These May graduates are back for more

As a child, Ernest Johnson had what he describes as “somewhere teeth.”

“Some were here, some were there, some were all over the place,” he said. “Having teeth like that can really influence how you talk, how you look and how you perceive yourself.”

His childhood dentist kept a promise to fix Johnson’s “somewhere teeth,” molding the career plans of this first-year UNC Adams School of Dentistry student.

Through dentistry, “you can really just change the course of a person’s life,” said Johnson, a native of Harrisburg, North Carolina. “It’s pretty awesome.”

It’s no surprise that service is at the heart of Johnson’s dentistry calling. He was a Buckley Public Service scholar as an undergraduate student and helped lead the Carolina Center for Public Service’s Service-Learning Initiative.

Johnson came to Carolina as a Fred Morrison scholar, wanting a well-rounded experience. Inspired by the pandemic, he studied at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, where he earned a nutrition degree designed for future clinicians.

Johnson paired that with minors in music and chemistry, was a member of the music department’s cello studio and served on the Student Advisory Committee to the Chancellor.

He even began preparing for his dentistry career by working in the Miguez Lab his junior and senior years, researching how nutrition influences the effectiveness of BMP-2, a drug commonly used by oral surgeons and periodontists to promote bone growth.

Johnson gravitated toward UNC Adams because it’s “a school that encourages students to take the initiative,” noting the interdisciplinary curriculum, emphasis on service through events like DEAH DAY and the number of student-run clinics.

Johnson learned he was admitted in an “old-fashioned way.” Adjunct professor Dr. Mark Hyman ’80, ’84 (DDS) called to say, “Dr. EJ, we’re so happy to have you here because at UNC, we’re not just interested in you for the next four years — but the next 40.”

“I think that’s a rare thing,” Johnson said.

Sadie Swift’s senior season with Carolina volleyball didn’t go as planned. She only played in four matches as she recovered from a broken leg.

But there are a few silver linings from this adversity. Swift, a middle blocker, is returning to action with a fifth year of eligibility. She will be captain of a Tar Heel team ranked No. 19 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association preseason poll.

Swift will also continue her academic journey at Carolina, where she was a 2025-26 Bubba Cunningham Athletic Director’s Scholar-Athlete Award recipient. She earned a business administration degree at UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and minored in advertising and public relations at UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

Now she’s enrolled in UNC Kenan-Flagler’s one-year Master of Accounting Program, which began in July.

“I really wanted a school with high-level athletics and academics, and when it comes to places that offer that, you can’t beat Carolina,” said Swift, a member of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

A native of Austin, Texas, Swift was initially unsure what to study. She took several business prerequisite courses and realized that was her path.

“UNC Kenan-Flagler is such a great school, and I’ve always been someone who wants to surround myself with people who are going to push me to get better,” Swift said. “I thought that I would find that there.”

Swift credits an accounting course with clinical assistant professor Tanja Snively for steering her toward a MAC degree.

“If you had asked me before I took that class if I would ever get into accounting, I would’ve said, ‘no way,’” Swift said.

She found herself enjoying assignments she expected to hate and now wants to pursue auditing jobs next year, ideally at one of accounting’s Big Four firms.

But first there’s one more season of Power Four volleyball. Fully healthy now, Swift is ready to begin.

She’s also embracing her role as a team leader — despite her youngest teammates calling her “old.”

Next summer, Swift can tell them she’s one degree wiser.

Carolina let Camilla Fratta embrace both her artistic and scientific sides.

The talented pianist was born in Virginia but grew up in Italy, France and Canada before moving to the Triangle as a ninth grader.

Once a Tar Heel, she studied in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences’ music department but also the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, where she majored in biostatistics.

“Very few” of the music programs she considered would allow her to pursue a second major. “Not only did UNC allow me to double major, but they gave me a music scholarship as well,” Fratta said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, sign me up. I’ll be there!’”

She started as a research assistant in an epigenetics lab in the UNC School of Medicine and later conducted fieldwork in Ecuador as part of a watershed hydrology lab. Fratta also used advanced data modeling techniques during her time working with the UNC Water Institute to help with research on water and sanitation in Nepalese healthcare facilities.

Her experiences at Gillings were so good she couldn’t see herself going anywhere else for her biostatistics doctoral studies. Fratta is interested “in all sorts of” research topics as a graduate student. Inspired by Gillings professor Michael Kosorok’s precision health work, she wants to explore artificial intelligence.

“I’m very interested in precision health,” Fratta said. “Understanding how predictive AI models can support physicians in their decisions for someone’s health.”

Her other research interests include genetics, the biology of cancer research and even how statistics are used in criminal justice.

But Fratta isn’t stepping away from the piano. She worked closely with renowned associate professor and pianist Clara Yang, has run her own piano studio since she was a teen and will keep giving lessons during graduate school. She’ll also continue to find ways to play locally.

“When I was sick of math, I could go to music, and then when I was sick of music, I could go to math,” she said.

Lucas Wilson applied to 17 law schools before he took a course on the U.S. Constitution and civil liberties in his senior year.

But that class became one of his favorites at Carolina and affirmed his law pursuits.

“I know I made the right choice,” said Wilson, a native of Cary, North Carolina.

Wilson is the son of two alumni and grew up a huge Tar Heel fan. His decision to attend Carolina for his undergraduate studies was an easy one.

But he didn’t let emotions or sentimentality dictate his law school deliberations. Remaining a Tar Heel made sense.

“It really is just a testament to UNC’s mission of providing a value education that I ended up back here for law school,” he said. “You can’t beat the value in terms of the quality of education you get for the price. Even though I applied all over for law school looking for that value, it turned out that UNC was still going to be the best deal.”

Wilson majored in political science and public policy at the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. He said courses in those disciplines gave him a good foundation for his law studies.

So did extracurricular activities like serving as an undergraduate senator in Student Government and joining Carolina’s Undergraduate Law Association. He also did club swimming and previously worked as head lifeguard at a YMCA pool.

Wilson thinks law school is like the start of a student’s undergraduate studies: You can enter with ideas of what you might want to do, “and it completely changes while you’re there.”

But he loves the idea of “being an advocate in a courtroom setting” and would enjoy working as a civil rights litigator for a large organization.

For now, he’s ready to hit the books, dive into court decisions and, most importantly, take advantage of Tar Heel expertise.

“I’m really looking forward to being able to go into office hours and inquire about specific practice areas and get access to the legal profession,” Wilson said. “That’s going to lead me to where I want to be.”