Sam Erickson may occasionally wrap himself in the flag but never the cross.
Name: Sam Erickson.
Where and when I was born: Eagan, Minn., Aug. 13, 1994.
Family: Mother, Pamela; father, Keith; brothers Tim, 23, Ben, 17, and Dan, 14.
Education: University of Wisconsin-Madison class of 2016, majoring in economics and political science.
My religious upbringing was: Baptist.
How I came to work as an FFRF legal intern: I am the president of Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics (AHA!) at UW-Madison. We are one of the largest student atheist groups in the country and have hosted Dan Barker, Annie Laurie Gaylor and Andrew Seidel of FFRF at various times. Through those connections, I was offered a summer internship.
What I do here: I split time between the legal department and doing graphic design work. When not writing follow-up legal letters or dealing with legal paperwork, I am designing the Freethought of the Days seen on Facebook and Twitter [examples shown below], in addition to many other cool design projects.
In the future, I hope to get more heavily involved in legal projects while continuing to help with design needs.
What I like best about it: Gives me a chance to help out a cause that I am extremely passionate about!
Something funny that’s happened at work: When I first started working with the office equipment, I had to be taught how to use a fax machine because I had never used one before. That is how young I am, I suppose.
My legal interests are: I am still exploring all my career options, but if I decide on law school, I would use my law degree to fight for causes that I am passionate about, such as the environment, protection of civil liberties or the separation of church and state.
My legal heroes are: Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Meiklejohn, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clarence Darrow.
These three words sum me up: Workaholic, outgoing, optimistic.
Things I like: When I have the time, I love staying up way into the night doing one of my many hobbies. I will commonly be up until 3 in the morning engrossed in a book or a song that I’m producing on my computer, or just messing around in graphic design software.
I also love staying in shape and exercising. You’ll see me playing pickup soccer at least once a week, in addition to running, weight lifting and skiing in winter.
Things I smite: Religion’s foothold in our world and influence in American culture and politics; religious repression of critical thinking, sexuality, and many other things; how religion poisons the minds of the young; and how awkward family dinners are now that I’m the only “out” atheist in the family.
My loftiest goal: To one day get interviewed on Fox News and then proceed to offer an intellectual smackdown of whichever bigot is interviewing me (I’m looking at you, Bill O’Reilly).
