Atchison Horn ’10 accepts Young Alumni Achievement Award

Brittany Atchison Horn, class of 2010, you took advantage of every extraordinary opportunity you could throughout your four years on the Hilltop.

You founded a Sustained Dialogue chapter and STEP–Students Together Eradicating Poverty. You helped lead an Alternative Spring Break trip to Honduras. You completed research projects with the United Nations World Food Programme in Bolivia and  internally displaced persons camps in Kenya. You completed a Cornell Fellowship in public policy with former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin in Washington, D.C. All of this laid the foundation for an incredible life.

After leaving the Hilltop, you travelled to Nigeria to launch EmpowerHER, a microfinance initiative that empowered women to create their own businesses, born out of the collaborative Iowa-Nigeria Partnership with the United Methodist Church.  After nine months, you built a staff of nine people in four regions, launched 40 microfinance groups, and empowered 400 female entrepreneurs to start and sustain their own businesses. The estimated impact of this initiative numbered over 20,000 people.

Your work continues to bring people together. Professionally you are an area director with N2 Publishing and you own The Chronicle, a community publication for the Bearpath Neighborhood in Eden Prairie. Through your involvement with International Outreach Church you have again traveled to Kenya to help orphans. You and your husband, Ryan, are senior leaders at the Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, where you are responsible for vision implementation, systems management, and oversight of 10 departments.

Your commitment to human rights and service exemplify the highest ideals of a liberal arts education. On behalf of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the entire Cornell community, we are honored to recognize you with the Young Alumni Achievement Award.