In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth… and books.
Ann Horner throughout her life has loved reading. Her passion began with Nancy Drew books which she read voraciously. This love was aided by her bibliophile father who lended her copies of classic literature, such as Gulliver’s Travels and Call of the Wild. Horner felt reading was a logical hobby in the same way breathing was a logical` hobby… “it just made sense”.
Horner’s love of reading led her to what she describes as a ‘no doubter’ decision to major in English. Similarly to the current cultural feelings around higher education, Horner’s contemporaries were all focused on a business major.
Much as Benjamin Schmidt describes in his 2018 article “The Humanities are in Crisis”, “While coverage of individual academic disciplines like musicology, history, or comparative literature often deals with the substance of scholarship, talk of the humanities in general always seems to focus on their imminent extinction.”
Paving her own path, Horner began a foray in English, despite a self-proclaimed weakness in dissecting literature.
Success despite adversity
Ann Horner began her college career in the teaching tract hoping to inspire the next generation. It was throughout this journey that she soon realized that her passion did not reside in teaching as she once thought. Due to this sudden change in her career path, she was left with very little plan for her upcoming future. Despite working throughout her college career as a Resident Assistant, Secretary, and an assistant at an Art Gallery; Ann Horner was left with very little options upon graduation.
Handwork and a rigorous application process found her working in the admissions program at Coker College. In this role she found herself working more in what she considered ‘marketing’… that is persuading students to come to the college through informal written mediums. This skill would become the crux of her professional career, but more on that later.
After Horner’s time at Coker, she was married which brought her to the beautiful state of Pennsylvania. Ann Horner then became a paralegal writing briefs and wills while working closely with family law. In this occupation she gained a keen sense of interpersonal relationships and how to connect with individuals.
After her divorce, Horner went to Penn State to pursue a masters in higher education. It was after receiving this degree that she began to work at her new Alma Mater in fundraising. In this portion of her career she once again used her excellent people skills to converse with donors on how they would like to allocate their money. Horner further used her English tutelage to write agreements to donors to assure that their agreements were concrete and conducive to a continuing relationship. Horner continued this career path among many different institutions becoming the Director of Development at the University of North Carolina, the Duke University Medical Center, and the Executive Director of Development at NC State’s College of Education.
Upon being asked why she enjoyed this career path Horner said, “I loved not having to use sparkly writing”
Advice from Ann
Ann Horner has had a unique perspective on the viability of an English Degree. Any self-respecting English major would beg for her vast array of advice, but Ann enjoys to keep it simple and straight forward… “Find out what you’re good at and talk to people”. To Ann the true viability of English is not in its writing but in the core approach it provides in analyzing the world and seeing possibilities. As her career started she dreamed of being a teacher only to realize the profession was not for her. This did not dissuade her as she found through trial and error a profession that is both fulfilling and viable for her skill set. Horner persuades English Majors to find their “perfect match” and to not stay stuck in a profession simply because of its comfortability.
“You’ll figure it out if you explore a bit”- Ann Horner