Graduate Education

New programs ensure graduate students leave Mason with more than a degree

Pam Shepherd — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 13:28:54 +0000

New programs ensure graduate students leave Mason with more than a degree Pam Shepherd Mon, 03/18/2024 - 09:28

In This Story

For decades, graduate students were left to their own devices to find employment and, even with a degree in hand, successfully landing a full-time position became increasingly more difficult. Historically, graduate students are academically prepared to do a job in their chosen field, but may lack the skills to GET a job, exacerbating the student debt issue and leaving many Americans to wonder about the value of higher education.

It was this dilemma, and the opportunity to change it, that brought Stephanie Bluth, associate director for graduate professional and career development, to George Mason University. In her role, Bluth has established programs that allow Mason to meet state, national, and federal requirements while preparing graduate students for the changing workforce and ensuring that those who come to Mason not only leave with degrees but also with job force readiness skills.

“All a degree does is tell you where the door is, it doesn’t open the door for you,” Bluth said. “Students want to know that when they leave Mason, they can navigate their career journeys with purpose, resilience, and satisfaction. Investing in career and professional preparation programs helps students gain the confidence they need to shine in an interview, connect with industry professionals, and seek mentorship—skills they will use for a lifetime.”

Stephanie Bluth, Associate Director for Graduate Professional and Career Development

So what does it take to ensure that when graduate students graduate from Mason, they are prepared to enter the workforce with the requisite knowledge, skills, abilities, and attributes required in their respective occupations? Eighteen months into her position, Bluth has made dramatic progress in opening doors for graduate students. Her implementation of a three-pronged professional development approach adapts to evolving demands, helps students remain competitive, and ensures long-term career sustainability through: 1) career planning; 2) communications and research; and 3) teaching skills.

“Graduate students not only learn about alternative careers and how to find potential employers, but also gain confidence in speaking about their work or research and how to sell themselves,” she said. “Specialized training focusing on skill building and communication practices provides essential guidance, support, and resources to help students build confidence, explore career options, and achieve their professional goals. Mastering these skills empowers students to navigate diverse social and professional scenarios with confidence, ensuring that they can effectively share their ideas, goals, and accomplishments and land that first job or promotion.”

Career Planning
By the time students are accepted to graduate school, they know what interests them and are pursuing specialization. What they might not know, however, is how to marry their academic interests with a profession–which is where career planning comes in. Bluth implemented the Accelerate to Industry (A2i) Program, developed by the Graduate School at North Carolina State University and funded through a National Science Foundation Innovations in Graduate Education grant, which helps graduate students and postdoctoral researchers develop business, leadership, and communication skills through a variety of modules by offering networking events, discussion panels, presentations, workshops, team projects, site visits at local companies, and internships—all of which allow graduate students opportunities to gain valuable experience and to tackle global challenges in partnership with researchers and companies.

Mason’s A2i program, which is open to all graduate students and is led by the Graduate Division in collaboration University Life, demonstrates a continued commitment to prioritizing experiential learning through partnerships with industry, federal, and community stakeholders. By participating, students can explore employment opportunities with regional and national industry partners.

“A2i transforms the classroom by creating experiential learning opportunities to use in the community and then translate them into workforce readiness,” Bluth said. “This model emphasizes that students need more than the accumulation of disciplinary expertise—academic preparation needs to be bolstered by experience and opportunities to empower students to apply their learning through structured activities and experiential learning opportunities.”

In partnership with Graduate Student Life and University Career Services, Bluth launched the Graduate Student Career Conference, which was held earlier this month and had over 100 students registered. This groundbreaking conference provides graduate students the opportunity to not just talk with potential employers, but to work with industry professionals on improving their resumes and writing career statements, as well as work on their interview skills and network with fellow students and potential colleagues.

“When graduate students ask what they can do with their degrees or where they will work, this conference tells them how to transition from student to employee, how to find potential employers, and how to sell what they do,” she said.

Saskia N. Campbell, executive director of University Career Services, agreed and noted that the conference is “an important skill-building professional development opportunity for an interdisciplinary group of graduate students to think about and practice communicating the transferability of their degrees to careers outside of academia, which is the path most will pursue.”

Through these continued collaborations with campus partners, University Career Services and Bluth have implemented the Graduate Career Series that includes multiple graduate student career workshops and events. Each covers topics such as creating individual development plans, tailoring resumes for each position, boosting networking skills for the new global job market, as well as translating graduate experience to employers and previous work experience into new fields.

“I realize there are many more skills that you need to succeed than those taught in regular classes, and I appreciate that Mason offers so many opportunities that contribute to our professional development in those areas,” said Cecilia Barriga Bahamonde, PhD candidate in environmental science and policy. “The Communication Academy is an excellent example of a curated workshop that has helped me improve how I communicate my research in a way that sets me up for success in any academic or professional presentation, from conferences to my dissertation defense. The A2i Immersion Week at North Carolina State University was also filled with empowering workshops, panels, and networking events that helped me be more prepared and confident in securing my dream job.”

Communications and Research
Another initiative championed by Bluth is the Communication Academy. This interactive four-part performance workshop series, which launched in January 2024, is a partnership with Mason’s Communication Center and and Writing Center. The series prepares graduate students to share their knowledge, communicate across disciplines, and connect with broader audiences by teaching them techniques used by professionals and speech writers, helping them learn to perform, communicate, improvise, and respond dynamically to an audience. The Communication Academy supports and prepares students to participate in the Mason Graduate Interdisciplinary Conference held each spring and the Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition during the fall semester. The 3MT® is a research communication competition where PhD students present their doctoral research to a non-specialist audience using only one single visual—all in three minutes. Through lessons learned in the Communications Academy, graduates incorporate storytelling and body language while talking about their work, ideas, and research.

Bluth adjusted certain aspects to Mason’s 3MT® to ensure that participating students are eligible for all levels of the program competition, including international events. As a result, Steven Zhou, a PhD candidate in the industrial and organizational psychology program and Mason’s first ever regional 3MT® winner, recently participated in the regional competition hosted by the Southern Council of Graduate Schools in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Mason is educating a global workforce, and we need to provide services that directly support that work. Our students are as diverse as the opportunities that a graduate degree from Mason prepares you for,” Bluth said. “A major goal for me is to help students first identify their expansive options and then prepare them to translate all they have learned into the industry position. We don't just produce scholars and thinkers at Mason—we produce doers, creators, and innovators.”

Teaching Skills
Under Bluth’s watch, the Graduate Teaching Academy and Crystal Anderson, associate director for engaged learning in the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning, recently launched “SkillCraft: Educating for Impact Community of Practice” which encourages graduate students to develop skills that are crucial to the creation of stimulating learning environments in and beyond the classroom. SkillCraft also provides graduate students with opportunities to document their growth and achievements through certifications at several levels. Workshops introduce the foundations for effective student engagement that can be applied in various educational settings, ranging from small-group recitations for teaching assistants to classroom management for graduate instructors of record, while boot camps help students design teaching materials for courses they teach or hope to teach.

In addition to building partnerships and consortiums within the university, Bluth played a strong role in Mason’s participation in the Graduate Career Consortium which has over 500 members from 220 institutions and organizations across the U.S., Canada, and other countries with a mission to "build a diverse community of professionals and empower them to advance the field of graduate and postdoctoral career and professional development.”

“None of these initiatives were built in a silo, which is what makes them so great,” Bluth said. “Mason is about global education and we have built partnerships that show that the university affects the whole region, not just the students on our campus. And it is through these partnerships that Mason is breaking down walls every day.”

Moving Forward
Bluth’s work, which Senior Associate Provost for Graduate Education Laurence Bray said “has had an invaluable impact on the graduate community”, has only just begun. She is committed to ending the decades-long tradition of graduates entering the workforce alone and instead, outfitting them with a roadmap that will combine their academic learning with work readiness skills and result in individuals who are prepared and can navigate their career journeys with purpose, resilience, and satisfaction.

Topics

Provost Newsletter

Office of the Provost

Graduate Division

Graduate Education

Strategic Direction

Networking event connects graduate students with Arlington’s Movers and Shakers

Colleen Rich — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 16:49:09 +0000

Networking event connects graduate students with Arlington’s Movers and Shakers Colleen Rich Fri, 10/21/2022 - 12:49

George Mason University’s proximity to the nation’s capital attracts many students interested in engaging with political and civic leaders. Recently, graduate students at Mason Square (formerly Arlington Campus) attended Movers and Shakers, a professional networking event with Arlington’s business, government, and community leaders.

Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Ziad Al Achkar and Emily Crawford were among this year’s student attendees. Al Achkar, a doctoral candidate in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, attended the first Movers and Shakers event when in launched in October 2019 and was excited about its return from its pandemic hiatus. His research interest focuses on using technology and the digitalization of humanitarian aid.

“I spoke with a few people working with consulting companies in the D.C. area whose work matches up with my career aspirations,” Al Achkar said. “Movers and Shakers reinforced the importance of having clear ideas about your career aspirations and being able to articulate them quickly when meeting new people and potential employers.”

Crawford is pursuing a master’s in public policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government with an emphasis on higher education policy. She advocates for college affordability and accessibility and aspires to collaborate with leaders in the White House, Congress, and the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of students.

Connecting with changemakers with an impact on Arlington and the nation appealed to her. Movers and Shakers provided the opportunity to engage leaders and allowed Crawford to share her impact in the Arlington community as the Graduate and Professional Student Association’s vice president of Arlington.

“It was incredible to connect with leaders from the State Department, local nonprofits making a significant difference in our community, and fellow students,” Crawford said. “We are all working together to make meaningful change happen to make Arlington, Virginia, and the country a better place to live.”

Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

“Movers and Shakers is a wonderful opportunity to build strong connections between Arlington leaders and Mason as we undergo our expansion,” said Toni Andrews, senior associate director, Community and Local Government Relations for Mason Square. “It builds awareness about current programs at Mason Square and those coming to Fuse at Mason such as the College of Engineering and Computing.”

John Daniels, BA Government and International Politics ’17, MPA ’19, was among Arlington’s leaders who networked with student attendees. Daniels is the chief of staff to 48th District Delegate Rip Sullivan, serving as political and policy advisor, legislative assistant, scheduler, manager for constituent services, and financial manager for the delegate’s political activities.

The opportunity to connect with and mentor students drew Daniels to the event, whose Patriot Pride was evident in his enthusiasm. He encouraged students to not worry about having their lives completely mapped out post-graduation. For students interested in a career path similar to his own, Daniels advises maintaining relationships with fellow alumni and faculty, getting involved in local politics or taking on an internship on Capitol Hill or the General Assembly.

Other Arlington leaders participating in the event included Dulce Carrillo, supervisor of public engagement, Arlington Public Schools; Liz Nohra, senior director, strategic partnerships, PathForward; Anh Phan, outreach representative for Senator Mark Warner’s office; Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz; and Julius “JD” Spain Sr., community and civil rights leader, president, NAACP Arlington Branch.

Several students won a one-on-one networking lunch with Arlington leaders thanks to a drawing held at Movers and Shakers.

Topics

graduate student life

Graduate Education

Mason announces new Graduate Division in the Office of the Provost

Colleen Rich — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 14:15:33 +0000

Mason announces new Graduate Division in the Office of the Provost Colleen Rich Wed, 10/12/2022 - 10:15

The Office of the Provost is excited to announce the launch of George Mason University’s Graduate Division. The Graduate Division will be one of the major units of Academic Affairs within the Office of the Provost.

Photo by Sierra Guard/Creative Services

Its mission is to elevate graduate education at Mason by increasing the global impact of its graduate students and programs, fostering a collaborative culture of academic excellence, and contributing to the research productivity and the workforce development appropriate to an R1 institution. Leveraging economies of scale, the Division is designed to maximize strategic and targeted investments to augment and complement the efforts of Mason’s local academic units.

The Graduate Division will serve all graduate programs and students including pre-professional master's to research-intensive doctoral students by working with the schools and colleges to provide services and communication strategy assistance.

“The inception of the new Graduate Division is an important step in supporting graduate education programs and graduate students at our university,” said Mark Ginsberg, Mason Provost and Executive Vice President. “I am confident that it will enhance the graduate student experience at Mason while further elevating our nationally respected academic and research programs. I can’t wait to watch our students and programs continue to soar as a result.”

The Graduate Division will coordinate pre-enrollment activities to increase the visibility and recognition of Mason graduate education. It will also expand central programming and opportunities to enhance the graduate student experience, refine graduate policies and procedures to uphold the quality and integrity of graduate programs, and bolster internal and external relations to elevate graduate student career readiness and placement.

The Office of the Graduate Education will officially transition into the Graduate Division during the Fall 2022 semester. During its first year, the Graduate Division will focus on unveiling a new graduate online onboarding platform, offering a university-wide graduate teaching assistant training, and starting a new mentored anti-racism and inclusive excellence mentorship program.

“The launch of the new Graduate Division is the result of a two-year university-wide team effort,” said Laurence Bray, associate provost of graduate education. “It has been an honor and privilege to lead this initiative and work with so many amazing partners across campus to make the Graduate Division become a reality.”

Over the next several years, the Graduate Division expects to expand its services to better support all graduate students and programs. Initial plans include creating a graduate success center to optimize student experience and engagement, as well as leveraging externally funded projects to increase graduate funding support.

Topics

Campus News

Office of the Provost

graduate students

Graduate Education

Strategic Direction

The basking shark receives protected status thanks to the work of a Mason PhD student

Colleen Rich — Tue, 04 Oct 2022 19:19:28 +0000

The basking shark receives protected status thanks to the work of a Mason PhD student Colleen Rich Tue, 10/04/2022 - 15:19

The basking shark is now a "protected wild animal" under new legislation that came into effect in Ireland this week. It is now an offense to hunt or injure them or to willfully interfere with their breeding or resting places, thanks to an international collaboration between United States, United Kingdom and Irish researchers, including George Mason University alum and current doctoral candidate Chelsea Gray.

Photo by the Irish Basking Shark Group

This legislation was heavily supported by the Irish Basking Shark Group (ISBG), an international network of researchers, educators, and community representatives founded in 2009. In 2021, this group organized an international consortium of scientists and conservation organizations to sign an open letter to the Irish government, calling for legal protection of basking sharks in Ireland. Simultaneously, the IBSG also ran a “Save Our Sharks” campaign, resulting in 12,000 signatures in support of this new policy.

U.S. representatives Alexandra McInturf, co-coordinator of the IBSG and a postdoctoral scholar at Oregon State University, and Gray have been working alongside their Irish and UK partners to conduct vital research for basking shark conservation.

“This is a great example of the importance of diversifying research methods and collaborating with as many people as possible,” said Gray, who is working on a PhD in environmental science and public policy at Mason. Her research on social attitudes helped demonstrate strong public support for basking shark conservation.

Chelsea Gray on the beach in Donegal, Ireland in 2018. Photo provided

McInturf has been conducting field studies on basking sharks in Ireland and recently published a study on the basking shark population along the U.S. West Coast. She believes international collaboration is critical to ensuring the persistence of this species worldwide.

“Basking sharks are highly mobile, capable of moving across entire ocean basins. In doing so, they pass through the jurisdiction of many different countries,” said McInturf, who also sits on the scientific steering committee for the SeaMonitor Project, an international research initiative designed to study basking sharks and other marine species. “It is estimated that Irish waters host 10-20% of the global population of this shark species year-round. Their presence in Ireland also appears relatively steady. This suggests that Ireland offers important habitat for the species.”

While shark tourism is popular worldwide, protections for sharks are often considered controversial because of perceived impacts to fisheries. In her research, Gray wanted to find out if there was any interest in basking shark tourism and if that impacted support for legal protections. In July 2018, Gray traveled to Donegal, Ireland, to interview local residents and tourists about their perspective on sharks and shark conservation.

Although basking sharks grow up to 7.9 meters (26 feet) in length, these slow swimming plankton eaters are generally harmless to humans. Gray said their docile nature and habit of feeding at the surface of the water make basking sharks an ideal candidate for shark-viewing, as they can be viewed from land or a boat, and many ocean-goers have had peaceful encounters with this type of shark.

Chelsea Gray diving with blue sharks off the coast of South Africa. Photo provided

Gray’s findings, which were the basis for her 2019 master’s thesis, showed that basking sharks are a potentially untapped tourism market and that there was widespread support for legal protections for basking sharks in Ireland. And her article, “Basking shark tourism in Donegal, Ireland—A case study of public interest and support for shark conservation,” was published in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems at an ideal time, as a member of the Irish Parliament had just introduced the legislation to protect the sharks.

“The IBSG has provided me the opportunity to take an active role in shark conservation and has shown me the challenge and reward of achieving conservation legislation,” said Gray, whose appreciation for sharks began in early childhood. “This new law is a major step forward in basking shark conservation, but this is only the beginning of a long road to crafting comprehensive, science-based marine policy. I am honored to be part of a group that continues to build key relationships and push for important changes.”

Topics

Students

College of Science

Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP)

Building support for endometriosis, the invisible condition that will affect 1 in 10 biological females

Colleen Rich — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 15:06:18 +0000

Building support for endometriosis, the invisible condition that will affect 1 in 10 biological females Colleen Rich Thu, 09/29/2022 - 11:06

In This Story

Jhumka Gupta, ScD

Anna Pollack, PhD, MPH

In 2014, Julia Mandeville was informed that she had stage 4 endometriosis. Just two years later, she co-founded the organization Barbados Association of Endometriosis and PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) to raise awareness, support, and research efforts toward the condition.

“When I started my PhD, I was determined to find out more about endometriosis and how it affects Black women.”

Originally from Barbados, Mandeville immigrated to the United States in 2019 and started as a doctoral student in public health at Mason in 2021.

Julia Mandeville. Photo provided

“I’ve been diagnosed with this condition, and I recognize that a lot of people around me don’t know about it,” said Mandeville. “It’s important to not only educate my friends and family, but the community at large. These conditions are chronic. There’s no cure, but what can help is having a supportive community around you.”

Endometriosis is an enigmatic condition, she explained, that is typically defined by the presence of “endometria-like” cells found outside the uterus. The disease usually emerges between ages 11 and 16.

“If we can educate persons in that age group regardless of gender, that would hopefully be able to flow through our community,” Mandeville said.

Mandeville conducted educational outreach in her Barbados community with BAEP. “Barbados is very small so it’s really easy to go around the community and to a majority of the secondary schools to educate people there,” she said.

But she still had to break through knowledge barriers. “It was originally thought to only affect ‘career women,’ non-Hispanic White women, and Asian women,” said Mandeville. “That created a lot of barriers for diagnosis and treatment. Now we know better.”

Although it was considered a gynecological disorder and, in some instances, does impact gynecological function, it can be found anywhere in the body.

“It doesn’t just affect cis-women, it can also affect trans men, and there are a few case studies where it’s been found in men who have undergone hormonal therapy and their cells have changed.”

The only way to diagnose endometriosis is through exploratory surgery; the cause of the condition is unknown. Mandeville is developing theories for the cause of the disease with Mason researchers Jhumka Gupta and Anna Pollack of the College of Health and Human Services.

Pollack is an environmental epidemiologist who looks at chemical exposures and sexual reproductive health outcomes associated with them.

Julia Mandeville (right) speaking with attendees at an event in collaboration with ENDO Black. Photo provided

“Working with Julia is delightful,” Pollack said. “She’s amazing at putting together a team that has complimentary expertise to address a specific topic or health-related issue that she wants to tackle,” said Pollack.

Pollack explained two studies Mandeville is leading. In one, they are collecting pilot data to learn whether survey participants would be willing to provide biospecimen to the researchers. Those would then be analyzed for chemical exposure. “This is formative research, which when done that next step will be to add that chemical component,” said Pollack.

Mandeville’s research on “social aspects such as race and stigma helped to bridge my and Dr. Pollack's research as well,” said Gupta.

Mandeville also collaborates with the executive director of ENDO Black, Lauren Kornegay. She connected with Kornegay, head of the Black-women-led organization that advocates for BIPOC individuals affected by endometriosis, via social media before she moved to the United States.

Mandeville said she wants to emphasize the importance of educating all communities on endometriosis.

Of Mandeville’s dedication, Pollack said, “This is something that I think as a future researcher is incredibly rare.”

Mandeville submitted an abstract of her research to the American Public Health Association (APHA), which was accepted and will be presented at the APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo in November.

“I think we’re going to be reading a lot more about Julia in the years to come,” said Gupta.

Topics

Students

College of Health and Human Services

doctoral students

Research

Graduate Education

Research says club sports are Mason’s untapped resource

Colleen Rich — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 18:22:08 +0000

Research says club sports are Mason’s untapped resource Colleen Rich Wed, 09/28/2022 - 14:22

Participation in club sports is a significant factor in bringing in and maintaining students at George Mason University, and also contributes to higher graduation rates, a new study has found.

Zikun Li. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

The research, by Mason PhD student Zikun Li, also found that as an engine for recruiting students, club sports could be added to Mason’s broader admissions and marketing strategies.

“These findings enhance the understanding of club sports and its broader impact on the university,” Li said. “Maybe it will inspire other universities to do some comparative studies.”

Li, who is in the interdisciplinary specialization program through the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD), began the study in December 2021 after a request from Paul Bazzano, assistant director of competitive sports, camps, and athletic training at Mason Recreation.

Laurence Chalip, a CEHD professor, a member of Mason’s Recreation Advisory Board, and Li’s advisor, asked his students if anyone was interested. Li was all in, even though the subject was not exactly in her program concentration of sport for development.

In that way, Li embodies Mason’s goal of delivering All Together Different by acting with confidence while trying something unconventional that challenges the status quo.

“As a novice scholar, I appreciate the interconnectedness among disciplines,” said Li, who earned her undergraduate degree in her native China and her master’s at the University of Michigan. “Because of Mason’s interdisciplinary program I have been able to take courses outside the sports area, which gives me a refreshing way to look at it. I’m able to see sports in a broader way.”

“Zikun is deeply interested in the ways in which sport is used effectively and ineffectively for development purposes,” Chalip said. “But clearly, when you work in the policy world, economics matter. Policymakers want to know what the numbers look like. So to develop the kind of skills that will enable her to work in the policy world—understanding how to collect data, and analyzing and thinking through financial data—is really vital. So it made great sense.”

Mason's men's ice hockey team was among the club sports that scored high in terms of players choosing Mason to participate in the sport. Photo by Lathan Goumas/Strategic Communications

Li surveyed 425 undergraduate club sports athletes during the 2021-22 academic year. The data were eye-opening.

For example ...

The aggregate spending by undergraduate club sports athletes at Mason in the 2021-22 academic year—including tuition, campus fees, campus housing, food, Mason gear, study-related supplies, parking, and health insurance through the university, minus financial aid—is estimated at more than $21 million.
Athletes agreed that playing club sports factored into their decision to attend and stay enrolled at Mason, and their decision to recommend the university to potential students. Those participating in men’s ice hockey and men’s football (both of which actively recruit athletes to attend Mason), were especially strong on those scores, with 92.3% of football players and 100% of hockey players saying their participation is a factor in remaining at Mason.
Students who participate in club sports as freshmen, even if they did not participate as sophomores, graduated at a significantly higher rate than the overall undergraduate student body: 76% to 70.1% for six-year graduates; 66% to 65.7% for five-year graduates; 54% to 47.4% for four-year graduates.

Why is this information important?

“Our goal was to gather information for us to make the best decisions moving forward as a department and a university,” Bazzano said. “Is recruiting an opportunity for some of our other clubs? Is recruitment something that can differentiate ourselves from other universities?”

There is also a financial consideration, Bazzano said.

“Is there any way we can restructure to support those programs, to lower the barriers of student participants funding them?” he said. “The focus is on how we can reimagine our budget and restructure what we’re doing.”

Andrew Bunting, Mason’s executive director of enrollment services, also found Li’s research useful.

“Her work is certainly research of consequence and can have a direct impact on the way the Mason markets itself to prospective students,” Bunting said. “Zikun’s findings help us to better understand the various and often very personalized factors that motivate students to apply, enroll, and persist at the university.”

Li, who plans to graduate by the end of 2023 and hopes to turn the research into a publishable paper, said the research experience will benefit her eventual search for a faculty position.

“This study not only generated my interest in continuously understanding club sports, but also enhanced my data analysis skills,” Li said. “To do some hands-on analysis really gave me confidence to do more quantitative research in the future.”

Topics

Mason students help the environment with sustainability summer fellowships

Colleen Rich — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 14:33:15 +0000

Mason students help the environment with sustainability summer fellowships Colleen Rich Tue, 09/13/2022 - 10:33

Mason doctoral student Sri Saahitya Uppalapati takes questions following her virtual presentation on her work with Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action.

George Mason University doctoral and graduate students helped the environment, nonprofit organizations and the local community with summer projects through the Sustainability Summer Graduate Research Fellowships. This summer marked the first time Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE) has offered the fellowship program.

Thanks to a unique collaboration between ISE and the Office of Graduate Education, eight student fellows received funding to research a variety of topics, including solid waste reduction strategies and helping Fairfax County’s goals of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. A video presentation of their final projects can be found here.

“Our students were able to offer organizations and the community their cutting-edge research skills,” said Jeremy Campbell, ISE’s associate director of strategic engagement. “The students benefited from the fellowships by getting real-world experiences early on in their graduate careers and seeing their research make a difference.”

Campbell emphasized the importance of the partner organizations participating in the program and said that he planned to continue the summer fellowships, as well as further develop partnerships with local government entities, nonprofit organizations and other outside groups. He also said that students participating in the fellowship program were able to network in their field of interest.

All of the participating students except one are pursuing doctorates. The students came from a variety of study areas, including sociology and conflict analysis and resolution.

A chart from Mason doctoral student Shawn Smith's presentation.

Sri Saahitya Uppalapati, who is pursuing a PhD in communication in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, worked on building communications materials for Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action about the impact of the climate crisis on health in Virginia.

“It was inspiring to be surrounded by such dedicated and committed folks who truly care about the intersection of climate and health,” Uppalapati said.

Bradley Gay, a doctoral student in earth systems and geoinformation sciences in the College of Science, partnered with Blake Vullo, doctoral student in sociology in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, to work on Future Earth’s Global Food Program. Gay studied land use change using global remote sensing data analysis. The results of his study will help push for policy that is backed up by data, Gay said.

“I appreciated the chance to study something that I’m interested in that also will be hopefully extremely helpful in policy change,” Gay said. “It was a great opportunity.”

Other students and their projects included:

Arvind Geetha Christo, doctoral student in sociology, worked on conservation and environmental justice in South Asia, partnering with the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security program.

Ashton Rohmer, doctoral student in conflict analysis and resolution at the Carter School, tackled the sustainability aspects of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill with the Office of the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Stacy Lynn Yike, master’s student in environmental science and policy, looked at solid waste reduction strategies in the context of Fairfax County’s climate action plan with the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions.

Shawn Smith, doctoral student in environmental science and policy, researched air and water pollution, environmental health, and public policy, with the Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter.

Dhruv Deepak, doctoral student in sociology, worked on globally diverse forms of community-level sustainability paradigms as part of Future Earth’s Program on Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Topics

Students

Institute for a Sustainable Earth (ISE)

Sustainability Research

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

College of Science

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Research

Graduate Education

Deltek Scholars Program created to fund Mason computer science graduates

Colleen Rich — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:26:28 +0000

Deltek Scholars Program created to fund Mason computer science graduates Colleen Rich Mon, 04/04/2022 - 09:26

Computer science students at George Mason University will benefit from a new donation by Deltek, the leading global provider of enterprise software and information solutions for project-based businesses, headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. A $100,000 investment from the company, establishing the Deltek Scholars Program, will provide scholarship support beginning in Fall 2022 to as many as eight graduate students pursuing their master’s degree in software engineering.

“We are honored that Deltek has chosen to invest in Mason students, and are eager to put these funds to use to advance our mutual goal of training a world-class tech workforce here in Northern Virginia,” said Mason President Gregory Washington.

The scholarship recipients can also gain access to internships at Deltek, networking and career-building opportunities, and funding for capstone projects. Recipients must be among the first generation in their family to attend college, thus contributing to the goal of bringing diverse talent to the tech workforce.

“Mason is a proven talent incubator for the Northern Virginia region,” said Mike Corkery, president and CEO of Deltek. “We’re looking forward to hosting interns from Mason, hiring more Mason graduates, and collaborating to advance Northern Virginia as a world leader in information technology.”

Deltek’s investment advances Mason’s participation in the Tech Talent Investment Program launched by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2019. That agreement calls for Mason to raise matching funds in order to receive up to $125 million in state funding to produce a cumulative total of more than 7,500 master’s graduates in technology fields by 2039.

Corkery is also a member of Mason’s President’s Innovation Advisory Council, made up of industry, community, and government leaders helping guide Mason’s initiative to spark further innovation centered in Arlington’s Rosslyn-Ballston corridor. On April 6, Mason will host the groundbreaking ceremony for a new, 345,000 square-foot innovation headquarters under construction on its Arlington Campus, now called Mason Square.

Deltek’s founder, the late Donald de Laski, was a board member and a leading supporter of George Mason University for many years. The de Laski Performing Arts Building on the university’s Fairfax Campus is named in honor of him and his wife, Kathleen.

Topics

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

Campus News

Scholarships

computer science

College of Engineering and Computing

software engineering

Graduate Education

Mason has eight graduate programs in the top 25 nationally, with several leaping forward in U.S. News rankings

Mariam Aburdeineh — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 20:21:58 +0000

Mason has eight graduate programs in the top 25 nationally, with several leaping forward in U.S. News rankings Mariam Aburdeineh Mon, 03/28/2022 - 16:21

In This Story

Mark J. Rozell

Kenneth Ball

Jiayang Sun

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services/George Mason University

George Mason University has eight graduate programs listed among the top 25 nationally, according to the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report, reflecting the university’s reputation of being a top institution for advanced degrees.

The list was led by Mason’s part-time law program at the Antonin Scalia Law School, which is No. 1 among public institutions, followed by industrial-organizational psychology at No. 5 nationally. Rounding out the list were Mason’s intellectual property program, three programs at the Schar School of Policy and Government, as well as special education and elementary teacher education at the College of Education and Human Development.

Overall, Mason has 18 programs ranked in the top 50 nationally and 33 ranked in the top 50 among public universities. Several programs rose in the Best Graduate School Rankings, including statistics and biological sciences.

Mason on the Rise

“The continued rise in the national rankings of our respected academic programs is further affirmation about the quality of a Mason education and the esteem in how our programs are viewed nationally,” said Mark R. Ginsberg, Mason provost and executive vice president. “We are very pleased by and proud of the recognition our programs have received and the experience our students have.”

Mason is the fastest growing public university in Virginia and has conferred the highest number of master’s degrees of any four-year public institution in the state for the past five years. According to State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, Mason conferred nearly a third of the state’s master’s degrees for the 2020-21 academic year.

U.S. News ranks different programs at different times of the year, including rankings for online master’s programs, which were released in January, and the annual Best Colleges rankings released each fall.

Several programs that ranked in the top 25 are housed on the Arlington Campus—recently renamed Mason Square—which is less than five miles from Washington, D.C. Mason Square is undergoing a transformation as part of the Rosslyn-Ballston Innovation Corridor, an innovation district that will be the first of its kind in Virginia, and will serve as the home base for the Institute for Digital Innovation.

Scalia Law Soars to Top 30

Mason’s part-time law program is ranked No. 4 nationally and No. 1 among public universities, ahead of distinguished universities including University of Maryland, Temple University, and University of Houston. The school’s ranking, as a whole, rose 11 spots, to No. 30.

“For the first time, we are ranked nationally as a top 30 law school,” said law school Dean Ken Randall. “The ranking reflects the academic excellence of the Scalia law faculty, student body, and staff.”

“We are grateful for the university’s support of the law school,” he said. “The law school’s evening program—ranked as the fourth best part-time program nationally—has tripled its enrollment by leveraging technology and advancing our commitment to inclusive excellence.”

A Prominent Hub for Public Policy

Five Schar School programs (homeland security, public-policy analysis, nonprofit management, public finance, and local government management) are ranked as the top programs in Virginia, with homeland security leading the list at No. 7 nationally, and No. 6 among public institutions.

Mason’s homeland security program has made the nation’s top 10 list for five years straight.

“The Schar School’s interdisciplinary programs increasingly are being recognized as among the best,” said Schar School Dean Mark J. Rozell. “Most notable this year is the big jump in the ranking in nonprofit management studies—the largest one-year move we’ve ever seen.”

The nonprofit management program rose 14 spots, from No. 32 to No. 18 nationally.

“High-impact faculty work and recent exciting hires in that field are being noticed by our peers nationally,” Rozell said.

The Schar School’s location in the heart of the U.S. political scene provides students with extraordinary professional opportunities that supplement learning from professors with experience in everything from NGOs and nonprofits to top government agencies like the CIA, National Security Agency, and more.

Biological Sciences Leaps to Top 10

Many Mason programs significantly advanced in the rankings from last year, including biological sciences, which rose 71 spots to No. 119.

“The graduate programs at the School of Systems Biology (SSB) are constantly striving to enrich student experiences and improve learning outcomes,” said Iosif Vaisman, professor and School of Systems Biology director. “We are very happy that these collective efforts by our administrators, faculty, and staff bear fruit.”

“Our time to degree completion statistics is better than many peer programs, and our graduates are in high demand on the job market,” Vaisman said, noting students come from all walks of life. “All these successes to a great degree depend on the extremely strong research portfolios, publication record, teaching commitments, and reputation of faculty at SSB and its two research centers, the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine and the Center for Infectious Disease Research.”

A Bright Future, Statistically Speaking

Statistics also jumped 29 spots, coming in at No. 54 nationally and No. 38 among publics.

Jiayang Sun, department chair of Statistics, said she is optimistic for another significant jump in the next ranking cycle.

“We have outstanding faculty who are national leaders in their areas of expertise,” Sun said. “We had remarkable growth and transformation under the new leadership.”

“We are very pleased and excited by the significant jump in the rankings by our Department of Statistics, and congratulate the entire department and its leadership for their success,” said Kenneth Ball, dean of the College of Engineering and Computing.

“The department has a very bright future and is contributing greatly to the success of the college as well as across the university,” he said.

Research funding for statistics has continued to surpass the department’s records since 2020, Sun said.

Ball touted the investment made by Mason's College of Engineering and Computing in the statistics programs, including more than $1.5 million for new faculty start-up funds and graduate research assistants, as well as other resources.

And a new partnership with Inova Health System has provided faculty with expanding collaborative research opportunities.

“We are modernizing our program offerings and looking forward to unique opportunities with the new School of Computing and some expected Virginia initiatives,” Sun said.

Methodology

The 2023 Best Graduate School rankings for business, education, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing are based on expert opinion about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research, and students, U.S. News reported.

The ranking data comes from statistical surveys of more than 2,150 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 23,200 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2021 and early 2022.

Full Rankings

Below is a preview of Mason’s rankings for its graduate programs. It will be updated if additional rankings become available:

Part-time Law: No. 4 nationally, No. 1 among public institutions.

Intellectual Property: No. 19 nationally, No. 6 among public institutions (Best in Virginia).

Best Law School: No. 30 nationally, No. 11 among public institutions.

Contracts: No. 37 nationally, No 18 among public institutions.

Constitutional Law: No. 40 nationally, No. 19 among public institutions.

Corporate Law: No. 41 nationally, No. 17 among public institutions.

International Law: No. 67 nationally, 30 among public institutions.

Tax Law: No. 70 nationally, No. 33 among public institutions.

Criminal Law: No. 80 nationally, No. 38 among public institutions.

Trial Advocacy: No. 89 overall, No. 31 among public institutions.

Dispute Resolution: No. 103 nationally, No. 43 among public institutions.

Health Care Law: No. 108 nationally, No. 50 among public institutions.

Environmental Law: No. 122 nationally, No. 62 among public institutions.

Clinical Training: No. 148 nationally, No. 64 among public institutions.

Legal Writing: No. 169 nationally, No. 74 among public institutions.

Public Affairs: No. 39 nationally, No. 26 among public institutions.

Homeland Security: No. 7 nationally, No. 6 among public institutions (Best in Virginia).

Nonprofit Management: No. 18 overall, No. 14 among public institutions (Best in Virginia).

Public Policy Analysis: No. 24 nationally, No. 12 among public institutions (Best in Virginia).

Public Finance: No. 26 nationally, No. 19 among public institutions (Best in Virginia).

Leadership: No. 27 nationally, No. 19 among public institutions.

Local Government Management: No. 27 nationally, No. 24 among public institutions (Best in Virginia).

Part-time MBA: No. 67 nationally, No. 40 among public institutions.

Education: No. 67 overall, No. 52 among public institutions.

Special Ed: No. 15 nationally, No. 14 among public institutions.

Elementary Teacher Ed: No. 20 nationally, No. 16 among public institutions.

Engineering: No. 92 nationally, No. 56 among public institutions.

Industrial Engineering: No. 39 nationally, No. 29 among public institutions.

Statistics: No. 54 nationally, No. 38 among public institutions.

Computer Science: No. 63 nationally, No. 37 among public institutions.

Computer Engineering: No. 75 nationally, No. 44 among public institutions.

Electrical Engineering: No. 82 nationally, No. 49 among public institutions.

Civil Engineering: No. 89 nationally, No. 63 among public institutions.

Bioengineering: No. 103 nationally, No. 65 among public institutions.

Geology: No. 113 nationally, No. 81 among public institutions.

Mathematics: No. 115 nationally, No. 72 among public institutions.

Biological Sciences: No. 119 nationally, No. 66 among public institutions.

Physics: No. 132 nationally, No. 78 among public institutions.

Chemistry: No. 165 overall, No. 107 among public institutions.

Nursing Master's: No. 37 nationally, No. 23 among public institutions.

Nursing-DNP: No. 52 nationally, No. 38 among public institutions.

Public Health: No. 70 nationally, No. 45 among public institutions.

Social Work: No. 79 nationally, No. 54 among public institutions.

Economics: No. 74 overall, No. 40 among public institutions.

Psychology: No. 80 nationally, No. 47 among public institutions.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology: No. 5 nationally, No. 4 among public institutions.

Topics

Campus News

Rankings

Graduate Education

New Partnership Eases Transition to Grad School

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 15:40:22 +0000

New Partnership Eases Transition to Grad School Jennifer Anzaldi Wed, 03/16/2022 - 11:40

Matt Van Horn

The George Mason University School of Business recently set up a unique admission partnership with the University of Virginia at Wise. The pathway offers students who graduate from UVA-Wise the ability to streamline their applications to the master’s in accounting, master’s in finance, and master’s in management (MSM).

The master’s in management is designed for non-business majors who seek a foundation in business management. Program benefits include access to world-class faculty, individual advising and lifelong career coaching. Over the course of 11 months, MSM students will earn a master’s in management, complete an internship (150 hours), and participate in a global residency.

"The MSM program provides a unique opportunity to combine the diverse perspectives of the non-business undergraduate degrees with the targeted foundation in both the theory and practical application of business in areas such as organizational behavior, economics, finance, marketing, and others," says Victoria M Grady, associate professor of organizational behavior and academic director of the MSM Program. "It is exciting to be part of such a dynamic program. We are thrilled to share integrated partnerships with schools such as UVA-Wise."

Matt Van Horn, a student in the (MSM) program, is the first student to come through this pathway to Mason. When asked why he chose the pathway, Van Horn says it was because of Mason’s reputation and the easy nature of the application process.

“I always knew I wanted to go to grad school, but the graduate application process can be overwhelming,” Van Horn says. “The UVA-Wise pathway was almost too good to be true. It was like a yellow brick road through all the confusion.”

According to Van Horn, the MSM program has benefits that may not be obvious initially. The business school’s Office of Career Services is a “true benefit,” he says, and the staff works closely to meet student wants and needs. He emphasizes the excellent networking opportunities with other professionals in the Washington, D.C., area.

When asked how the MSM helped him develop, Van Horn says he now has a more realistic idea of the scope of the business world and the skills he needs to continue developing to be successful. “It allowed me to take what I already knew from undergrad and build on it,” he says.

He added that the professors are friendly and want their students to succeed, which he considers a strength of the program. Van Horn’s advice for students who are considering a School of Business master’s program is to reach out to any of the staff or faculty for more information.

If you would like your college or university to benefit from a similar partnership or pathway, please contact Kevin Connor, associate director of graduate admission, strategic initiatives in the School of Business.

Topics

Costello College of Business News

Master's in Finance Program

Master's in Accounting Program

Master's in Management Program

Campus News

Graduate Education