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With his first record produced with a prominent jazz group at 19 years old, Horace Alexander Young started on his path to triumph. It was not only because he was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, but he believes in maximizing each stroke of luck that comes along.

Young, a WSU alumnus, has received honorable recognition as the 531st recipient of the WSU Alumni Award.

Young recorded records in both the 20th and 21st century, and this is not typical for a lot of high profile artists to have the chance to do, he said.

He conducted the National Symphony in South Africa in 1993 while that country was politically and socially being dismantled and reassembled.

“It was the interim time between the ending of apartheid and the election of Nelson Mandela,” Young said, “to be a part of that process and to do something that had never been done in that country made a contribution beyond measure.”

Young’s advice to students is that an individual can never be too prepared or over-qualified. Students thrive in school with the support of faculty members, who guide and prepare them for their future up until graduation. These students become inspiring alumni, who may come back to teach at WSU only to influence the next generation of students.

“If you box yourself in, in terms of thinking and your approach, then something may come along and you’ll hesitate,” Young said, “but if the opportunity comes along, that must stand for something.”

He said his education and teaching assistant experience at WSU solidified his dreams for the future. He’s appreciative that he was able to get the foundation he needed to prosper in the way he did and that he is able to give back.

His master’s thesis was published as a book and he was later recruited by a magazine. He wrote for Gig Magazine for two-and-a-half years. This is how he turned his luck into a blessing, he said.

“When you win an award a lot of people think of it as something the recipient is getting,” Young said. “It actually reflects upon the fact that you’ve given something back to that school.”

The faculty, he reflected as amazing people, took interest in who he was as a person and prepared him to be a great musician and humanitarian.

They embraced Young as a colleague immediately when he returned as a professor, and this inspired him to be the same type of teacher they were to him, he said.

Young tends to hire students in the professional world.

“We should be able to do that if we’ve done our jobs,” Young said. “Our students should be more successful than us.”

The training at WSU helped him become an accountable human-being and professional. If an individual holds themselves accountable, they will be successful, Young said.

“Accountability is what keeps us honest,” Young said. “Step up to the plate and own everything you do. Be deliberate. That’s really helped me.”

He emphasizes the importance of how an individual should be the best they can be in all things, because it is unsure when opportunities that align with one’s passions and interests in life will come along.

Young is currently the chair of contemporary music at Santa Fe University of Art and Design, continuing to stimulate the hearts and minds of the next generation of artists in the same ways he was inspired by WSU faculty.