a University in this small way. What I received from UNH far exceeds what I can give back.”