Meet this week’s campus celebrity, nineteen year old, Marcus Mitchell, a junior communications major from Eustis, Florida.
If you don’t recognize Marcus by name, you surely will recognize him by his infamous afro. His hair is his trademark. He says, “I’ve had an afro for so long that it’s become a celebrity on its own. People take pictures of it, talk about it, and there’s even a Facebook page called ‘Marcus’s Afro’ with over 200 likes. But, my afro isn’t who I am. I’m Marcus Mitchell, not ‘Afro Guy.’”
Besides being known for his awesome hair, Marcus is very involved on the UT campus. He is a sports columnist for The Minaret and a sports director for the WUTT radio station. He would like to start a frozen food club at UT because he says it would be fun to compare frozen breakfast foods and pizzas to see which is the best price and taste for students. This would allow for students to have a fun place to hangout and eat some food.
When he isn’t beating his friends in Mario Kart, he usually spends his time watching anime and sleeping. He also loves to play tennis and is learning how to speak Italian in his spare time. When the stress of college gets crazy and the deadlines start to pile up, he makes some phone calls to his parents or friends to give him some peace of mind. When he wants to relax, he plays J. Cole’s new album and plays video games.
After graduation, Marcus plans on teaching kids in underprivileged neighborhoods for Teach For America. “A lot of kids don’t get the chance at a quality education and I want to lend my hand to help them in any way I can.” While doing that, he plans on doing freelance writing until he gets a fulltime job offer. He isn’t sure where he will end up, but he is open to many options, whether it is a soccer journalist in Seattle or covering high school sports in Texas. “Not knowing where I am going to end up in three years scares me to death, but makes me so excited too.”
Finally, if you see Marcus walking around campus one day, feel free to say hi, but be mindful of your comments about his hair. Marcus tells me the attention he gets from my hair is pretty nice sometimes, but over the four years of having his afro, it can get annoying.
“You’d be surprised by how many dumb questions I get; Is it real? What if you straighten it? Do you pick it out?” He doesn’t mind if people ask to touch it, but it can be irritating if he’s having a bad day.
If you want to know more about Marcus, you can follow him on Twitter at @MarcoFro5 and Instagram at @ghettofro.