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EIU 360

Roaming the Rooftops

Math Department grad Ethan Swanson has a unique, high-flying hobby.

Ethan Swanson, in a lot of ways, is exactly what you’d expect from an alumnus of Eastern Illinois University’s math department.

Obviously, he enjoys working with numbers. Upon graduating from EIU, he landed a job doing just that for a major investment firm in Chicago. In his spare time, he enjoys bounding from rooftop to rooftop high above the streets of the Windy City.

Wait … what?

Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. While Swanson – an associate actuary with Fidelity Investments since earning his math degree with a business administration minor in 2012 – works a perfectly normal desk job by day, he’s a veritable daredevil in his spare time. A list of his highlights include:

All those, along with the rest of Swanson’s death-defying exploits, just might pale in comparison to his latest work: A jump from the roof of a four-story building that took him 12 feet across and dropped him 15 feet onto the back side of the adjacent A-frame. From there, he slid down the roof of the A-frame and propelled himself to a landing on the spiral staircase of the next building over.

You really have to see it to believe it; GoPro had caught wind of Swanson’s other work, and when it learned of his plans for this particular stunt offered to pay to use his footage in its own promotional video. Since its publish date on July 30, the slickly-edited piece has garnered more than 5 million views on YouTube.

Always a Daredevil ...

Doing seemingly crazy things for fun isn’t a recent development for Swanson. In fact, it’s a lifelong passion.

“I started doing that stuff on a very small scale when I was a little kid,” said Swanson. “I have a ton of stories from my parents from before I could even remember.”

Swanson says he was climbing before he could even walk, being pulled off the furniture or the walls around his house any time his folks turned their backs.

“But as I got older, it was more of a conscious thing,” Swanson continued. “I realized that I like doing it, so I put myself in the position to be trained to do this stuff. I started rock climbing and I started doing gymnastics, and those skills helped me to be better and be more proficient in the stunts that I pursue.

“I think it's just the way my mind works. I'll be walking down the street or I’ll be on the El riding to work, and I'll just be looking up at the buildings and just taking everything in. I'll see something and say, you know, maybe I could climb that. Maybe I could jump across that.”

Still, Swanson says his family didn’t know the exact scope of his escapades until his mother came across his crane-hanging video. She brought it up to him the next time she saw him and he immediately offered to knock it off completely, but didn’t get the response he might have expected.

“My mom is the sweetest woman,” said Swanson. “She goes: ‘You know I don't like it, but I don't want you to stop doing something you love doing because you are afraid of what I might think.’

“I know she doesn't like it, but also I think the fact that I've been doing this stuff since I was a little kid makes her a little bit numb to it. I’ve been jumping off the roof since I was a little kid, so it's not just like it's out of nowhere.”

… But a Careful One

Even though it seems like Swanson must have a complete and utter disregard for his own well-being, you have to realize just how much preparation goes into his work.

“Whenever I go onto a location that I'm scouting, I'll go out with scratch paper, or pen and then also measuring tape,” explained Swanson. “I can take (the measurements) back to my apartment and the gym that I train at and try to figure out how I can recreate (the stunt) -- or something close to it -- that I can practice.

“If I'm not doing well in practice, I'm not going to try it in the real world, because that's just a recipe for disaster.”

And there’s even a bit of tie-in between Swanson’s day job and his high-flying hobby.

“I think the connection is just that the logical approach and the preparation before the stunt really ties into the work we do here with formulas and calculations,” said Swanson. “I think looking at a stunt in different steps -- breaking it down like that -- is how we break down projects here at Fidelity.

“You look at it in separate stages. It's not just one huge thing; it’s a bunch of things all put together.”

No matter how much Swanson prepares and plans, though, there will always be bumps and bruises. He has somehow avoided ever breaking a bone and says he’s never needed more than a month or six weeks to fully recover from a stunt.

“I was beaten up (after the stairwell jump),” admitted Swanson. “I came out with some skin, you know, a little shredded off, between the spaces that i didn't protect with shin guards and tape. I had a bruised right heel from when I hit the landing, and then my shoulder from when I landed on the A-frame initially, sliding down, was a little bruised up.”

The Professional Side and Eastern’s Influence

Swanson says pretty much all of his coworkers at Fidelity know about his penchant for stunts, but he’s all business when he’s at the office. In his case, that business is retirement plan consulting for other large companies.

“We keep those retirement plans within regulations and do testing on them,” explained Swanson.

“Part of our job description here is to be able to face clients in person, on the phone, through email. Within just a couple of months of being here, they really let me take control of a couple of clients I was on and speak to them directly.

“They gave me ownership of a lot of those clients; I'm the person that is considered their go-to when it comes to Fidelity. And that is definitely something I feel I couldn't have gotten in most other places and something that I enjoy very much.”

After transferring in from the University of Illinois, Swanson said he really found a home at Eastern and credits the math department for its role in setting him up for professional success.

“I'm constantly using concepts I learned,” said Swanson. “Working with the department heads at the math department definitely helped me ... to make sure that I was prepared for this workplace when I graduated, getting everyone to help me to have my resume built, to make sure that I was doing all my actuarial exams, to make sure I had all the classes I needed for my minor.”

Margaret Weaver and Peter Andrews were two particular math faculty members who left lasting impressions on Swanson.

“(Dr. Andrews) was awesome,” Swanson elaborated. “He was absolutely awesome. I would stumble into his office asking a bunch of questions. Being the head of the math department, he was probably super busy, but he never once looked like he was upset about me coming in asking him questions.

“That's one of the things i loved about Eastern, honestly, is that I could walk into anybody's office and they wanted to help me. It's not like they were just ‘Okay, I’ll help you because you are here,’ it's like they enjoyed helping the students. I don't think you can say the same thing for a lot of larger schools.”

What’s Next?

Even though the partnership with GoPro on his last jump earned Swanson a little cash and a good deal of Chicago-area notoriety thanks to several segments on local media affiliates, he has no desire to elevate stunt work any higher than a pastime in his life.

Much like his decision on how and where to do a jump, Swanson’s opinion on the matter is well-thought out and intelligently calculated.

“If I were to pursue (stunt work) as a career and get injured, I don't get paid anymore,” reasoned Swanson. “I like this job I have at Fidelity Investments, and it’s hard for me to accept that my job -- my well-being -- is based on something where I could get injured.

“So I don't think I'm going to take it anywhere. I think it's just a hobby, something I like to do on the side.”

*****

Editor's Note: Eastern Illinois University finds Ethan's pastime exciting and fascinating, but also recognizes the great risks of his stunts and encourages you not to emulate his work. Ethan does all of this on his own and not at the behest of EIU.

*****

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