Dr. Carl D. Swanson ’78 earned a bachelor’s degree in music at URI. He is now a retired public school teacher.

Q. How did your URI degree best prepare you for your career path?

A. URI turned out to be the best possible fit for me as I grew to adulthood. My B.M. in Music Education provided me with so many experiences, musically, academically, and socially that I have used throughout my career. URI allowed me to find myself. There were so many people there that listened to me and pointed me in the right direction.

In your opinion, what is the value of the arts both academically and in the community?

The arts nurture the soul and the mind. Moreover, because artistic endeavors tend to be stored in the right hemisphere of one’s brain, the arts encourage the cooperation of the right hemisphere of the brain as signal cross the corpus callosum to engage the left hemisphere, giving the student a more well-rounded look at other academic subjects.

What advice would you give to current students or to young people thinking of pursuing a Fine Arts degree?

FOLLOW YOUR HEART! And be aware that your heart may change paths along the way. I knew that I wanted a career as an opera singer, but I knew the chances were slim, so I earned my teaching degree. I spent my whole adult life as a teacher, starting out as a public school music teacher, becoming a third grade classroom teacher, teaching singing at the college level. Upon retirement I became a yoga teacher and an ESL teacher.