When Warren Johnson goes home after a long day on campus studying the beauty of mathematics, his routine looks unlike most college seniors.
Instead of roommates and late nights, his days end with giggles and family time. Johnson is married to his wife Elizabeth, and together they have a 2-year-old daughter, Naomi, with a son on the way this summer. He is also a transfer student from Linn-Benton Community College, already working on his accelerated master’s degree and a top scorer in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, one of the most difficult undergraduate math exams in North America.
For Johnson, mathematics is not only a passion. It’s a tool to build a meaningful life and provide for his family.
“If you want it hard enough, it’s possible. Being in college, you’re not always confident it’s going to work out, but I’ve been able to push and God’s helped me, Elizabeth’s helped me,” he said. “It’s been awesome. I’ve been able to skip courses to help fit a better timeline for my family.”
A winding path
Born in Utah and raised in Lebanon, Oregon, Johnson was homeschooled for much of his early education before attending Lebanon High School. He initially believed he struggled with math until realizing his mom was giving him more advanced content than typical for his age.
“I realized I could handle it,” he said. “And I actually enjoyed it.”
That enjoyment deepened when Johnson dove into calculus, and math began to feel less like repetition and more like exploration and connecting to the real world.
“That’s when I could first say math became beautiful,” Johnson said. “You realize there are many ways to solve a problem, and some of them are just elegant.”
Through Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC), he began college coursework while still in high school and eventually completed his associate degree there before transferring to Oregon State.
