Mariam Qureshi

Alumna Gains Global Perspective to Improve Opportunities for Students with Disabilities

Wasiq Muhammad Muhammad Ali — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 18:42:31 +0000

Alumna Gains Global Perspective to Improve Opportunities for Students with Disabilities Wasiq Muhammad… Mon, 07/25/2022 - 14:42

Each year, hundreds of American students, aged eighteen to twenty-four, vie for the opportunity to work and study in Germany through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for Young Professionals program. The reciprocal program, which has run for thirty-nine years, selects seventy-five Americans and seventy-five German professionals to spend a year experiencing life in their respective cultural-exchange nations.

This year, Mason is celebrating the selection of Honors College alumni, Abigail Hawkins, to the prestigious CBYX program. Hawkins, who graduated from Mason in May 2022, majored in global affairs with concentrations in human security and Middle East and North Africa Studies, and a minor in Arabic.

Throughout her undergraduate study, Hawkins worked with Mason’s College Diabetes Network and gained experience in the nonprofit sector to improve healthcare affordability and accessibility.

Alongside her studies at Mason, Hawkins is a two-time alumna of the US Department of State's Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), a program designed by the U.S. government to expand the number of American students, who represent a range of majors and disciplines, studying and mastering critical foreign languages. In addition to her participation in the CLS program, Hawkins has studied abroad in Jordan, Spain, and Japan.

With her newest opportunity in the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) for Young Professionals program, Hawkins continues to forge a path for herself in international education with the goal of improving access to study abroad opportunities for students with disabilities and chronic illnesses.

Topics

alumna

Critical Language Scholarship

Honors College

College of Humanities and Social Science

Fellowships

Spring 2022 Research Exhibition & Awards Ceremony

Wasiq Muhammad Muhammad Ali — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 21:20:04 +0000

Spring 2022 Research Exhibition & Awards Ceremony Wasiq Muhammad… Wed, 04/27/2022 - 17:20

Each spring, Dewberry Hall fills up with students and faculty, with crowds spilling over into the hallway. The occasion? The Spring Research Exhibition and Award Ceremony – a coming-together of community to celebrate the research, creative projects, and service of Honors College students. This year’s ceremony was held on Tuesday, April 26th .

From the round tables set up for intermixing and mingling of students and their supporters to the many research posters sprawling throughout the lower-level of the Johnson Center, the event is alive with chatter. During the first portion of the ceremony, student-scholars present their research and creative projects to faculty, peers, and other community members.

Upon the conclusion of the research presentations, which are the result of both group and individual projects, students are recognized for their service to the Honors College and their wider communities, as well as their scholarly and academic excellence. Awards are presented by Dr. John Woolsey, Dean Zofia Burr, and Ms. Eva Bramesco, who work closely with Honors College students.

Of the many awards presented at the ceremony, one of the most highly anticipated is the Schwartztein Prize for First-Year Research, an annual award which is given to one first-year student who has demonstrated excellence in scholarship.

Carolyn Soltani, this year’s winner of the Schwartztein Prize for First-Year Research, studied the ethics of CRISPR-Cas9 germline editing in her Principles of Research and Inquiry course (HNRS 110). “I researched how ideal policies can be created for the technology in the germline in the United States taking into account stances and opinions of stakeholders, important factors and oversight and released ethics statements from the international community,” says Soltani.

In lieu of trophies, all other Schwartztein nominees are honored with a black, plastic tube. The tube, which is emblazoned with the Honors College logo, is a poster carrier: a symbol of the conviction that these nominees, who have already demonstrated strong research skills, will go on to conduct and present meaningful research throughout their academic and professional careers.

In addition to research, students are recognized for their service to the Honors College, and their commitment to the College’s values of diversity, community, and integrity. Sean Diment, one of the recipients of the Honors College Outstanding Service Awards (co-recipients include Julia Hakeem, Kylie Smith, and Olga Diupina), served as an RA to the Honors College Learning Community. When describing why he was inspired to serve the needs of first-year Honors College students, Diment cites the support he himself received from the Honors College.

“The Honors College really gave me a sense of community. Over the past few years, I've been so fortunate to have some really close friends, mentors, professors that have really helped shape me into the person I am today, by constantly being a good support system and connecting me to various opportunities,” Diment shares. “It's been such a valuable experience for me to be a student within the Honors College and be able to give back in many ways as well.”

In addition to the aforementioned students, the Honors College proudly granted the following awards to its students:

Honors College Alumni Choice Award – Nadia Moallin

Michelle Litwiller Memorial Scholarship – Victoria Gahnma
Schwartztein Prize for First-Year Research – Carolyn Soltani
Honors College Outstanding Achievement Awards - Andres Sandi Espoja & Patty Troup
Schwartztein Awards - Saarah Baig & Daisy Vo
Odin, Feldman, and Pittleman Scholarship - Sophia Ngyuen

Harold J. Morowitz Endowed Scholarship - Moses Hunsaker
Dr. Gerald L. Gordon Scholarship - Noah Mack
Honors College Concerned Citizens Scholarship - Alycia George
Honors College Outstanding Service Awards Julia Hakeem; Kylie Smith; Olga Diupina; Sean Diment

Topics

Honors College

Jasmine Okidi Named Mason's First Beinecke Scholar

Wasiq Muhammad Muhammad Ali — Fri, 15 Apr 2022 21:12:06 +0000

Jasmine Okidi Named Mason's First Beinecke Scholar Wasiq Muhammad… Fri, 04/15/2022 - 17:12

Jasmine Okidi, a third-year University Scholar studying English, was selected as Mason’s first-ever recipient of the Beinecke Scholarship. The award, which was established in 1971 by the Board of Directors of The Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick, and Walter Beinecke, supports graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

As early as her freshman year’s Principles of Research and Inquiry (HNRS 110) course, Okidi has demonstrated her commitment to multi-dimensional and interrogative research. Okidi, who is from Kampala, Uganda, utilized her HNRS 110 coursework to explore community-inclusive strategies to address wetland degradation in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city.

In her initial investigation of the wetland degradation in Kampala, Okidi featured a proactive three-phase plan for educating the public on the current state of the area: 1) survey the community, 2) spread information, and 3) assess how perceptions are influenced. Afterwards, Okidi went on to develop the project under OSCAR’s Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP), investigating the political ecology of Kampala’s wetland management.

Alongside her passion for conservation, Okidi’s interests in African and African diasporic literature, ecocriticism, and Black feminist ecologies highlight the strength of her academic prowess and reflect the interdisciplinary nature of scholarship within the Honors College. Whilst keeping in line with this tradition of scholarly excellence at Mason, Okidi blazes a trail for future Beinecke scholars in the Honors College.

Each recipient of the Beinecke scholarship receives $4,000 immediately prior to entering graduate school and an additional $30,000 while attending graduate school which Okidi looks forward to using in her pursuit of a PhD in Africana Studies and exploring race and ethnicity, gender, and environment in Ugandan literature and culture.

Topics

Medhini Sosale Earns Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship

Wasiq Muhammad Muhammad Ali — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 01:52:08 +0000

Medhini Sosale Earns Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship Wasiq Muhammad… Mon, 04/11/2022 - 21:52

In This Story

Juan Cebral

Medhini Sosale, a junior studying bioengineering, was selected as a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship. The award, established by Congress in 1986 in honor of U.S. Sen. Barry M. Goldwater, fosters and encourages outstanding students to pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering.

Since her freshman year at Mason, Sosale has worked rigorously on multiple neurological research endeavors. In her first year of her undergraduate study, Sosale began working with bioengineering professor Juan Cebral, who introduced her to new areas of bioengineering and computational research.

In Fall 2021, Sosale worked with bioengineering associate professor Parag Chitnis who is experimenting with ultrasound technology to deliver drugs. In his lab, Sosale studied the blood-brain barrier of rat brains, which in both humans and in rats, is a protective boundary that keeps bacteria, fungi, parasites, and other organisms from penetrating the brain.

Dr. Jan Allbeck, the Associate Dean of the Honors College, who helped Sosale prepare her application for the Goldwater Scholarship says of Sosale, “Medhini is both a learner and a doer. Outside of the classroom, she's been done research in multiple labs on campus and participated in several environmental justice organizations that have helped shape her research interests.”

Students like Sosale encapsulate Mason’s spirit of innovative and engaging undergraduate scholarship. Next year, the Goldwater Scholarship, which provides up to $7,500 as a stipend to its recipients will allow Sosale to continue her research, and help propel her academic career forward. Aspiring to pursue a PhD in conservation biology or a related field, Sosale is in good company amongst other Goldwater recipients, many of whom, like Jackie Luu, Karen Therrien, Rebecca Beuschel, also hail from Mason’s Honors College.

Topics

Goldwater Scholarship

Bioengineering

Tharuna Kalaivanan

Daniel Hyunbin Chung — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 15:50:01 +0000

Tharuna Kalaivanan Daniel Hyunbin Chung Tue, 10/26/2021 - 11:50

In This Story

Blake Silver

Tharuna Kalaivanan carves out a vital space for first-generation college students in the world of academic research at Mason. After earning her B.A. in Psychology in the spring of 2020, Kalaivanan continues to make an impact on the Honors College.

Having completed her undergraduate studies at Mason, Kalaivanan was an active member of the research community, where she sought to understand and communicate the lived experiences of first generation college students.

Now, Kalaivanan is a Public and Applied Sociology Ph.D. candidate in Mason’s sociology department where she continues to seek opportunities for first-generation students, like herself, to learn more about themselves and their experiences as researchers.

Growing up Indian-American, diverse perspectives in academia are deeply personal to Kalaivanan. Now, as a graduate student, Kalaivanan reflects on the challenges she faced as both a first-generation American and a first-generation undergraduate. “Being a first-generation college student, I was nervous about the whole [application] process…a lot of times it feels like you're walking in the dark with that kind of application process because you don't really know what to expect.”

As a Ph.D. candidate, Kalaivanan maintains Mason’s inclusive, multicultural spirit in all the work that she does. During the Fall 2021 semester, Kalaivanan taught her own section of the Principles of Research and Inquiry (HNRS 110), which allows all first-year Honors College students the opportunity to design their own semester-long research projects.

“I think undergraduate research is really important because not a lot of students know what research is coming into Mason, and that was the case with me. [Principles of Research and Inquiry] (HNRS 110) really opened up [my definition of] what research is…and how to really engage with conversations with other scholars.”

In addition to the course she is teaching this fall, Kalaivanan also taught an Honors seminar during the summer for 10th grade students in Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP), a college preparatory program for high school students who will be the first in their families to attend university. “I was very pleased with that experience of, as a first-generation college student myself, [getting to] inspire other students to also be curious and to think of themselves as researchers… and just giving them that exposure to the opportunity.”

Though Kalaivanan is not an EIP alumna herself, she credits Honors College faculty, like Dr. Blake Silver, with opening doors she did not know existed as a first-generation college student.

In fact, Kalaivanan recalls that she did not know she identified as a first-generation college student until she began collaborating with Dr. Blake Silver as a research assistant in the Social Science Research Lab (SSRL). “I didn't even know I was a first-generation college student until I was part of the lab and they told me that there's a whole population of kids who categorized as first-generation college students and they have various experiences that go with being a first-generation college student. I was very relieved that I wasn't the only one.”

In the Social Science Research Lab, Kalaivanan worked on a project that assessed how first-generation students who were in their final year of their undergraduate studies were navigating the next steps. Research about first-generation college students often focuses solely on their arrival at the university, but Kalaivanan and other researchers in the Lab were interested in how first-generation students approach life after college.

In her own research, Kalaivanan explores the complexities of second-generation Asian American identity in professional settings. By conducting in-depth interviews, Kalaivanan explored how the social structures of the workplace impacted Asian American identity either positively or negatively. On Thursday, October 21st, Kalaivanan presented her findings at the Public Sociology conference here, at Mason.

This spring, Kalaivanan is teaching a multimedia course about the experiences of first-generation college students, called First Generation College Students (HNRS 131). While Kalaivanan deeply values formal research, informed by an academic perspective, she emphasizes the fact that knowledge can be found anywhere. “I want students to know that we can get information through various mediums, so going beyond scholarly articles, we will focus on books, narrative writing, podcasts, documentaries, and news articles to really give multiple perspectives on how people are talking about first generation college experience.”

Kalaivanan advises all Honors College students, regardless of their background or experience, to take advantage of the opportunity to conduct research at Mason. “Not a lot of students think that they can be researchers, but as long as you have a curiosity—a question—really, anyone can do research.”

Topics

first-generation

Early Identification Program (EIP)

Honors College

Doreen Joseph

rstaffo2 — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 19:12:53 +0000

Doreen Joseph rstaffo2 Fri, 04/16/2021 - 15:12

“I feel like I held myself back for a long time not really believing in myself and then, when I started doing things, I was always capable of a lot more than I thought I was.”

Doreen Joseph, Honors College Cyber Security Engineering graduate, 2019

Doreen Joseph, who graduated in Spring 2019 with a B.S. in Cyber Security Engineering, maintains her passion for supporting underrepresented students as they access spaces that might otherwise be out of reach.

Photo provided.

While at Mason, Joseph was an active member of the Honors College. Joseph was also a true exemplar of the Honors College's commitment to interdisciplinary learning, leading the Pre-College Initiative for Mason’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and the Honors College Multicultural Alliance (HCMA), then known as the Honors College Black Ambition. An emerging leader, she encouraged students to explore under-utilized resources available on campus.

Now, Joseph is attending a fully-funded PhD program in Computer Science at the University of California, Davis.

At Davis, she continues to wear the many hats she picked up during her time at Mason. Joseph serves as a board member on the Coordinating Council on Graduate Affairs (CCGA), a committee on the UC Systemwide Academic Senate and the University Committee on Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Equity (UCAADE), as well as on Davis’s Chancellor's Graduate & Professional Student Advisory Board (CGPSA).

“I joined the committees because when I was at Mason, I was part of the president's student advisory group for two years as well, so I thought that would be a continuation of that. I've learned a lot.”

As a board member, Joseph advises the Office of the Chancellor and advocates on the behalf of graduate and professional students, giving her an opportunity to lift the voices of underrepresented students in the university system, and make recommendations to amend unjust policies.

“[One group I’m part of] at UC Davis is focused on anti-racism.” The group, UC Davis Graduate Studies Working Group on Anti-Racism, focuses on recruitment and retention of UC Davis’s students of color. “We design short term, medium term, long term solutions to [adjust] university policies for recruitment to make them more anti-racist and more social justice-oriented.”

Just as she did at Mason, Joseph is constantly in search of new learning opportunities at UC Davis. “[In] The College of Engineering, we're looking for a new dean, so I've been involved as part of their recruitment advisory committee. It has been a really demanding process, but we're on the tail end of it now. That’s been good because I had no idea what a dean does before I became part of this committee.”

“When I started at Mason, I just had the intention of getting my degree and getting out, you know?” says Joseph, reflecting on how she got involved in so many different spheres of the university. Then, in her UNIV 100: Introduction to Mason course, Joseph was given an assignment that asked her to meet with a faculty member to discuss her future. “I met with Dr. LaNitra Berger because I knew I was interested in doing a PhD in a cyber security-related field, and when I met with her, she said, ‘You basically want to focus on two things: maintaining good grades and leadership,’ so that set the trajectory for the rest of my time at Mason and [beyond].”

In addition to her passion for cyber security engineering and computer science, through her service on student-led advisory committees, Joseph has also discovered a passion for higher education administration.

“I never considered education as a field that I would go into, but I [have been] doing all these different leadership things, sitting on advisory committees and trying to be where decisions are made for the university to kind of see how the whole enterprise runs.”

In both realms, STEM and education, Joseph knows that she wants to bring her values of service and diverse thought to the table, making sure to uplift the voices of students who have been marginalized. In the past year, she has found an intersection between the two: mentoring young girls in computer science. When planning for this mentorship, Joseph asked herself how she could make this relevant to these young girls.

“[Capturing the girls’ attention] included talking about computer science in fashion [instead of just] coding — I like coding, but I'd be bored if I had to do that every single day for the rest of my life.” As she moves through the two fields, Joseph is committed to “finding different ways to capture the audience and talk about an interesting aspect of the field,” that can draw in students who otherwise might not have seen a future for themselves in STEM spaces.

For Joseph, the commitment to inclusion and empowerment of students is deeply personal. “I feel like I've been very fortunate with all the different opportunities I’ve had, so I just want to make sure that other students have those opportunities as well,” she reflects.

“Part of it is being an example in just the way that you live, but it’s also about being intentional about helping others out and encouraging and empowering them to become the best they can become. I feel like I held myself back for a long time not really believing in myself and then, when I started doing things, I was always capable of a lot more than I thought I was.”

Referring to the multitude of opportunities available to Honors College students, Joseph says, “the whole point of college is to find what you're interested in and you can't do that if you don't try out different things. You may try something and then figure out that you really hated it, and that's okay. Now, that's a piece of information that you have that you wouldn't have had before.”

Joseph’s advice to current Honors College students is simple: “Explore!”

Topics

Honors College

Cybersecurity