Dusty Swanson is an Army veteran of two different stints, but now the 44-year-old is celebrating a diploma from Carl Sandburg College.
It’s been a long time between tours at Sandburg for Swanson, who first attended on the GI Bill in 1998 after enlisting right out of high school.
He left after a few semesters to take a job with Ameren Illinois, where he’s been employed since. Today he’s an electric operations supervisor at the Ameren Galesburg Operating Center.
But he realized to move further in management, he was going to need an education. That prompted a return to Sandburg in the Spring of 2019 again using the GI Bill.
Swanson also felt the pull to finish the mission that he started at Sandburg over two decades ago.
Twice he earned a spot on the College’s dean’s list and honors list once on his way to graduating, getting at least a 3.0 grade point average in all three semesters.
Swanson pushed himself to become the first person in his lineage to earn a college degree. This was as his oldest of three kids is enrolled at the University of Colorado.
He was also motivated by his wife Laura’s degree from Monmouth.
