When Kirsten Friday graduated Waynesburg University she worked with the school for a brief period of time. Then, she moved to the other side of the state, living in a house with five other people in Philadelphia. 

Eventually, Friday started to miss her alma mater, which she fell in love with on her first visit, so much so that she felt she needed to come back. 

It wasn’t until late in the summer when a job opportunity opened up in admissions. Friday now had the opportunity she needed, and took advantage of it, thus becoming one of more than eight staff members in Waynesburg University’s faculty. 

Every year at the University brings changes in staff positions. Some hires, such as Friday, are new to working at the university, while others, such as new Athletic Director Adam Jack, adjust to significant changes in their responsibilities. 

When Friday was a student at Waynesburg, she worked as an ambassador, giving campus tours to students that already had Waynesburg on their college radar. Now, her job is to inform high school students that aren’t aware of Waynesburg about what the school has to offer. She will have to do this by traveling to areas all across the region and representing the school at events, such as college fairs. 

“I think that when I’m going to be out on the road, at a fair or a high school, that I’m going to be talking to a population that doesn’t know about Waynesburg yet,” Friday said. “So it becomes my job to share with them who we are, what we care about and why they should come to our school.”

Friday’s hiring won’t be the only change from an admissions standpoint this school year. Although Kyle Digiandomenico has worked as an admissions counselor over the past few years, there will be a lot more on his plate starting this fall. While keeping his duties in working with undergraduate students, Digiandomenico will now take on additional recruitment responsibilities in Graduate and Professional Studies. 

Digiandomenico now must work around the schedules of graduate students, which do not coincide with the undergraduate calendar. 

“It’s a different thing with students when you’re working with undergraduate versus graduate,” he said. “A lot of these students are professionals. They’re working for businesses and corporations and companies. So they’re waiting to pursue their masters degree in career advancement. So working with those students is a little bit different, but it’s fun; it’s enjoyable.”

In athletics, Adam Jack is now the man in charge. In mid-July, Jack replaced Larry Marshall as the athletic director, and in doing so added to an already packed schedule. Jack is also the chairperson for the Criminal Justice and Social Sciences department, director of graduate criminal investigation and an associate professor of criminal justice, teaching 18 credits this semester.

Although being in charge of two departments has made Jack’s life busier than before, he’s excited about the opportunity to reconnect with his love of sports, which he honed at Waynesburg as a star baseball player in the late 1990s. 

“I really wanted to get back into athletics,” he said. “I love athletics. They’ve been great to me. I was a student athlete here in the 1990s… so I thought this was a great way for me to get back involved with athletics.”

Another big change in athletics was the hiring of Tim Fusina as head men’s basketball coach, replacing Mark Christner who held the job from 2010 through this past spring. 

The faculty at Waynesburg University will have a chance to contribute to Waynesburg for the first time, contribute in a different facet, or, in Friday’s case, reconnect with a place they already know. 

“Being back and getting to work here is literally like a dream come true,” she said.