![\"lauren](\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/12\/lauren-1009018068-1-2-397x600.jpg\")
Jonathon, the commencement speaker for Saturday’\u2019s 3 p.m. graduation ceremonies at Memorial Stadium, grew up in nearby Glen Rose, where he was home schooled. He began his college career at Weatherford College when he was 16, to get a feel for college life and a start on credits toward his degree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though he toured other universities, his transfer to Tarleton State was cemented after he visited the Stephenville campus. He really liked Tarleton\u2019s engineering approach. \u201cIt\u2019s more hands on and what I consider to be more family oriented. Instead of 100 kids to a class, there were 20. I could ask all the questions I needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He starts his master\u2019s program in quality and engineering management in January with the career goal of pharmaceutical manufacturing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat wasn\u2019t always my dream,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do when I started at Tarleton, but I found my passion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His work on a Presidential Research Grant project with the Department of Kinesiology tripped a trigger. He learned that he can use manufacturing knowledge for the common good. \u201cSince then, my goal has been to use pharmaceutical or medical equipment manufacturing to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonathon received guidance from faculty members that makes him confident in his future. \u201cMy father and I are really close, and I feel like my teachers were almost that close \u2014 close enough to go to them and say, \u2018I\u2019ve got this career goal. What are the steps I need to take to get there?\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the classes, I learned a lot there, but I learned almost as much just being around the professors and mentors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He gets melancholy thinking his time as an undergrad at Tarleton is almost over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will miss it,\u201d he said. \u201cI cried at my buddy\u2019s graduation in May. I have truly loved Tarleton. I\u2019ve loved being here, studying here, the friends I\u2019ve made. I have phone numbers for all my teachers. Part of the reason for coming back for the master\u2019s is in 25 or 30 years I\u2019d like to teach here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his commencement address he will recount his Tarleton experience and specifically how it has impacted not only his time as a student but also his personal life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an environment for learning,\u201d he said. \u201cSure, we spent a lot of hours in textbooks and working in labs, but more importantly, Tarleton has allowed us to hone our skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more than, \u2018Read the textbook and answer questions.\u2019 It\u2019s more like, \u2018Read the textbook. Now what questions do you<\/em>have?\u2019 It\u2019s teaching us to go beyond the usual, to ask the questions that aren\u2019t being asked.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since he and his wife, Samantha, became parents to daughter Jordyn just a few weeks ago, Jonathan has a new appreciation for the personal aspect of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTarleton has not just been a school for my engineering studies. I can ask things of the faculty. I went to an economics teacher my first year here to help me formulate a budget. I can ask any of them for guidance in personal decisions and they\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guess that\u2019s one thing that hasn\u2019t changed for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2014 Things are changing for Jonathon Evans. He graduates Saturday with a bachelor\u2019s degree in manufacturing engineering technology, he\u2019s preparing to enter grad school in January, and, oh …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":49936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":382,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,423,425],"tags":[432,452],"class_list":["post-49934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-academics-research","category-campus-community","tag-alumni","tag-mayfield-college-of-engineering"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"priddle","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/priddle-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2023\/12\/lauren-1009018068-1-2.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Academics & Research<\/a>","Campus & Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Academics & Research<\/span>","Campus & Community<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Alumni<\/a>","Mayfield College of Engineering<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Alumni<\/span>","Mayfield College of Engineering<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 2 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 13, 2023","modified":"Updated on December 13, 2023"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 13, 2023 8:00 am","modified":"Updated on December 13, 2023 11:54 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Smiling person with curly hair against a dark background.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}