Schar School News July 2022

A Schar School Lecture Tour of Jordan Is Enlightening for All

Jessica Bates — Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:33:13 +0000

A Schar School Lecture Tour of Jordan Is Enlightening for All Jessica Bates Mon, 07/25/2022 - 12:33

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PhD alum Maen Nsour, left, and Schar School Dean Mark J. Rozell.

The ancient country of Jordan is situated in one of the most challenging, volatile regions in the world. It also has serious domestic problems: It suffers low economic growth rates, increasing national debt, high youth unemployment, meager water resources, and noticeable income disparity.

And yet, said Schar School of Policy and Government Dean Mark J. Rozell, “It is remarkable that the country has such an impressive internal political stability.”

That was one of Rozell’s takeaways during a seven-day June tour of Jordan that saw the dean, on his first visit to the country, deliver lectures that were attended by political dignitaries, academics, and business leaders eager to hear his insights about developments in the U.S. and the world. For his part, Rozell was equally eager to learn more about Jordan.

The visit was coordinated by Maen F. Nsour, president and CEO of the Arab Potash Company (APC), a 2,000-employee company with annual revenue of about $2.4 billion. Nsour is a 1998 graduate of ��AV, having earned a PhD in Public Policy from the Institute of Public Policy (TIPP), now the Schar School of Policy and Government.

Nsour introduces Rozell to former Jordanian prime minster Abdelsalam Majali. Majali signed the Israel-Jordan peace treaty in 1994.

Nsour, a former chief of staff and special adviser to the Jordanian prime minister, is also the former general director of the Jordanian Social Security Corporation, former CEO of the Jordan Investment Board, and a former senior program advisor at the United Nations Development Programme in New York.

Rozell’s visit, Nsour said, was to create a pathway for the Schar School to join other academic institutions and think tanks that have realized the significance of the Arab World and the Middle East and sought to understand the politics and the socio-economics of the region. “A good number of those schools established operations in the Arab World and built bridges so that their students can become well-versed with the region,” said Nsour. He added that in 2010 he hosted Mason president Alan Merten on a similar tour.

Wajih Owais, left, minister of higher education and scientific research in Jordan, meets with Rozell.

Rozell's program in the country included meetings with high-ranking officials. Over the course of several days, he met with the president of the Jordanian Senate; the president of the House of Representatives; the chairman of the influential Economic and Finance Committee at the Senate; the Minister of Education and Higher Education and Scientific Research; the president of the University of Jordan; the director of the Center for Strategic Studies; and the chairman of APC.

Nsour said Rozell’s lectures at the Center for Strategic Studies at the University of Jordan and at the Council for Foreign Affairs “were very well attended and brought fresh perspectives on the issues discussed.” They also inspired lively discussions afterward, he added.

Nsour, the 2010 Alumnus of the Year, attended Mason as a Thomas Jefferson Fellow and was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He recalled his time at Mason, from 1992 to 1998, as being “the most enjoyable, fruitful, and rewarding years of my life. The course work was extremely rich and provided me with solid academic and policy-making grounds. The fact that I was studying with the best in the field of political economy and governance was fulfilling, rewarding, and gratifying.”

Rozell, left, and president of the Jordanian senate Faisal Al-Fayez.

Among his professors were Francis Fukuyama, who published the groundbreaking The End of History and The Last Man in 1992 (he now directs the international policy program at Stanford University); the late Seymour Martin Lipset, ex-president of the American Political Science Association; and Roger Stough and Kingsley Haynes, two co-founders of Mason’s TIPP

In the end, Rozell said his visit reinforced his belief that it’s vital that Jordan continue to receive international support.

“The country depends heavily on foreign aid, particularly from the U.S., and from some of the Gulf states, to be able to sustain itself during such difficulties” as it is encountering now, he said. “The U.S. has a distinct interest in doing so given that Jordan is an important ally in a highly unstable region of the world.”

Nsour added that he is helping coordinate a new Schar School program in May 2023 that will send up to 18 Mason students to Jordan for a three-week intensive course, with a stint at the University of Jordan in Amman.

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Meet Student Body President and Schar School Senior Sophia Nguyen

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 17:47:08 +0000

Meet Student Body President and Schar School Senior Sophia Nguyen Andrew J Schappert Tue, 07/19/2022 - 13:47

Sophia Nguyen never pictured herself as a government major, but she realized that to accomplish her goal of fighting discrimination, she needed the knowledge that comes from studying policy and government.

Now the native of Chesapeake, Virginia, is a senior in the Schar School of Policy and Government and serves as the incoming president of the ��AV student body.

New Mason student body president Sophia Nguyen: ‘I wanted to be more active rather than just be posting on social media.’ Photos by Ron Aira/Creative Services

In addition, this summer the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants scored an internship at no less than the White House, working to eliminate hate against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities.

The incoming student body president is working at the White House this summer in an office dedicated to eliminating hate and discrimination against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

Nguyen’s reason for fighting AAPI hatred was fueled by the rising attacks against those vulnerable communities, which were maligned by the previous presidential administration during the outbreak of COVID-19. Further inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests in wake of the killing of George Floyd, she wanted to make a change and fight for AAPI communities.

Her passion fueled her ambition. “I wanted to be more active rather than just be posting on social media,” she said.

Nguyen, an Honors College student, brings this energy to Mason while participating in organizations such as the Asian Pacific American Coalition and serving as chair of the University Life Committee and the Diversity and Multicultural Affairs Committee. She frequently engages in anti-racism activities and actively raises awareness of issues within Asian American communities, such as mental health.

Her leadership as an undergraduate has not gone unnoticed by the student body. After being elected to the student senate in 2020, Nguyen got to work, organizing events as well as being a vital bridge between students and the university’s administration.

Her student government career progressed when she ran for president in the spring 2022. She aggressively campaigned with vice president running mate Celine Apenteng and together they secured the highest vote count of any ticket since 2014, voted in by more than 900 students.

After assuming office, Nguyen organized events such as a Mason Farmers Market, a colorful event which not only helped students cope with the stress of finals, but also promoted small businesses.

One of her proudest accomplishments was spearheading a well-received Anti-AAPI racism panel, which brought activist from the AAPI community to campus to speak on their activism and raise awareness about hate.

The culmination of her on-campus accomplishments and her passion for AAPI activism led to the White House initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders internship, which is devoted to advancing equity, justice, and opportunity to those communities. In her role, Nguyen helps organize events and works on issues related to the AAPI community with White House representatives.

After graduation from the Schar School, Nguyen intends to continue her fight for AAPI rights and hopes to go into humanitarian work, particularly for people who have been affected by poverty and violence.

“I just want to help people in need and make people’s lives a little bit better,” she said.

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Alum finds her place in public service

Colleen Rich — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 16:47:35 +0000

Alum finds her place in public service Colleen Rich Mon, 07/18/2022 - 12:47

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Leaders Look Back at the Schar School Democracy Lab Inaugural Year

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 14:59:26 +0000

Leaders Look Back at the Schar School Democracy Lab Inaugural Year Andrew J Schappert Thu, 07/07/2022 - 10:59

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Peter Mandaville

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Democracy Lab students at their primary residence, Adams Hall. Photos by Buzz McClain/Schar School of Policy and Government

Some 70 first-year college students with common interests in government and politics lived and studied alongside one another for a year. The idea was to foster a different kind of connection between like-minded students that may not be made in class. Overall, the inaugural year of the Schar School Learning Community, Democracy Lab, was a success.

Resident Advisors (RAs) and fellow Schar School of Policy and Government students Ethan Thomas and Molly Reed were eager to reflect on the events of the year. Both government and international politics majors, Thomas and Reed supervised students in Mason’s Adams Hall throughout the year and facilitated community activities alongside the Schar School.

“I have been an RA for three years and I love the impact I can make on a resident's first-year experience, even if it is small,” Dallas-native Reed said. “I knew this would come with its own set of challenges, but I was excited at the idea of tailoring my work to something I was passionate about.”

Thomas, who hails from Chicago and will complete a congressional internship in Illinois this summer, was eager to help newer students with the transition to life at the Schar School and Mason. The RAs, Thomas observed, came to rely heavily on each other throughout the new endeavor. “A lot of being an RA is learning from experience,” Thomas said, “and having people there to support you the whole time has been extremely helpful.”

In addition to sharing a Fairfax Campus residence hall, the Democracy Lab students were encouraged to take part in frequent on- and off-campus activities. The RAs, Thomas said, balanced responsibilities between the Schar School and the university’s Housing and Residence Life department when tailoring events for political science- and government-minded students. “It sometimes requires more work from us as RAs,” he said, “but it’s cool because we can also curate required housing events into a political lens so our residents will enjoy them more.”

Mason President Gregory Washington, right, meets with Democracy Lab leaders. Resident Advisors Ethan Thomas and Molly Reed are to Washington’s immediate left. Former faculty community director and Associate Professor Peter Mandaville has his back to the camera.

The RAs worked closely with Schar School faculty and staff—including former faculty community director and Associate Professor Peter Mandaville and undergraduate programs manager Gretchen Curry—to plan the Democracy Lab curriculum. “They’re our student perspective, so we rely heavily on their input,” Curry said of the collaboration.

Activities throughout the year consisted of debate watch parties, final exam study clinics led by the RAs, and attending a lecture by American philosopher and academic activist Cornel West. The highlight event of the year was the Democracy Lab’s trip to nearby Washington, D.C., where they visited the memorials of George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln. The students engaged in conversations with Mandaville about Mason’s role as a slave owner and his status as the “forgotten Founding Father,” as well as with a representative from the White House Historical Association about Thomas Jeffersons complex legacy.

Reflecting on their year leading the Democracy Lab, Thomas said, the learning community “offers people an opportunity not only to get connected to the Schar School itself by providing them opportunities to meet faculty members and to get involved in research opportunities, but it also gives them the opportunity to talk with other students in a more relaxed setting.”

Reed added that members of the Democracy Lab “are able to build community with other students passionate about political science and learn how to coexist with people with a variety of viewpoints. The Schar School has a responsibility to teach us to be promising political science scholars, but the Democracy Lab creates responsible neighbors.”

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A Stranger No Longer: Meet a Syrian Immigrant Who’s Made Washington His Home

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 05 Jul 2022 19:36:46 +0000

A Stranger No Longer: Meet a Syrian Immigrant Who’s Made Washington His Home Andrew J Schappert Tue, 07/05/2022 - 15:36

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Jad Makdissi at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

Jad Makdissi came to America from Syria with a unique story and a global perspective. Today, he’s using his time at ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government as a catapult to explore Washington, D.C.—and discover his purpose.

The son of a prominent spokesman for the Syrian Foreign Ministry, Jihad Makdissi, the younger Makdissi is no stranger to international diplomacy. At 20 years old, he has lived all around the world, including in Belgium, England, Lebanon, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates. His family circumstances—his father fled Syria in 2012 in protest of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime—brought him to the United States in 2017. But it was his unique global experiences that led him to Mason in 2020.

“��AV strikes the perfect balance between affordability and academic opportunity,” he said. The biggest perk of being a Mason student, he said, “is that whether you’re on the Fairfax or Arlington campus, you are studying literally only 30 minutes away from the world's most important capital city—Washington, D.C.”

Now a rising senior majoring in government and international politics, Makdissi is beginning to make a name for himself in Washington. “In the two years I've been here, I've taken full advantage of Mason's prestigious location,” he said.

In a short time, Makdissi has served as a government relations assistant through an internship at the Washington law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough. He was also a research assistant at the Arab Studies Institute in Fairfax and an executive assistant at the Middle East Institute in Washington. This summer, he will hold a Congressional internship in the office of U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson (R) of North Carolina.

Makdissi has taken full advantage of on-campus opportunities as well, including selection into the competitive Global Politics Fellows program at the Schar School and freelance writing for the student-run newspaper, the Fourth Estate.

After graduating in 2023, Makdissi plans to take a gap year and pursue more internship opportunities and explore the region further before turning his sights toward law school.

He hopes to eventually work for the federal government in the Foreign Service. His desire to serve the American government and people comes from the sense of belonging he feels in the United States. He added that one of the downsides of living around the world is struggling with his identity, and he wants to work for the country that he loves and identifies with most.

“Before I moved to America, I’ve never lived in one country for more than five years—America to me is my home,” he said.