Throughout his time at Waynesburg, Jonathan Folk learned to adapt. As a child, he wanted to be an astronomer and had a special love for space. When he came to Waynesburg, he said, “Originally, I was in chemical engineering, but I had to switch majors at one point due to a little bit of trouble with my calculus.”

Now, Folk is an applied science major. “It’s like jack of all trades when it comes to all sciences,” he said. “I have a focus in chemistry, though.”

As for how he has adjusted to the academics at the University, it seems that he has had a lot to embrace.

“I love all the chemistry department,” Folk said, describing his classes. “Dr. Baldauff is amazing. She’s super enthusiastic about everything chemistry-related. Dr. Davis is really good at providing instructions; he’s crystal clear when it comes to everything. Dr. Fletcher is very sociable as well and very knowledgeable on some subjects.”

Folk said one of his favorite class projects took place in one of Dr. Takashi Suyama’s classes when he had to synthesize a chemical of his choosing. He chose chlorhexidine, a chemical found in mouthwashes.

 “Little did I know it’d be really difficult to synthesize though,” he said. “There’s this double bonded nitrogen, like there’s a bunch of these all throughout the chemical and those aren’t  the most stable configurations.”

Folk’s advisor, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Dr. Bradley Davis, said, “Jonathan’s been great. You know, the one thing that’s nice from the perspective of an instructor is that Jonathan’s always engaged. He’s always interested, at least I can say in his chemistry classes, he’s always been very much interested in the material, and you always can tell he’s focusing and following along. You know he’ll ask questions throughout, so, it’s nice to have students like that, that are as engaged as he is.”

Initially, Folk wanted to pursue a master’s degree after graduation, but shifted his focus after completing an internship last summer. He worked at a gaseous diffusion plant, where his role focused heavily on environmental safety. 

“I figured I could probably put my use for that, especially with helping restore the environment a little bit,” he said. “I thought that’d be really cool. So, I’m applying for jobs over there.”

When he is not involved in his studies, Folk said, “I spend a lot of my time inside my room most of the time, but usually, I do like to go and spend time with friends, and if I’m not doing that, usually I’m just drawing. I do a little bit of drawing. After that art class with [Lisa] Rasmussen, I ended up actually appreciating a lot more and started trying to dabble a little bit more into it.”

As for what Folk has dabbled into since he picked up drawing, he said it dabbles into a variety of areas.

“I draw traditionally, and I also sometimes do pixel art as well,” Folk said. “People seem to like the traditional art a lot more than pixel art, though, so I might actually stick more traditional…I just draw for the fun of it, but I figured that I might as well hone my skills a little bit with traditional as well. It’s kind of actually hard to do anything complicated with pixel art because it’s by nature kind of limited. But you know, you kind of like to work with those limitations.”

Folk also spoke about how college helped him to become more responsible. 

“Little small things have helped me gradually incorporate those sorts of habits that I need to be able to do more being an adult later on in life,” he said. “Also, a little bit of finance stuff, too. I’ve actually been worrying about making credit payments on time and stuff like that. So, that’s been actually nice, too. At college, you have to really be good at time management too.”

Reflecting on his experience at the University, Folk said that his advice to new students would be “…for one, joining clubs and stuff is really important because when you really think about it, the whole thing involving trying to actually get a job, employers are really, really strict about what things you should and shouldn’t have. So, make sure to get into as many things as you possibly can because just being a person with a degree doesn’t really mean much to them. You actually want to put yourself out there and be the top of the top if possible because it is all a competition.”

Folk said he is incredibly grateful for his time at Waynesburg University, and wishes incoming students the best of luck with their experiences.