Catching up With: John Huntsman '08

When forced to choose one thing that attracted him to the University of Vermont, Honors College alum John Huntsman '08 said it was simply the school and the local culture that gave him a good feeling about going to college in Vermont. That, and the skiing.

"It was just a nice change from New Jersey," Huntsman, a Rumson native, said.

It was a good move, he said. He met some of his best friends on his first day in the Honors College. He was able to get outside and enjoy the surrounding areas. He admits that he's not the most academic-minded of students, but as an Honors College student and a Business Administration major he was able to find his niche.

"I'm more of an entrepreneurial-minded person," Huntsman said, and he was able to find mentors at UVM that helped him broaden his horizons and enable him to think about who he wanted to be as a future businessman. Huntsman said he had a few professors he was close to at UVM, but Professor Mark Youndt in the School of Business had a strong influence on him. Youndt's lecture on equifinality especially hit home.

"He preached equifinality, the belief that there's an infinite number of ways to reach the same result," Huntsman said. And while Youndt applied the term to a business model, that same philosophy would come into play when Huntsman graduated and began working his way into the professional world.

"I graduated at kind of a precarious time when the economy was tanking," he said. He had wanted a finance job in New York City, so he spent the summer working as a waiter and applying for jobs. One night, during a slow shift, he met his future boss and was hired as a Project Manager for KL Communications. Huntsman began working for the boutique marketing firm and worked with company clients such as Time Inc., Bloomberg, Dairy Queen and Delta.

He's been with the Red Bank, New Jersey company since 2008, and he says that his experiences learning about business inside of the classroom and working with and befriending people outside of the classroom at UVM has played a strong role in who he is today. But, he says for students who are just coming into the Honors College, all that will come in time. In the meantime, UVM and the Honors College will be a place where you can expand your horizons.

"Go into each situation open-minded," Huntsman said. "Just dive in and go for it. You'll get something great out of the experience."

"It's not just academics. Going to college in Burlington and living in that environment is just awesome," Huntsman said. "It's not just the Honors College. It's everything UVM has to offer."

Last modified March 31 2011 02:13 PM