![\"Mikey](\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2016\/01\/Mikey_HP-1024x413.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt takes a certain kind of person to wear Disney-themed onesies to a college party. University of Mary Washington junior Mikey Barnes is that guy.<\/p>\n
The consummate campus entertainer, Barnes is \u201cMr. UMW,\u201d literally; he claimed the title at the annual competition last spring. Spinning Eagle Pride at halftime, talking sports on WMWC radio or lauding Mary Washington athletes online, he\u2019s steeped in school spirit. With his wit and his warmth \u2013 and that Wite-Out white smile \u2013 he was born for UMW\u2019s new major, communication and digital studies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the fact that it involves talking to people and engaging,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s me. That\u2019s my life. Engaging in conversations is everything I live for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Growing up in Falls Church, Barnes had a one-track mind, playing basketball, baseball, football, soccer, golf, you name it. He managed his high school\u2019s girls\u2019 basketball team, covered sports for the newspaper and binged on ESPN\u2019s Sports Center<\/em>. It was in the pages of John Feinstein\u2019s novel Cover Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl<\/em> where he found focus.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched sports, read sports, talked sports, played sports. Sports were everything to me,\u201d said Barnes, who began writing for the online news source Patch.com and vying for work at the Falls Church-News Press<\/em>. \u201cSports journalism was definitely my plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Barnes studied journalism in college, but he was unsure at first that he\u2019d found the right fit at Mary Washington. So he did what he\u2019s always done best \u2013 he got social, joining group after group.<\/p>\n \u201cMost kids struggle with getting involved. I had the opposite experience. I got way too involved way too early,\u201d he said. \u201cMy GPA was in the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n As UMW worked its magic on him, though, he began to find balance, learning lessons in historic preservation, finite math \u2026 and life. \u201cI realized what\u2019s important and what\u2019s not,\u201d he said. \u201cI learned time management.\u201d<\/p>\n Head of recruitment for The Talons spirit group, assistant sports editor for The Blue & Gray Press<\/em> student newspaper, and treasurer of Best Buddies and his residence hall, Barnes is still blazing through campus. He\u2019s vice president of Club Basketball, a member of Club Baseball, and on the intramural basketball and flag football teams.<\/p>\n His thoughts on hot sports topics, like the proposed Redskins name change, travel the airwaves Friday nights on his WMWC radio show. He fires up fans as emcee of Eagles basketball games and he appeared in Mary Washington\u2019s first TV commercial, filmed last summer in the Hurley Convergence Center.<\/p>\n \u201cMikey has done a great job bringing students together, especially in spirit,\u201d said UMW Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker. \u201cYou\u2019re immediately taken by his sense of what Mary Washington has to offer. He really wants people to be happy here. He does all he can to facilitate connections.\u201d<\/p>\n So when UMW introduced its new communication and digital studies major last fall, he grabbed it, changing his course load \u2026 and his dreams.<\/p>\n