It 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.

The consummate campus entertainer, Barnes is “Mr. UMW,” 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’s steeped in school spirit. With his wit and his warmth – and that Wite-Out white smile – he was born for UMW’s new major, communication and digital studies.

“I love the fact that it involves talking to people and engaging,” he said. “That’s me. That’s my life. Engaging in conversations is everything I live for.”

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’s girls’ basketball team, covered sports for the newspaper and binged on ESPN’s Sports Center. It was in the pages of John Feinstein’s novel Cover Up: Mystery at the Super Bowl where he found focus.

“I watched sports, read sports, talked sports, played sports. Sports were everything to me,” said Barnes, who began writing for the online news source Patch.com and vying for work at the Falls Church-News Press. “Sports journalism was definitely my plan.”

Barnes studied journalism in college, but he was unsure at first that he’d found the right fit at Mary Washington. So he did what he’s always done best – he got social, joining group after group.

“Most kids struggle with getting involved. I had the opposite experience. I got way too involved way too early,” he said. “My GPA was in the toilet.”

As UMW worked its magic on him, though, he began to find balance, learning lessons in historic preservation, finite math … and life. “I realized what’s important and what’s not,” he said. “I learned time management.”

Head of recruitment for The Talons spirit group, assistant sports editor for The Blue & Gray Press student newspaper, and treasurer of Best Buddies and his residence hall, Barnes is still blazing through campus. He’s vice president of Club Basketball, a member of Club Baseball, and on the intramural basketball and flag football teams.

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’s first TV commercial, filmed last summer in the Hurley Convergence Center.

“Mikey has done a great job bringing students together, especially in spirit,” said UMW Dean of Student Life Cedric Rucker. “You’re 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.”

So when UMW introduced its new communication and digital studies major last fall, he grabbed it, changing his course load … and his dreams.

“My current goal is to be rich and famous,” said Barnes, who donated his “Mr. UMW” loot – earned by lip-syncing Will Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – to a scholarship fund in honor of the late Robert “Bob” Ericson ’14.

With a heart that’s as big as his smile, Barnes can even turn cleaning clothes – his signature bowties, preppy Vineyard Vines duds and, yes, even his Disney-themed PJs – into a cordial affair.

“I go to the laundry room and see five people I know, and I love it,” Barnes said. “I love people. I love to talk. It’s my life. It’s what I do.”

UMW junior Corey Taylor shared a bedroom growing up. Not with a sibling, but with his father’s art desk. A hunk of metal bigger than his bed, its surface gleamed with fat tubes of ink, freshly sharpened pencils and thick pads of sketch paper.

It was off-limits.

“I’d get in trouble because he’d have ink and stuff out, and I’d mess around with it and spill it,” Taylor said. “You can’t always blame the dog.”

Today, his own desk at Eagle Landing looks little like his dad’s did back then. His medium of choice – a laptop – makes no mess at all. With an artist’s brain, Taylor admits, his computer science major can be a challenge, but it’s a fair trade. As UMW boosts his tech-savvy skills, he’s casting his talents across campus. His graphics grace T-shirts for major Mary Washington events, like Homecoming and the Multicultural Fair. But before graduation, he has designs on one more.

“Every day you see people wearing Devil Goat T-shirts,” said Taylor, who’s tried twice to score the exclusively UMW tradition. “I’ve got to get my work on that shirt. It has to happen.”

Born on Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, he lived with his military family in Germany before landing in Woodbridge, Virginia. Along the way, he picked up his father’s passion for animation.

“I grew to love comic books,” said Taylor, who’s hooked on the genre, from the gritty feel of The Walking Dead to iconic Looney Tunes, like Tom and Jerry. “Who isn’t? Bugs Bunny is like the best creation in the universe.”

As a teen, his own strip, The Misadventures of Squiggy, ran in his high school newspaper. In it, a goofy green dinosaur with a pants-less persona provides social satire to the coming-of-age. But Taylor would put his artistic talent on hold.

While he searched for a college – and a practical major – a counselor suggested he visit UMW’s Multicultural Fair. The huge annual event touts diversity and talent.

“I thought, ‘If campus is anything like it is today, this is going to be a good home,’ ” Taylor said.

He joined Mary Washington’s Student Transition Program, which aims to enhance the first-year experience, and soon made an impression.

“He always showed up with enthusiasm,” said Associate Provost for Academic Engagement and Student Success Tim O’Donnell, who taught Taylor’s first UMW class, Public Speaking. “He was wide-eyed, taking it all in and loving every minute of it.”

Taylor launched himself into UMW life. A founding member of The Talons school-spirit group, he’s a RISE peer mentor, James Farmer Multicultural Center volunteer and intramural sports referee.

In class, technology meets talent. With an eye toward graphic design, keyboard buttons are his paintbrushes. Computer codes his colored pencils. PhotoShop his shellac. But that doesn’t mean Taylor can’t reach for an old-fashioned marker now and then. He went through four Sharpies and pulled an all-nighter for an assignment he morphed into a self-portrait.

The California-esque underwater scene, bubbling with monsters and zombies, is composed entirely of a single symbol – “C” – for Corey. Displayed at the Fredericksburg Visitor Center and on UMW promotional materials, the black-and-white piece predicts a promising future.

“I always want to encourage students to find the place where their talents and passions meet,” O’Donnell said. “In Corey, I can see the realization of the dream that I have for all of our students.”

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