Winter Commencement

Photo story: Mason celebrates its 2023 winter graduates

Damian Cristodero — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 20:41:25 +0000

Photo story: Mason celebrates its 2023 winter graduates Damian Cristodero Thu, 12/14/2023 - 15:41

Winter Commencement at ��AV on Dec. 14 at EagleBank Arena celebrated 5,000 graduates and certificate recipients. Graduates hailed from 78 countries, 41 states, and 24% of bachelor's degree recipients identified as first-generation graduates.

Photos by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

As the graduates entered the arena, they and their family and friends got a full dose of musical entertainment by the Green Machine, known widely as the top pep band in the country.

Mason President Gregory Washington welcomed everyone to the event. And commencement speaker Paul Misener, JD '93, principal of Misener Innovation and a former global vice president at Amazon, told the graduates that graduation provides new opportunities for other areas of education and exploration.

Student Commencement speaker Shruti Sekar, BS computer science, spoke eloquently about the strength of the Mason community. "We learned that the power of education and community cannot be taken away from us," Sekar said. "We learned that Patriots sponsor change within our state. ... We are the authors of our own story."

Graduates were their usual creative selves when it came to decorating their caps.

And then it was really time to celebrate. Read more about the ceremony.

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President Gregory Washington's remarks to Mason's 2023 Winter Graduates

Jeannine Harvey — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 20:40:19 +0000

President Gregory Washington's remarks to Mason's 2023 Winter Graduates Jeannine Harvey Thu, 12/14/2023 - 15:40

Remarks as prepared for delivery

Good morning! Please be seated. 

Before we begin, I would like to thank our vocalist, Anissa Clay Zelaya, for singing our National Anthem. That was out of this world, Anissa!

Anissa is a senior in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, majoring in Vocal Performance in the Dewberry School of Music. She will graduate next spring.

Anissa will join us again later for the singing of our Alma Mater.

I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Nickens and our very own Green Machine for the musical entertainment they provided this morning. Thank you, Doc Nix!

At the place ��AV occupies, we give greetings and thanksgivings to the recognized Virginia tribes who have lovingly stewarded these lands for millennia including the Rappahannock, Pamunkey, Upper Mattaponi, Chickahominy, Eastern Chickahominy, Nansemond, Monacan, Mattaponi, Patawomeck, and Nottaway, past, present, and future; and to the Piscataway tribes, who have lived on both sides of the river from time immemorial.

Your education is a credit to the land that has received you. The good you will do in this world is the harvest of the soil upon which you have stood, sat, and lived. How plentiful that harvest will turn out to be in your lifetime is now entirely up to you. It’s good cause for this celebration today.

I am very pleased to welcome and congratulate the Winter Graduating Class of 2023. You made it!

Joining our graduates, faculty, and staff today are loved ones who have come from throughout the commonwealth, across the nation, and even some who have flown in from other nations just to be a part of this celebration. To each of you, I extend a warm welcome to ��AV! And for our online viewers and listeners, we thank you for joining us as well.

Today, we honor 4,700 recipients of bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and law degrees, as well as more than 300 certificate recipients. 

Our graduates hail from 78 countries, 41 states, and a multitude of backgrounds. About 1 in 4 of the Patriots we’re honoring today is in the first generation of their family to earn a four-year degree.

Would our first-gen graduates please stand so we can celebrate the family history you’re making today?.... Outstanding!

All of our graduates are earning a degree from a university whose impact and stature rises by the day.

Your final year here was the year ��AV was finally recognized by consensus as one of America’s 50 finest public universities. We are Virginia’s best for social mobility and innovation. We have known this for some time. But now the nation and the world have caught up. Truly, it is Mason’s time. Like it has been for so many, may your Mason degree be a springboard to success.

All of you have weathered quite a journey to arrive at this day. Many of you came to Mason amid the pandemic, a challenge we worked together to overcome not only as members of this university community but as citizens of the world.

We continue to be tested by global events in a time of profound challenge and change. War and atrocities around the world affect you personally. And the climate crisis has begun to accelerate at an alarming pace. In short, your world is changing right before your eyes.

To make sense of it all, you have an unprecedented volume of information at your fingertips to inform you. But you also are confronted with more misinformation and disinformation than ever, making your challenge to inform your own voice more difficult.

To be sure, no one can – or should – try to suppress your voice. You continue to be more civically engaged, more vocal, and more active in shaping the world landscape, not just reacting to it. And the world needs you to do that.

Along with the freedom our society gives you to raise your voice comes great responsibility—to learn the facts about the issues of our day, from credible sources, and to express them in ways that help us live up to the credo of ��AV—to create a more just, peaceful, and prosperous world.

Why do I say it’s your responsibility? Because America is becoming more crowded, more volatile, and more in need of informed and involved voices to lead it than ever before. True leadership demands the brightest minds, not just the loudest voices, to carry the day. And that burden of leadership demands that you be informed, not just impassioned.

As graduates of the largest and most diverse public university in the Commonwealth of Virginia—and one of the most diverse universities nationally—you are a time machine to the future, because you already look like the America that is to come. As such, you are best equipped to listen, learn and engage on these polarizing issues. To seek understanding and common ground and work to ensure that disagreement does not collapse into incivility.

A foundation of peace is not built on agreement. It is built on bedrock of mutual respect. That is true for children squabbling on the playground, spouses arguing in the kitchen, or factions warring on fault lines around the world. Gandhi said, “The greatness of humanity is not in being human, but in being humane.”

That is your charge. I hope that your Mason education has prepared you to separate fact from fiction. To discern without demonizing. To listen as passionately as you speak – even when your heart races and your ears burn.

Who better to bear the weight of lifting us out of our downward spiral than you—future leaders who these past few years have lived, learned, and engaged in one of the most diverse environments you will find.

Mason’s diversity of origin, identity, circumstance, and thought is what we affectionately—and proudly—call, “All Together Different.” It has caused some struggles and many triumphs, but it isn’t just a Mason slogan – it’s your future. It’s our future….

Now, let me briefly tell you about a few of the graduates we’re honoring today!

We have an IT major who exemplifies the opportunities open to Mason students. She’s served internships at Lockheed Martin, DataLock Consulting, AWS, SAS, and several other companies. She’s also a Mason peer mentor and research assistant.
We have a criminology, law, and society major who also is earning an accelerated master’s degree in international security. She is one of the inaugural recipients of the Peraton scholarship in National Security and is a student trainee at the Department of Homeland Security as well as a member of the Intelligence Community Network at Mason.
We have a biology major who is a first-generation graduate who has worked as an environmental field interpreter, translating environmental science content into engaging, hands-on outdoor field programs for 4,500 seventh-graders.
And we have a bioengineering major who as a teenager came to the United States from her native Honduras for cancer treatment. She beat cancer and committed herself to helping others. She works part-time in the Inova Health System as a rehab technician and in Mason's Applied Biosensing Lab developing wearable ultrasound technology for quantitative assessment of musculoskeletal injuries in military service members. Next up for her: med school or the military.

As you can tell, this is an impressive group we’re honoring here today! Before we move on with our program, I’d like to take a moment to thank the Mason faculty and staff members who do such a tremendous job of educating, inspiring, and serving our students. Mason faculty and staff members, please stand so we can thank you for the role you have played in the lives of our graduates.

I’d also like to acknowledge our Alumni Association for its work to maintain a lifelong bond with our more than 230,000 graduates…. The winter Class of 2023 is now part of an enormous network for careers and recruitment opportunities.

Finally, I’d like to recognize our governing body, the Board of Visitors, for the tremendous job they do guiding this growing and innovative university. Would the Board of Visitors members who are here please stand and be recognized? 

It’s so great to have you here with us today to honor our graduates….

It is now my pleasure to introduce the Rector of the ��AV Board of Visitors, Horace Blackman, to introduce our Commencement speaker.   

Watch President Washington's speech

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Gregory Washington

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Winter Commencement

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Q&A with Winter 2023 Commencement speaker Paul Misener

Colleen Rich — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 19:06:51 +0000

Q&A with Winter 2023 Commencement speaker Paul Misener Colleen Rich Wed, 12/13/2023 - 14:06

Mason alum Paul Misener, JD ’93, founder and principal of Misener Innovation and a former global vice president at Amazon, is this year's Winter Commencement speaker.

Your career spans many fields—science, law, engineering, public policy, etc. What are the advantages of having abilities and credentials in all of these disciplines, and what lesson might there be in that for Mason students and graduates?

Paul Misener speaking at the groundbreaking of the Fuse at Mason Square. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

Our lives, careers, and nature itself are not organized in tidy unconnected silos, so our learning should not be either. When I attended college 40 years ago, the academic disciplines—usually organized as “departments”—were separate entities, with little or no interaction, even within broader groupings, like the sciences or languages. This traditional separation of disciplines created an enormous missed opportunity for people to share knowledge and techniques. The most fertile areas for discovery today are between two or more of the traditional silos.

I am very proud of Mason’s determination—notably with the new Fuse at Mason Square destination in Arlington—to bridge preexisting academic silos and share learnings across previously separated departments. I was a beneficiary of Mason’s early willingness to bridge silos: In one of the first curriculum experiments of its kind, in the late 1980s, Mason initiated a law and economics program that taught law students like me how these disciplines interact. Now, under President Washington’s leadership, bridging silos is the norm at Mason.

But learning in multiple fields should not end with college graduation. To the contrary, graduation provides new opportunities to explore other areas of education, including in graduate school, of course, but also in nondegree coursework and self-study. And there are no required courses, only decades of electives! As you suggest, a breadth of knowledge also has distinct advantages, such as being able to translate ideas between engineers and policymakers, thus helping to bridge silos.

You were an Amazon vice president for 23 years. How great of a factor was access to talent in Amazon’s decision to move into Northern Virginia, just miles from Mason campuses?

I am a native Northern Virginian and was Amazon’s first employee in Washington, D.C. Of course, I was thrilled with the Amazon HQ2 site selection result and, yes, abundant local talent was a crucial factor in the decision. We Patriots should be proud of our leading role in providing outstanding talent to companies and public sector institutions in the region. As Mason continues to grow in excellence, diversity, and scale, our talent pool will become even more influential.

You undoubtedly have received advice—personally and professionally—that has influenced your life and career. Is there any advice that you want to pass along to the upcoming Mason graduates?

Yes, I definitely have some advice:

Graduates, given the pace of change all around us, you have increasing flexibility in your career to do what you want to do, not just what is advertised as available. When I graduated from college, my continuing education and career were confined to the norms of the prior three or four decades. For graduate school, I needed to choose a single field, and I could not imagine creating a new one. And one’s career at the time usually was built on responding to “want ads” in physical newspapers, in which an employer would announce that it had an opening for a particular position, to do particular things, and sought a person to fill that role. Today, with a bit of patience, your second or third jobs and beyond can be ones that you create together with an employer, not merely accepting what is advertised.

So, I recommend that you graduates spend some time now, early in your post-college life, imagining what you would like to be doing in, say, 10 to 15 years. I emphasize that identifying what you would like to be doing is crucial and is something that you should be able to imagine (and write down) within the next few months. Really, you can do it. And do write it down, maybe as a letter to a friend of yours, to be sent 10 to 15 years from now, telling her what you are doing in your career at that point in the future. Notice that you need not worry now about how you will get to that point; you likely have no clue yet. But that’s OK; you have years to figure out how to get there. And the best way to do that is to plan backwards from the letter you will send to your friend 10 to 15 years from now. What is the previous step before sending that letter? The step before that? And the step before that? All the way back to today.

You received Mason’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001 and currently serve Mason in many advisory capacities, including on the President’s Innovation Advisory Council and the board of the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation. How important is it for Mason alumni to stay engaged in the university and how is that mutually beneficial?

Staying engaged at Mason provides alumni an opportunity to multiply the benefits of their own university experience—for themselves and others, especially the students who follow them through Mason. And given all the important progress being accomplished at today’s Mason, remaining involved need not be a frivolous act of team spirit—“be true to your school,” as the Beach Boys sang long ago. Rather, today’s Mason is worthy of our strong engagement and support, even if we were not alumni, but much more so because we are.

Learn more about the 2023 Winter Commencement Ceremonies

Graduation News and Stories

Photo story: Mason celebrates its 2023 winter graduates
December 14, 2023
President Gregory Washington's remarks to Mason's 2023 Winter Graduates
December 14, 2023
Q&A with Winter 2023 Commencement speaker Paul Misener
December 13, 2023
This winter graduate is leaving a legacy of community
December 13, 2023
Mason ready to honor winter graduates Thursday
December 12, 2023

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This winter graduate is leaving a legacy of community

Sarah Holland — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 14:47:42 +0000

This winter graduate is leaving a legacy of community Sarah Holland Wed, 12/13/2023 - 09:47

Photo provided.

From the moment Jason Mercado, a biology major in the College of Science and a member of the Honors College, came to ��AV as part of the Student Transition Empowerment Program (STEP), he embraced all the possibilities of campus involvement. From being an orientation leader to working as an environmental field interpreter for school programs, Mercado made the most of his time at Mason. He’s graduating this week with his eyes toward a healthier future for all.

What made you choose Mason and your major?

First, the diversity. Not just of the student population, but also the diversity of the faculty and staff, the diversity of experiences, and the diversity in all the ways to learn. It was also affordable for me and my family, and it was close to home.

I picked biology because I’m passionate about research and learning about our ecosystems and the health of our communities. Initially, my goal was to go to medical school, but after learning more about epidemiology, I decided I was more interested in the community-based approach to public health. Every community faces the threat of disease, but they’re affected in different proportions. Like how Latino communities were affected more by COVID-19 than other communities. I think studying those discrepancies and figuring out why that happens will lead to us being able to get those communities the resources they need. So I added the public health minor.

What’s one accomplishment you’re proud of from your time at Mason?

I had the honor of being the president of what is now called the Latino Student Association. I feel very proud of being able to spearhead the largest Latino organization on campus and help the community academically, professionally, and socially. Under my leadership, we created the Unidos Scholarship to give back to our community. We started hosting professional events for members to network with alumni. I think of those things as my legacy.

What was your favorite event hosted by the Latino Student Association?

Every year we put on Bienvenida Latina to celebrate the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. We collaborate with Mason Center for Culture, Equity, and Empowerment, Mason First-Gen+, and all the other Latino and Hispanic organizations. We have music and food from different countries. People sing, play instruments, perform poetry, dance. It’s a day to celebrate our identity as Latino and share our cultures with the whole campus.

What is one thing you’ll take from your Mason education and bring to your future career?

My biology degree has definitely strengthened my research capabilities and improved my general knowledge, which will help me pursue a graduate degree.

I think also the different perspectives that you can get here at Mason have taught me to be more empathetic and approach more situations with an open mind. Mason's not a monolith; there’s a great diversity of perspectives and experiences. I’ve listened to and learned from students and faculty from such diverse backgrounds. Being able to empathize with people and being able to understand where they come from, why they think a certain way, is something I’ll definitely be able to take into wherever I work.

What are your plans for after graduation?

My plan is to go to graduate school for epidemiology. After that, hopefully I’ll work in a local or state health department. Maybe the Centers for Disease Control. I want to work with and help vulnerable communities.

If you could give a first-year student advice on how to navigate college, what would you say?

Get involved. I’ve met and worked with a lot of great people that have helped me land certain jobs at Mason, all because I got to know my faculty and classmates and got involved. So find an organization that interests you, or that relates to your major, and commit to it. Get to know people and run for leadership positions; it’s all valuable experience and connections that can help you later.

Learn more about the 2023 Winter Commencement Ceremonies

Hear from Mason's incredible graduates

Earning a master’s degree and graduate certificate online worked perfectly for neurosurgeon Nick Marko
June 24, 2024
Mason Korea Commencement caps off a week of festivities
June 20, 2024
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May 21, 2024
Outstanding Graduating Student: Amanda Magpiong
May 17, 2024
This Senior of the Year found ‘true community’ at George Mason
May 9, 2024

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Mason ready to honor winter graduates Thursday

Colleen Rich — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 19:13:28 +0000

Mason ready to honor winter graduates Thursday Colleen Rich Mon, 12/11/2023 - 14:13

��AV will celebrate more than 5,000 students graduating or earning certificates in the Winter Commencement ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at EagleBank Arena.

Paul Misener. Photo provided

The event will be livestreamed on Mason’s YouTube channel. Doors open an hour before the ceremony.

The graduates hail from 78 countries and 41 states, and 24% of bachelor’s degree recipients identify as first-generation graduates.

Students also will be honored at two degree celebrations Thursday. Guest tickets are required for Commencement and the degree celebrations.

Paul Misener, JD ’93, founder and principal of Misener Innovation and a former global vice president at Amazon, is the featured Commencement speaker.

Shruti Sekar, an Honors College student graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, is the student speaker.

Shruti Sekar. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

The top five majors among the 2,962 undergraduates in the winter Class of 2023 are business; psychology; criminology, law and society; computer science; and information technology.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors account for 29% of the students earning bachelor’s degrees and 31% of students earning advanced degrees, indicating that Mason is addressing the need to produce tech talent for Northern Virginia and around the state. Health science majors make up 8% of undergraduate degree earners this winter.

For the 1,576 students earning master’s degrees, the top five majors are special education, data analytics engineering, curriculum and instruction, computer science, and business administration.

The top majors for the 154 students earning doctoral degrees are education, economics, computer science, and psychology.

The winter graduating class also includes seven law school graduates.

Get all the details on the Winter Graduation ceremonies

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June 24, 2024
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June 20, 2024
Going global as Mason Korea’s first computational and data sciences graduate
May 21, 2024
Outstanding Graduating Student: Amanda Magpiong
May 17, 2024
This Senior of the Year found ‘true community’ at George Mason
May 9, 2024

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Graduation

Winter Commencement

A Mason dream leads to two degrees and a future in law

Sarah Holland — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 15:30:18 +0000

A Mason dream leads to two degrees and a future in law Sarah Holland Fri, 12/08/2023 - 10:30

Photo provided.

Inspired by her parents who immigrated from Mexico in search of a better life for their children, Ashley Alvarado-Lopez is following the path her older sister, Leasley Gonzalez, set by completing a bachelor’s and master’s degree at ��AV in 2019. Enrolled in Mason’s Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s Program (BAM), Alvarado-Lopez completed her BS in Criminology, Law and Society in 2022 and is graduating this December with her MS in Criminal Justice.

What made you choose Mason?

There were a few reasons. It was financially the best decision. I wanted to stay close to home. But also, one of my sisters was in the teaching program at Mason. When I was at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), I remember coming to campus and studying with her. I liked the whole atmosphere, and I thought, “I could totally see myself going to this school.” And I really admired her, so I wanted to follow in her footsteps.

I think that those of us who grew up near Mason forget that this is a dream school for a lot of people. I actually saw a famous TikToker talking about how excited she was that she got into Mason. So I was really excited because a lot of kids dream of coming here.

What’s one accomplishment you’re proud of from your time at Mason?

Most people don’t know this, but I have an auditory processing disorder. It's something that I’ve struggled with my whole life. I didn’t get diagnosed until my senior year of high school, so I spent a lot of my childhood in school feeling really alone and embarrassed. Teachers even told my mom that she shouldn’t invest in college for me because I was doing so poorly. I got really discouraged. But then one day I decided that I wasn’t going to let someone tell me that I wouldn’t be able to get into college.

So I succeeded at both NOVA and Mason without any accommodations, was on the dean’s list all through undergrad, and got into the BAM Program. I even worked full-time to financially support myself.

How did you balance working full time and going to school?

It was definitely challenging. I relied on coffee. But my professors were also incredibly accommodating and understanding of the situation. People like Marc Meyer, one of my professors in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, would always say “wow, I don’t know how you do it.” And that acknowledgment was meaningful.

What are your plans post-graduation?

My dream is to help people in the immigration system, so I’m hoping to go to law school. I work full-time as a paralegal for an immigration law firm, so I’ll take a year off from school to study for the LSAT while I keep working. I really want to come back to Mason and go to the Antonin Scalia Law School.

If you could give a first-year student advice on how to navigate college, what would you say?

Choose a path that you’re passionate about. When I first started and was trying to decide on a major, I was leaning toward choosing something I wasn't passionate about because I felt it was what I should do, instead of what I wanted to do. But I ended up choosing what I’m passionate about—criminology—and I am far happier and interested in my studies because of it.

Learn more about the 2023 Winter Commencement Ceremonies

Hear from Mason's incredible graduates

Earning a master’s degree and graduate certificate online worked perfectly for neurosurgeon Nick Marko
June 24, 2024
Mason Korea Commencement caps off a week of festivities
June 20, 2024
Going global as Mason Korea’s first computational and data sciences graduate
May 21, 2024
Outstanding Graduating Student: Amanda Magpiong
May 17, 2024
This Senior of the Year found ‘true community’ at George Mason
May 9, 2024

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Mason alum and innovator Paul Misener is the Winter 2023 Commencement speaker

Colleen Rich — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 18:34:27 +0000

Mason alum and innovator Paul Misener is the Winter 2023 Commencement speaker Colleen Rich Mon, 11/06/2023 - 13:34

Paul E. Misener, a scientist, lawyer, engineer and innovator will be the featured speaker at ��AV’s 2023 Winter Commencement ceremony. The ceremony will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, in EagleBank Arena on the Fairfax Campus. Graduates may register for free tickets to the ceremony.

Paul E. Misener. Photo provided

Misener is the founder and principal of Misener Innovation LLC, a consultancy dedicated to helping organizations innovate, advocate, and communicate.

He was a global vice president at Amazon.com for 23 years, most recently as vice president for global innovation policy and communications from May 2016 to February 2023, where he led Amazon’s culture of innovation and represented Amazon to external organizations and internal colleagues worldwide.

He has testified before the U.S. Congress more than 30 times and frequently before other policymaking bodies around the world. Over the years, Paul has conducted business in 36 countries on six continents and has visited 24 nations.

Misener earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton, where he conducted senior research in the physics department. He earned his JD from Mason in 1993 and serves on the Mason President’s Innovation Advisory Council, as well as on the advisory boards of the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation and the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

In 2013, Paul chaired the technical subcommittee of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s advisory committee that recommended allowing commercial airline passengers to use portable electronics during taxi, takeoff, and landing.

He is an inventor named in three patents.

Formerly a partner in a large Washington, D.C., law firm, Misener previously served as senior legal advisor at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, and as Intel Corporation’s manager of telecommunications and computer technology policy. In the mid-1990s, he co-founded and led the computer industry’s Internet Access Coalition, and previously was assistant to the chairman of the Emmy Award-winning committee that established the technical standard for modern television and computer displays.

Winter Graduation 2023 - Ceremony Information

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Q&A with Winter Commencement Speaker Gregory Fowler

Colleen Rich — Thu, 08 Dec 2022 15:23:04 +0000

Q&A with Winter Commencement Speaker Gregory Fowler Colleen Rich Thu, 12/08/2022 - 10:23

University of Maryland Global Campus President Gregory W. Fowler, who will speak at ��AV’s Winter Commencement on Thursday, December 15, discusses how Mason influenced his career path, the future of online learning, UMGC’s shared commitment to diversity and accessibility, and the gift of listening.

Gregory Fowler
Photo provided

You earned your master’s degree in English from Mason in 1995 while working full-time at the National Endowment for the Humanities. How did your experiences at Mason help shape your path to a college presidency?

Completing my master's degree at George Mason opened an opportunity to teach on a college level at Penn State Erie while I pursued my doctoral degree at SUNY Buffalo. While I had previously worked with colleges at the National Endowment for the Humanities, teaching was the first step into higher education institutions as a career path. My studies at Mason included an introduction into the digital text and resource world, which played a key role in my understanding of how learning environments were changing, again a critical element in my becoming president of institutions where that learning evolution would lay the foundation for all that we built. Finally, the reality of attending Mason and taking classes in the evening while working full-time opened my eyes to the very experiences I now help develop around the globe for adult and nontraditional learners. I understand the need for agility and for alternative learning options, because I lived it starting with my time at Mason.

Mason is the largest and most diverse public four-year university in Virginia. UMGC also prides itself on serving students of all ages and backgrounds. How are the institutions similar, and different, in their successful missions of access?

The commitment to diversity and accessibility are certainly two things we share. UMGC is the largest public university in the country, with nearly 200 learning centers around the world, working with many different populations and seeking new ways to help learners be successful. At the same time, both UMGC and Mason, as state institutions, have a commitment to high-quality education—and particularly to the learners within their respective states, as well as to the goals of those states, to have a well-educated workforce. One difference for UMGC is its global footprint with the military and the amount of varying learning experiences—face-to-face, hybrid, online, asynchronous/synchronous, credit/noncredit. UMGC does not have the research elements that Mason does as part of its core mission. In truth, higher ed needs all of these various contributions to achieve its societal roles.

UMGC in 2021-22 had more than 300,000 online course enrollments worldwide, and Mason now offers about four times as many online or hybrid courses as it did before the pandemic. What did we learn about online education these past few years, and how have these online educational experiences further prepared our graduates for success?

The pandemic demonstrated the relevance and efficacy of online instruction, which is a preferred mode of instruction for many student populations. At the same time, many educators discovered just how difficult it is to provide online instruction well, and that it involves more than posting videotaped lectures or a PowerPoint of lecture notes. Going forward, this increased familiarity with the online learning experience and the increased contribution to online pedagogy can only benefit students and graduates, offering additional and cost-effective options as they continue on their path of lifelong learning.

Mason President Gregory Washington speaks often of the enrollment cliff that U.S. colleges and universities will soon face. With the number of students of traditional college age shrinking, does this offer a greater opportunity for all colleges and universities to find new ways to attract and serve more nontraditional students?

I would certainly hope so. There are 40 million Americans who have attended college without completing a degree, and another 40 million with no post-secondary learning experience whatsoever—in a global economy that increasingly demands it. To truly be successful, however, we must integrate new learning experiences into core missions and strategies rather than simply as a way to mitigate risk. Truly successful virtual learning ecosystems will require intentionality and deliberate design that recognizes that the experience is not a substitute or alternative for face-to-face learning but exists as a different and equally demanding way of learning and teaching.

That said, as we continue to innovate in the online space, we must balance the need to do things better with the imperative of equity. We must separate signal from noise and resist the temptation to chase bright, shiny objects. New technologies that offer enticing feature sets cannot come with associated costs that push education even further out of reach for those who need it most.

The average age of a UMGC student is about 32. How are you able to persuade adults—people with jobs and families and other life obligations—to take college courses and pursue degrees, and what can other universities learn from your success?

UMGC seeks to meet students where they are—even, in the case of our military students when that means offering classes on remote military bases or in war zones. And we always seek to align our coursework and programs with the demands of the workforce. For example, we were one of the first universities to develop fully online programs in cybersecurity, offering options for people to advance their skills while still in the workforce. These parallel approaches resonate with adult learners and figure prominently in our marketing and outreach to them. Generally, we don’t have to convince our adult learners to pursue degrees—when they come to us they already know they need new knowledge, skills, abilities, etc. to meet their career or personal goals. What they want from us are answers to the questions of how we will be different from the places that have failed them previously or how the experiences we have designed align with their needs. We can no longer treat higher education as one-size-fits-all and expect students to align our learning experience with their needs. We must listen, seek to understand, and bring the right experience to the right student at the right time and in the right way.

We’re honoring thousands of job-ready graduates at Winter Commencement. But there are some people around the country who question the value of a college degree. How can higher ed do a better job of translating its value to reluctant prospective students?

One of my priorities centers around ensuring that we communicate clearly what students will get when they enroll in a program—and then leveraging our resources to ensure that we know whether they got what they came for, and accepting accountability for our results. Historically, education has operated like a black box: Learners signed up, paid, and immersed themselves in a learning experience without a clear understanding of what they could expect to receive in return. We dictated to them how and when the learning would occur. That is now starting to change—and frankly, it should. The better we are at explicitly saying what learners will know, do, and be when they complete a program at UMGC, the less students, parents, and businesses will be left with the question of value. Further, we must deliver levels of service that are unprecedented—and perhaps unexpected—in higher education, wrapping our students in a blanket of support that responds to the realities of their lives, academic backgrounds, and learning styles.

You and President Washington are strong proponents of workforce-oriented programs in which a student’s skills and experiences closely align with their career path. How would employers benefit from providing more experiential learning opportunities and internships?

We are seeing greater creativity and flexibility from employers when it comes to establishing win-win partnerships with academic institutions. Our work with Amazon, Guild, Bright Horizons and others demonstrates a growing opportunity for higher education to partner with companies to prepare workers with different ways of learning and skill sets that companies need to succeed in a fast-changing marketplace and technological world. But this is not enough. Higher education must also find ways to tag, assess, and credit the learning experiences that are already happening in the workforce as well as asking businesses to create new ones. Only then will we truly be living up to the promise of what lifelong learning can be.

Mason takes pride in producing well-rounded graduates. What do colleges need to do to best prepare students for successful lives and careers?

Be clear about both the explicit career-related KSADs (knowledge, skills, abilities, and dispositions) that we are helping students gain as well as the enduring skills that extend beyond any given career. Many colleges are really diving into what has traditionally been considered general education, recognizing that a Great Books or a buffet-style approach to these life skills is vague and often obsolete. This is particularly true in cultural, information, financial, and digital literacies. For example, we no longer operate in a world where lack of information access is the problem—in fact, quite the opposite. We now have ready access to more information than we can handle but aren’t always able to discern or interpret what is valuable or true. In a rapidly changing world, colleges must rethink how enduring skills and acquiring them must rapidly adapt as well. This is hard to do when so much of what we practice comes from the experiences that we had rather than the world that has already moved past that.

Mason graduates would like to know: What is the best piece of advice you ever received, personally or professionally, and how has that advice influenced your life and career?

I am grateful for my mother’s wisdom. When I was very young, she told me that God gave us two ears, two eyes and one mouth for a reason. The ability to truly listen and see and value others, especially those who are different, is really what she wanted me to know. Any time we are talking is a time when we are not learning but trying to influence others. As I engage more and more cultures and populations, I continue to try to learn what they will teach me if I let them. That in turn allows me to create learning environments for all students who are looking to us to help them transform lives and destinies for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Is there anything you’d like to add?

Once again, we can no longer treat higher education as one-size-fits-all and expect students to align our learning experience with their needs. We must gauge our success and progress by defining learning goals, measuring student progress, and tailoring learning experiences accordingly. Valid assessments are explicit (definable, measurable, and transparent), workforce relevant, and understandable (to other institutions, businesses, and organizations).

I have learned a great deal from working for great people during my career who have demonstrated leadership qualities that I have tried to emulate, including the notion we, as educators, hold dear that learning is a lifelong journey. And as a leader, evidence-based learning is crucial. Two pieces of advice have stuck with me: 1) if you are not measuring, you are just practicing; and 2) activity and progress are not synonymous.

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