New career leads to community education center
New career leads to community education center
Catherine Swift has had two full careers, but she’s embarked on yet another one. She is the new director of the Fairfield Bay Community Education Center. “I’m too young to retire,” she said. Swift, 56, began her new job in June. “This is a dream job,” Swift said of her new position. “I have been very fortunate to lead a group of talented instructors and develop programs and classes for the residents and resort guests of Fairfield Bay.”
Classes in a variety of subjects are offered as one-day weekly sessions or multi-sessions. These subjects include art, photography, music, cake decorating, stained glass, fused glass, jewelry making, computer navigation tips, Ukrainian egg decorating and more.
“We offer a wide gamut of classes,” Swift said. “We often take requisitions for classes.
“We are affiliated with the continuing education department at Arkansas State University at Heber Springs. Some of their instructors teach here.”
Minimal fees are charged for the courses and registration.
The Fairfield Bay Community Education Center is at 130 Village Lane, Suite E, Building 5. The center is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, with extended hours on Thursday until 7 p.m. The
He was an instructor jet pilot with the Navy,” she said. “I met him while skydiving in Beeville, Texas.”
Catherine Swift
DIRECTOR OF THE FAIRFIELD BAY COMMUNITY EDUCATION CENTER
center closes the second week of December and reopens in February.
For more information, call (501) 844-4440.
The Community Education Center was opened in 2009. Swift is the fourth director of the center, which is a nonprofit organization.
“I have to give credit to the past directors,” Swift said. “They include Robbie Ingle, Sherry Guess and, most recently, Trudy Gautreau.”
Swift was born in Panama in Central America, where she graduated from Balboa High School. She started college at Panama Canal College and received her first degree, an Associate of Science, in 1983.
“I married, had a daughter and went to work for the United States Army in Panama. They gave you the opportunity to learn computer language,” Swift said.
“I worked on computers in the U.S. Army Medical Hospital System in Panama. That was back in the ’80s,” she said. “The American government started downsizing and kicked us out of the Canal Zone. My first husband and I moved to Corpus Christi, Texas.
“It was hot and tropical, and we were on the ocean — just like in Panama, and the people spoke Spanish.”
Swift’s second daughter was born in Corpus Christi.
“I left employment with the United States Army in Panama and was hired by the Naval Hospital in Corpus Christi, where I eventually transferred to the Chief of Naval Air Training at the Naval Air Station,” she said. “My first husband and I divorced shortly after.”
Swift worked as a computer specialist/systems analyst for CNATRA from 1989 to 2001.
“I worked with the computer system that helped teach the pilots to fly,” she said of her first career.
It was while she was working for the Department of the Navy that she met Harvey Swift. They married in 1992.
“He was an instructor jet pilot with the Navy,” she said. “I met him while skydiving in Beeville, Texas.
“We had a brief one-year assignment to Puerto Rico, where I volunteered with the American Red Cross,” she said. “When we returned to Texas, I continued to work as a senior computer specialist with [CNATRA] flight training systems until 2001, when I started working as a graduate student, doctoral candidate and adjunct professor with Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi.”
It was during this time in Corpus Christi that Swift obtained additional college degrees.
She received a graduate diploma in national security and strategic studies in 1996 from the Naval War College in Rhode Island. Three other degrees were earned at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi: a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in management information systems in 1999, a Master of Science degree in curriculum and instruction (reading) in 2003 and a Doctorate of Education in higher education administration in 2009.
After she left the Naval Air Station, she began her second career — in the field of education at Texas A&M at Corpus Christi, where she served in a variety of positions from August 2001 to July 2009.
Swift was a doctoral research assistant and adult tutor for the university’s Center for Educational Development, Evaluation and Research; an academic coordinator for the university’s department of educational administration and research, facilitating the TIES (Training, Internships, Exchanges and Scholarships) to Mexico Program; a faculty adviser and head coach of the university’s equestrian team; a doctoral assistant and writer in the university’s department of educational administration and research; an adjunct professor in the department of curriculum and instruction for seven years; a doctoral assistant and grant writer for CEDER; a doctoral assistant for the university’s educational center for math and science; and an assistant director for the Governor’s Academy for Teaching Excellence.
Swift’s husband retired from the Navy and was hired as a pilot with Southwest Airlines based in Houston, Texas; he still flies for Southwest.
“We maintain a residence in Texas and travel frequently,” she said.
After moving to Arkansas, Swift continued her career in education.
She did her doctoral practicum as the assistant director of the Arkansas Governor’s School (held at Hendrix College in Conway) in the summer of 2008 and was hired as the resident master for the State Residential College at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway in fall 2008.
“I taught at UCA for seven years,” she said. “I taught courses in transitional literacy and first-year experience, or how to be a college student.”
She was also the head coach and faculty adviser for the UCA Equestrian Club/Intercollegiate Horse Show Association team at UCA.
“We were able to purchase our dream retirement home at the Holley Mountain Airpark (outside Clinton) in the late winter of 2013,” Swift said. “We moved our four horses to the top of the mountain during the worst ice storm — everything froze and broke, and my husband was away on a trip.
“My daughters said I was living in The Hunger Games,” she said with a laugh.
Swift said her husband builds experimental airplanes.
In addition to their four horses, the Swifts also have three dogs and one Siamese cat.
“It’s my dog and pony show,” she said.
“We raise and train thoroughbred horses,” Swift said. “We have several with Kentucky Derby ties. We have a granddaughter of Secretariat, and we recently bred a 3-yearold with a Strike the Gold pedigree. We also have a huge Belgian draft horse that’s 18 hands high and has won all sorts of awards.
“Then we have a half-thoroughbred, half-Clydesdale horse that is a registered therapy horse,” Swift said. “He’s registered through ABLEPaws Inc. in Little Rock.”
Swift said she has taken the horse to Camp Aldersgate in Little Rock, where children in wheelchairs or on crutches or walkers “come up and brush him.”
“He just stands still. It’s good for him and for the children.”
Swift has also raised therapy dogs for many years.
“I use dogs to teach kids to read,” she said.
In fact, her dissertation for her doctorate was on the Reading Education Assistance Dog Program, an international program that uses therapy dogs to help at-risk students succeed at reading.
“It’s simply the child reading out loud to the dog,” she said. “The dog loves the child, and the child loves the dog. The dog doesn’t correct the child if a word is mispronounced or if the tone of voice is not correct. The program simply encourages the child to read.”
Swift has two Great Pyrenees and a border collie that “adopted us after we moved to Holley Mountain,” she said.
Following the April 2014 tornado in Faulkner County, Swift led several workshops addressing the issue of animals in disaster. She co-chaired an animal welfare committee and created the Faulkner County Animal Emergency Response Plan for the Faulkner County Judge’s Office.