Voinovich Scholar program provided Olivito with critical experience, led to his career

For Jonathan Olivito ’09 MPA ‘11, working as a Voinovich Undergraduate Research Scholar at Ohio University was the launch pad for everything that has followed in his career.

“The school gave us a lot of responsibility as research scholars to assist with the work they're doing,” he says. “We worked in small teams, so nobody was just fetching the coffee. We were knee deep into it.”

As a history major within OHIO’s Honors Tutorial College, Olivito began his Voinovich Scholar stint by working on a report for the Ohio Arts Council on the impact of the Ohio Quilt Barn Initiative. His team conducted interviews with arts groups in Appalachian Ohio counties, gathered various demographic data points, and published a report with the results.

“It gave me experience in what it means to rigorously look at a problem, analyze the data, and mix that data with what we were trying to accomplish, public value-wise,” he says.

Toward the end of his time as a Voinovich Scholar, Olivito went to work for the Mayors’ Partnership for Progress (MPP) initiative, where he played a significant role in several research projects culminating in an in-person presentation to members of the MPP.

“My mentors put a lot of trust in me,” says Olivito. “It's a little bit of a rare thing to put so much responsibility on such a young and inexperienced person, but it helped me grow.”

After graduation, Olivito entered the Master of Public Administration program at the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service, continuing his work in the Appalachian Ohio region. However, he always had a long-standing interest in law—he came from a family of lawyers—and after completing the MPA program, he earned his law degree from Ohio State.

Now a partner at Taft Law and one of the top litigation specialists in Columbus, Olivito still relies on the skills he honed as a Voinovich Scholar.

“When I'm doing discovery for an upcoming case, I have to examine the facts, how that applies to the law, and decide what information we need,” he says. “A lot of the skills that I used at the Voinovich School—research, writing, creative problem solving, and communication—are very transferable into the practice of law, and I’m using them all the time.”