Flipside: It’s a small world

Steve Ressler and Megan Quinn share more than just a Rising Star Award from Federal Computer Week [see “The real American idols,” Oct. 9]. They’re also step-siblings. Ressler’s father and Quinn’s mother met while working at the Internal Revenue Service. The pair married in the summer of 2003. That same year Quinn earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Indiana University, and Ressler was pursuing a graduate degree in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. But Quinn and Ressler were close friends long before they became relatives.

When did you first meet?

Quinn: Steve and I first knew each other because we had summer jobs at the same country club in Cincinnati [during high school].

Ressler: My stepmom’s friend’s son worked at the country club probably back in 1999. It’s kind of how our parents met. They were friends at work, and their kids were friends at their work.

Quinn: They didn’t start dating until we were in college.

How much did your family have to do with your joining the federal workforce?

Quinn: I knew that I wanted to be in the federal government because of my interest in political science and public administration. My mom was in the federal government, and my father was an urban planner, so I had a lot of that public service kind of instilled in me at an early age.

Ressler: I wanted to be a professor. All through undergrad [school] that was my goal. I got into grad school with the idea of [that] in mind. In one class, I was writing a paper on Social Security. [The Social Security Administration] had an internship, so I got into it, and I liked it. I talked to my father, and he was very positive. But it’s kind of funny. My father never really pushed me in that direction. He let me do whatever I wanted, and I kind of stumbled into it.

So it’s blind chance that both of you ended up as feds and family?

Quinn: It’s really funny.

Ressler: Someone else had a plan, I guess.