From the January 2011 Our Moment, The UConn Foundation's e-newsletter.
Back in the mid 1970s, UConn’s Department of Communication Sciences was a close-knit place. Faculty and students came to know each other well, and a young Marty Horn ’73 ’75, found an adviser and mentor in an advertising professor, Bill McEwen.
“The communication department was a very special place when I was there,” Horn says. “Being a part of that department shrunk the size of the university a lot. It shaped who I am intellectually and professionally.”
The professor eventually left UConn to return to advertising. The student did precisely what career counselors say not to do: He took a scattershot approach to job-hunting, sending out 100 resumes to potential employers. But he received a response – just one – from a marketing research firm and, remarkably, landed the job.
McEwen then helped Horn get a job at Needham, Harper and Steers in Chicago, now DBB Worldwide, a prominent global advertising and communications company, where Horn worked for several decades. He now runs his own firm, Horn Research and Consulting, and is an onsite consultant for an advertising agency that specializes in hospital marketing and advertising. “It’s gratifying to know that the work you’re doing is helping people make better-informed decisions about the hospitals they choose,” he says.
Horn’s appreciation for his education, and the contacts he made at UConn, propelled him to create a scholarship for a Communications student this year. “This is a way of giving back, because UConn helped shape me in many respects,” he says. “To some extent, it’s delayed reciprocity. UConn helped me 35 years ago, and now it is my turn to help someone there.”
The creation of the scholarship also drew him back to campus this past October, after a 35-year hiatus.
“Obviously, the campus changed a lot,” he says. “It looks great. And the Communications department has undergone a lot of transformation, too. Yet, when I was visiting the department, the atmosphere was almost like I’d never left. I spoke to students and teachers, and one morning, one of my professors, Jim Watt, who is now retired and lives within spitting distance of the campus, joined us for breakfast. I didn’t even know he was living there, but when Communications folks knew I was coming, they invited him and his wife, Alicia, who was a classmate of mine. I thought it was fabulous. “
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