Jonathan Ivar Weyhrauch, CAS ’15, didn’t always have a clear path. But the once high school drop-out has developed a nonprofit organization, certificate training program, and is teaching at Oakland University … all while simultaneously pursuing a Ph.D.

“I usually do things the hard way,” Weyhrauch confesses. “This makes me a very nontraditional individual and led to me being kicked out of high school at 16 and traveling some less than positive paths.”

The Reroot Pontiac house is being renovated to contain a meeting space, kitchen and student housing, while the outside patio will be used to host community events.

Weyhrauch eventually returned to alternative education and found he had a keen interest in the sciences. While spending a few years traveling the country with the Renaissance Festival, he worked and lived in underserved, diverse communities — an experience that ignited a passion to help others. “I learned about how to give yourself more freely,” Wehyrauch says. “It was an awesome community. I was amazed at how respectful everyone was of each other and yet how largely unconventional (they were).”

Weyhrauch would eventually find work as an engineer technician making thin-film solar cells with Unisolar (United Solar Ovanics), but the company began outsourcing the panel manufacturing portion of the plant, leading him on a new journey. “All eliminated workers would receive retraining and financial support during their training, so I chose to volunteer for a layoff in order to pursue higher education,” he says.

Weyhrauch came to Oakland University and followed his passion in the sciences, double majoring in biology with a minor in chemistry and environmental science with a concentration in resource management and environmental sustainability. His path became clear during Professor Fay Hansen’s permaculture class, when he realized that “this was what I am going to do with my life.”

However, Weyhrauch also knew that without real world experience, the job market would be bleak for an environmentalist. He accepted an offer for a scholarship and research assistantship from Wayne State University, continuing to build on his environmental interests in geology while independently studying mycology with some friends from OU.

“During this time, I was getting disheartened by how little all these fields interacted and how they were taught separately while so intimately intertwining,” Weyhrauch recalls. “So, I brainstormed until I thought of a way to repurpose vacant urban properties in a way that makes these complex environmental interactions intuitive and understandable.”

One of the Reroot-owned lots in Pontiac is designated to the dozen or so chickens that provide fresh eggs to locals.

In 2016, Weyhrauch took these dreams and transformed them into Reroot Pontiac, a nonprofit organization that converts blighted properties in Pontiac to sustainable, environmental spaces used to introduce local communities to ecological systems. The organization owns 14 acres of land in Pontiac that have been repurposed for environmental education. But the Reroot network reaches beyond Pontiac, aiming to create a Sustainability Center that will house disadvantaged students from Oakland and Wayne State University for little to no cost. Students, in return, will work on projects — performing lab studies, installing systems and gaining valuable skills for the future.