UNC Honors 55 With Johnston Scholarships

Posted on Sept. 17, 2008

UNC recently honored 39 freshmen and 16 nursing students with its most prestigious need-based merit awards, the annual James M. Johnston Scholarships. The freshmen scholarships are renewable for three more years of study.

Among the freshmen, 32 in-state and seven out-of-state students won the awards.

All students with financial need are considered for Johnston Scholarships, but merit determines the winners. Awards vary among recipients according to need.

UNC awarded $290,000 to entering freshmen, more than $55,000 to new undergraduate nursing students and $104,000 to new graduate nursing students, for a total of $408,000 in new Johnston Scholarships this year. Awards for new and returning Johnston Scholars totaled more than $1.5 million.

Johnston Scholars have numerous opportunities to widen their intellectual horizons and grow personally and socially, said Dan Thornton ’00 (PhD), associate director for the Office of Scholarships and Student Aid. Each is assigned a faculty mentor, who organizes extracurricular learning opportunities and offers friendship, guidance and support.

The scholars suggest topics for Johnston seminars, taught each semester by Carolina faculty or distinguished visitors and offered for academic credit. Scholars are given preference for enrollment in the seminars. The scholars also plan and execute an annual spring issues forum.

The awards are funded by the Johnston Trust of Chevy Chase, Md., founded by the late James M. Johnston ’17, an Orange County native who established an investment banking firm in Washington, D.C., and owned the Washington Senators baseball team in the 1960s.

Undergraduates entering the UNC School of Nursing as juniors and graduate nursing students are eligible for Johnston Nursing Awards, a special focus of the Johnston program. Winners are included in most of the Johnston program’s special events, and a senior award is given annually for the most outstanding nursing student.

The list of recipients is available online.

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