Alumni in the News
Wendy Mann Hornick, CW’73, SW’75
You have put your educational experiences to excellent use serving society, especially children and the chronically ill. At the College for Women, you majored in psychology and education, made the Dean’s List, belonged to Kite and Key and the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, served as Secretary of the Senate (Student Government), and graduated cum laude, all while volunteering two days a week at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. You went on to get your Master’s from Penn’s Graduate School of Social Work (recently renamed the School of Social Policy and Practice) and a post-Master’s certificate from Christopher’s Hospice in London, England.
For 25 years you have dedicated yourself to the American Cancer Society, pioneering as the group’s first paid social worker and then, as a volunteer, earning the prestigious St. George Award. Your current positions as Second Vice President of the Society’s Eastern Division Board of Directors and President of the New York City Advisory Board are an indication of the high regard in which you are held. Your work has brought you not only intrinsic rewards but also adventure and excitement. In recent years, you traveled to Russia to help establish The Baikal Cancer Society. At home in New York, you stood on center court at Madison Square Garden to receive the Coaches vs. Cancer Award. Currently, you are leading a campaign to build an American Cancer Society Hope Lodge for patients and families.
Penn, too, has been an ongoing focus of your selfless care and attention. Joining the Overseers of the then School of Social Work in 1977, you have served on its Dean Search Advisory Committee, and chaired an annual appeal, as well chairing its first-ever Adopt-A-Classroom Reunion Class Giving Program. A former Dean of the School, Ira Schwartz, credits you with helping to catapult it into a position of national prominence by playing a major role in the restructuring of the Board of Overseers and supporting the School’s strategic plan. Dean Richard Gelles, agrees. “Without Wendy,” he says, “I doubt we would even have a school today, let alone one that is nationally ranked and highly regarded by students and graduates.” It is no wonder that your many awards include the School’s Certificate of Recognition.
You have served Penn in many other ways as well — as a founding member of The Penn Club of New York, a leading volunteer for the “Celebration of 125 Years of Women at Penn”, and an enthusiastic supporter of Mask & Wig. With your alumnus husband, Louis, you support two endowed scholarships, one in memory of your Penn father-in-law. Your Penn family also includes your brother, great-aunt, brother-in-law, late uncle, and son Tripp, who received the 2002 Penn Alumni Student Award of Merit.
For acting on Benjamin Franklin’s edict, “well done is better than well said,” and for serving as a model of excellence for our alumni around the world, Penn Alumni is delighted to present you with a 2005 Alumni Award of Merit.