Students

Graduate students at Mason Square (formerly Arlington Campus) recently attended Movers and Shakers, a professional networking event with Arlington’s business, government, and community leaders.

Mason doctoral candidate Chelsea Gray's research on social attitudes helped demonstrate strong public support in Ireland for basking shark conservation.

After a diagnosis of stage 4 endometriosis, Mason doctoral student Julia Mandeville co-founded the organization Barbados Association of Endometriosis and PCOS to raise awareness, support, and research efforts for the condition.

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.

Mason 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.

Isidore Nsengiyumva, only four years old at the time, was in the fields with his father and older brother in Burundi, when suddenly they heard the sound of motors and guns. Troops involved in the country’s civil war attacked their village, and rapidly, their lives were changed.

“We hid in a bush, and when the noise of the guns and fighting subsided, we went back and found our home burned,” Nsengiyumva said. “That’s when my dad decided it was no longer safe.”

Growing up in the slums of Cameroon, Joseph Sany said he witnessed urban violence and police oppression regularly. He heard about genocide in Rwanda, and he saw more violence firsthand when he worked with NGOs and visited countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone during civil war.

Doctoral student Sharrell Hassell-Goodman is co-chair of the Student Voice Committee.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Mason doctoral student Marissa Howard was able to get back into the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) lab, but now all the researchers are working on COVID-19-related research.

Louie Al-Hashimi is driven by service. It started in high school, he said, when his history teacher encouraged him to get involved in community service and he began volunteering at a local food pantry, supporting road cleanup projects, and organizing school concerts for charity.

“That, coupled with my studies, encouraged me to pursue public service,” said Al-Hashimi, who earned his master’s in public administration from George Mason University in 2020. “Having the opportunity to build or facilitate a connection with other people—that’s what I’m drawn to.”