A Word from the Faculty — Stuart Gillespie

     Often we find the path to our life’s passion and purpose through some unexpected route.   My dream had been to work in sociology for which I entered the Peace Corps training program.  However, Viet Nam was raging, and instead of becoming a volunteer in India, my draft status took me instead to Germany.  It was there that I auditioned for, and was accepted in, the famed US Army Chorus – Europe, a topnotch men’s singing group.  I was on a new career path.

     Once again a civilian with the GI Bill, I majored in music at the University of Connecticut.  This new path led me to a career in teaching music and choral directing.  At Naugatuck Valley College in Connecticut, I was able to tour with my students in Europe, to places I had known and loved so well. What a thrill it was to introduce my young singing ambassadors to the beauty of a foreign culture through music.  Many of my choir members had had little opportunity to travel and had never experienced the thrill of performing American repertory in a beautiful European church or concert hall. For my students these were life-changing experiences. Some found their own path into music, many became choir singers for life, and all became awed by that which they had known only in pictures.

     Over the years my career has inspired me with a love of learning and sharing through teaching.  To this day, it is a thrill for me to observe students become passionate for something they didn’t know before. At Senior College, class members love to explore that “road less traveled by.”  They bring to the class a curiosity and a love for things new and different.