#teamME gained some additional wittiness around the office. Meet our summer intern, Mitch!

Welcome to #teamME! Tell us a little about yourself.

Hi! I’m going into my senior year at the University of Cincinnati where I have dual majors in Political Science and Economics. I plan to go on to graduate school to study public policy, and eventually I want to work to create change for causes I care about. I love music (besides listening, I play the drums), and I love to laugh and tend to see humor in almost anything. Some of my favorite times are watching stand-up specials with my girlfriend or waiting until way too late at night to start an eight-hour game of Risk with my friends.

OK, now it’s time for some rapid fire.

If you could have a cup of coffee with anyone, who would it be? Why is it rapid fire? This is the toughest question … Kofi Annan? The Dalai Lama? Pope Francis? I feel the need to pick someone with profound ideas and experiences. Okay, Kofi Annan – final answer. I would hope to learn something from his commitment to peace and his distinguished career in diplomacy and international governance.

What’s your spirit animal? I love every animal.  With that said, I think I’m pretty similar to a giraffe in that I’m sort of lanky and awkward and I exclusively eat leaves (just kidding, but I am a vegetarian).

What was your first email address? (Don’t be shy.) mji1108@yahoo.com – not too bad, right?  The only reason I changed it was the thousands of spam messages per day.

What was your first job? My first real job was here at MurphyEpson, where I went around to events in Columbus wearing a shirt that said, “Pick Up Poop.” And yet here I am at ME again…

What’s the next country you want to travel to? I would love to visit a Spanish-speaking country (maybe Costa Rica?). I have five years of Spanish language coursework under my belt, but I’ve never used it in the real world.

If you were a Crayola crayon, what would your name be? Robin’s Egg Blue?  That’s pretty close to my favorite color and I like that it’s oddly specific.

Where did you go to college? I go to the University of Cincinnati. Last year my younger brother chose to go to Ohio State, so now I’m the only one in my family to go to college somewhere else. But who knows? There’s always grad school.

Phew. What a doozy. Catch your breath and tell us what you do at MurphyEpson.

I complete duties as assigned. I hope to get a feel for a little bit of everything that goes on at ME, with a focus on learning about reconciling the competing interests of various groups.  That’s what good policymaking is all about, and it’s what I hope to do in my career.

What do you do outside of work?

At school, I volunteer at a dog shelter and a tutoring program, and I’m the vice president of membership for my service fraternity. Now that I’m home, I spend a good chunk of my free time eating and exercising. To relax, I love to be creative – either playing music, making things, or working on random projects. I also prioritize time with my family and friends.

MurphyEpson has cultivated quite the culture of philanthropy. What’s your favorite way to give back to the community?

So far, my favorite volunteer work has to be the time I spend at the animal shelter. The staff members are selfless, and they work hard every week for free. The dogs I meet have nothing but love to give, and I think we could all do well to learn from them in that regard.

You’ve got one day in Columbus. What do you do?

Spend the morning at the zoo, being careful not to miss the red panda or the penguins, or any newborn baby animals that might be around. Lunch in Historic Dublin (I can’t leave out the hometown). Next, a tour of thrift stores and record shops downtown to see if there are any good finds. Dinner, coffee, and ice cream in the Short North. If there’s time, live music or stand-up in the evening. If someone good is playing Nationwide or one of the major theaters, fantastic. If it’s a local band in a diner nearby, that’s great too.

Give us a note you’d like to end on.

“Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Awesome! To learn more about Mitch, connect with him on LinkedIn!