Adisyn Donk has done a little bit of everything: welding, competing in the Miss Kentucky pageant (twice), working as a manufacturing engineer at Mazak, joining Northern Kentucky University’s stunt team.
And she doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
“Any time there is an opportunity in front of me that I have even a little interest in, you bet your bottom dollar that I sign up for it,” she says. “I will put every ounce of work and effort into doing that thing.”
Donk, a junior mechanical and manufacturing engineering (MMET) major at NKU, grew up in Hebron, Kentucky. During her junior and senior years at Connor High School, she attended the Boone County Area Technology Center for welding and metal fabrication.
How did she end up in vocational school? Well, she was curious.
“I just love doing different things and learning new stuff,” she says. “My dad's kind of like me in the sense that he likes to know a lot about all kinds of different things, and I think that's where I got it from. I like being able to know a lot of different things, and that's why I like trying new things.”
After graduation, Donk had hopes to study marine biology due to her love of the ocean. However, there weren’t any local programs, so she decided to stick with welding. She started taking classes at Gateway Community and Technical College in the fall of 2021, pairing her welding degree with a business degree.
In 2022, while she was still studying at Gateway, an opportunity arose for Donk to compete in the Miss Kentucky pageant.
“My mom has this crown that she got from winning a pageant. I’ve always had it and played with it when I was a kid,” she says. “I loved it and kept it in my room growing up. I kept saying, ‘One of these days, one of these summers, I’m going to sign up for the Boone County Fair Pageant so I can get a crown like my mom had.’”
And so she did. She didn’t advance the first time, but she ended up competing again in 2023 at the Alexandria Fair, which she won. At the state level, she was crowned Miss Heart of Bourbon County, which led her to compete for Miss Kentucky in early 2024.
The first time, she created a platform called the Kentucky Clean Water Project, which was all about keeping the ocean clean. She visited local schools and did a community cleanup in Florence, Kentucky. During her second circuit as a Miss Kentucky contestant, she advocated for the trades. But she wanted to make one thing clear: “I'm an advocate for everyone looking into the trades, not just females,” she says.
Donk’s passion for the trades didn’t end when she graduated from Gateway. She spoke to her instructors about furthering her education, and they encouraged her to get her bachelor’s degree in engineering.
So, Donk applied for NKU’s MMET program. She’s loving her time here, but she’s grateful for her experience at the community college level.
“I'm here because Gateway was a really big part of pushing me to further my education,” she says. “I think a lot of people think that if you go to community college that it has to end with community college. But going to community college helps you get further. Community college is what got me here, and it kind of opened this door for me that I didn’t even know was possible.”
That opened door also gave Donk an opportunity to gain real-world experience in welding at Mazak, where she started out on the floor of the welding department working with sheet metal.
After seven months, she had her own desk in the manufacturing engineering department.
“I think my favorite part about working here is just the endless opportunities,” she says. “I don't see myself growing out of this company because it's so vast, and there's so much that goes into everything here. Having a degree like mine opens a whole new door of career growth.”
Donk loves working at Mazak, but she also loves getting involved in extracurricular activities and experiencing life as a college student.
Last year, she found herself saying yes once again to an exciting opportunity that allowed her to be more involved in the NKU community—joining NKU’s stunt team and becoming a student-athlete.
“I joined NKU’s stunt team because I want to be a part of my school,” she says. “I always liked to be as involved as I can and put myself into the community as possible. I love the collaboration it takes to be a team in this sport. You truly have to put yourself in another mindset when you’re a team player. The way you treat your teammates and help and them and speak to them and respect them comes into play when we’re at a game.”
The team competes every weekend, but that doesn’t stop Donk from filling up her schedule. This summer, she’ll study abroad in London thanks to two scholarships through the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad (CCSA). Donk also arranged her classmates to visit a Mazak manufacturing plant while there. And when she returns from London, she will complete a UR-STEM research project with Dr. Nathan De Lee.
Donk has a busy scheduling balancing her time between being a full-time student, competing on the stunt team as a student-athlete and working at Mazak, but she looks forward to making those memories along the way.
“I feel like I’ve been all over the place with things I’ve done and experienced,” she says. “Even with school, all of those things started with, ‘Should I do that? Is that a good idea? What if it doesn’t work out?’ But I took that leap of faith with all these different things, and now I’m able to talk about them. One day, I’ll have my ‘wall of accomplishments’ where I'll have my crown from competing in Miss Kentucky, something from doing the stunt team and my degrees. I'll be looking at proof of my life in front of me.”
Editor, NKU in View
Assistant Director, University Communications
