Jake Utter is a senior at Olivet Nazarene University. Born in Moore, IL, Jake made his way to Argentina, Missouri, and then settled in Bourbonnais, IL, and is majoring in Multimedia Communication. Read here about his life, and his journey at Olivet.
Music Career
Jake has played drums since he was 5 years old. Not only that, but he also plays piano, bass, and the ukulele. Jake wanted to start playing music because he was a missionary, and he traveled a lot. He stayed at his pastor’s house, who had a tenor quad drum set. One day, he got bored at his pastor’s house, and the pastor let him play with the drum set. Now, years later, he has perfected his craft and is now a drummer.
His grandma also plays piano for church, and he grew up around that, which is how he got into playing the piano. Jake says he plays piano more in the style of core-driven, than the traditional type of piano playing. He has been leading worship since 6th grade and has now been in ministry teams for the past 4 years. He now travels to churches and camps during the summer, and also sings in the choir.
Collecting
Jake collects Funko Pop’s, collectible figurines that depict characters within pop culture, and now has 150, which is worth $3181. He has been collecting for 3 years now, and also collects comic books and is a big superhero fan (he likes marvel more than DC).
Jake likes to know the reference between the movies and the comics books. He never got to collect as a kid, so he finally settled down and got to learn what they are. His first one was Nacho Libre. His roommate also collects and got him into collecting.
School
Jake took a video editing class in high school, and he enjoyed it, but saw it as a hobby and not career, or something he can see himself doing long term. He then realized that he had a calling for special education. He came to Olivet for college, took music and social work classes, but got overwhelmed. He knew a lot of things in each subject, but again, didn’t have a passion to grow his knowledge for those careers.
He took non-linear editing, when he was a music major (and was the only non-communication major). He then switched his major, and during covid, he started producing churches services, and did a full set. He made his first movie in basic video production called Smear, and a short film called The Comparison Game.
