Patriot Profile

Patriot Profile: Valeria Fernandez

Rebecca Kobayashi — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 18:21:51 +0000

Patriot Profile: Valeria Fernandez Rebecca Kobayashi Tue, 04/09/2024 - 14:21

Valeria Fernandez
Year: Senior
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Woodbridge, Virginia

Valeria Fernandez’s journey as a fellow with Generation Hope’s FamilyU* began even before she arrived on campus. The mother of a three-year-old, Fernandez realized when applying to Mason that the housing application did not account for the needs of student-parents, so she raised the issue and potential solutions in a FamilyU interview. Fernandez, who had just finished an associate’s degree in psychology at Northern Virginia Community College, was selected as Mason’s FamilyU fellow for the 2022–23 cohort.

Valeria Fernandez and her daughter in the child-friendly Contemporary Student Lounge on the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Growing into Leadership: Each FamilyU fellow develops an advocacy project during the year. To help address the gap in student-parent mental health care at Mason, Fernandez created a child-friendly support group that focused on mindfulness activities. “Even when I encountered people who would admit to having zero concept of what it’s like to be a student-parent, [Mason] was still a safe, welcoming environment.” She now has greater pride and confidence as a student-parent because of the peers and others she met at Mason who were willing to listen. For Fernandez, it was also encouraging to meet other parents who were pursuing personal dreams alongside raising children.

Advocating for a New Normal: Fernandez says some problems, like how difficult it is for student-parents to meet each other, have simple remedies, like highlighting child-friendly campus activities; but others require long-term solutions, such as changing assumptions about the typical college student. For example, inflexible online tests or assignments present challenges to student-parents with limited child care who may need to schedule an alternate time. Faculty members should recognize that students, whether parenting or working, “have lives outside of being students,” explains Fernandez. “And that doesn't mean that they have less respect for your course.”

Building Momentum: Fernandez currently works as a student-parent ambassador with Mason’s Contemporary Student Services. The mindfulness group she created grew into Student Parent Community Spaces, where student-parents can connect with each other and learn about university services. She is also working to increase student-parent visibility at Mason for potential transfer students. Sometimes her daughter even accompanies her to campus, which Fernandez says she feels comfortable doing because of relationships she is building with colleagues. She has applied to graduate programs at Mason and elsewhere with the goal of someday working in forensic psychology or perhaps pursuing teaching.

* Mason alum Nicole Lynn Lewis, MPP ’06, founded the nonprofit Generation Hope to support young parents and their children as parents pursue further education. Read more about her.

Learn about FamilyU Cohorts

Patriot Profile: Arion Lillard-Green

Priyanka Champaneri — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 20:43:13 +0000

Patriot Profile: Arion Lillard-Green Priyanka Champaneri Tue, 11/07/2023 - 15:43

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Year: Doctoral Student
Major: Health Services Research
Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky

The thought of hospice care can stir up many emotions, including grief, fear, or dread. But what about peace, comfort, or courage? As a former hospice chaplain, Arion Lillard-Green, MHA Health Systems Management ’21, has probably seen–and felt—all of these. When she started her doctoral program at Mason, Lillard-Green brought experience from a unique combination of disciplines: journalism, theology, and health administration. Her goal of earning a doctorate in health services research comes from a desire to bring these disciplines together to ask important questions that impact health policy.

Asking Deeper Questions: Lillard-Green studied journalism as an undergraduate because she enjoyed investigating issues and bringing truths to light. She then completed a master’s degree in theology, which pushed her to think more deeply about issues based on theological and philosophical principles. During seminary, Lillard- Green worked as a private caregiver for aging adults alongside hospice clinicians. This inspired her to complete a hospice chaplain residency program, where she spent a year learning the art of spiritual counseling in the hospital setting.

Providing Comfort: Lillard-Green spent 17 years working as a hospice chaplain. This sparked her interest in the health care field. “Although a career in health care wasn’t my initial goal, it somehow found its way into my work,” she says. She gained insight into the issues people face at the end of life: their spiritual and emotional needs and the physical realities of hospice and palliative care.

Facing Difficult Realities: Working in rural West Virginia and in Northern Virginia, she observed disparities in access to and quality of care. She counseled patients who were financially secure and who lived paycheck to paycheck. “The most significant lesson I learned during my time as a clinician is the reality that socioeconomic status determines the way we live, and it determines how we die,” Lillard-Green says.

Support for Her Work: In fall 2023 Lillard-Green earned a spot in the second cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship at AcademyHealth. This fellowship, conducted in collaboration with The OpEd Project, is dedicated to amplifying underrepresented voices in public health, research, and social justice.

Rethinking the End-of-Life Journey: Lillard-Green hopes that her research will help capture the degree to which hospice and palliative care providers are meeting the needs of patients and families, along with barriers to access. “We need to find ways to collect better, meaningful data to gain a well-rounded understanding of social risk factors,” she says. “The end-of-life journey should not start at the end of life. Unfortunately, aging and dying well is a privilege that needs to be extended to all persons earlier in the health care continuum.”

Learn more about the College of Public Health

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Ukrainian Freshman Joins Schar School Community, Looks Forward to ‘Whole New Life’

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 15:41:08 +0000

Ukrainian Freshman Joins Schar School Community, Looks Forward to ‘Whole New Life’ Andrew J Schappert Tue, 10/18/2022 - 11:41

Ukrainian student Gabriella Grabovska: ‘Sometimes, when my [Mason] friends see me, they will say, Slava Ukraini [Glory to Ukraine], and I’m so touched in this moment.’ Photos by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Gabriella Grabovska always dreamed of attending college in the United States. Working hard on her studies, the 17-year-old from Ukraine pored through lists of American colleges and set her sights on ��AV’s Schar School of Policy and Government.

“It seemed like it was the right fit,” she said. “The level of education, the community. It’s a perfect match for me.”

Grabovska felt the strong support of Mason Nation even before she set foot on campus.

Last February, she and her family left their home in Kyiv to travel to the town of Borodyanka. They had planned to return to Kyiv in a couple of days. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and Borodyanka was bombed repeatedly. The barrage destroyed roads and bridges, eliminating any way out. Grabovska and her family were trapped without electricity or heat.

“It was one of the most difficult periods of my life because we had very limited amounts of food and water,” she said. “We were bombed every hour. We had no way to even call our relatives to let them know we were alive.”

She and her family managed to escape to Ternopil, where they remained for more than two months. They finally returned to Kyiv and Grabovska wrote about her terrifying experience in an Instagram post.

“So many people from George Mason supported me,” she said of the post. “They said that my story was eye-opening. They finally realized what the war was really like and I was so grateful to all of them because they started donating money to support Ukraine.”

A government and international politics major and member of the Democracy Lab learning community, she’s immersed herself in her classes, attended extracurricular and social events, and expanded her network of friends.

“I love the people here,” she said. “I’m really interested in talking to lots of people. I’m 100 percent extroverted so it was easy for me.”

One of her favorite courses is GOV 103, taught by Jennifer Victor, an associate professor who also serves as the director of the Democracy Lab. Grabovska recalls being inspired by one of Victor’s early lectures.

“For the first time in my entire life, I had this thought, I want to be her one day,” she said. “She is a professional in her area of interest. She is so energetic. She is always ready to answer our questions.”

One of Grabovska’s preferred spots on campus is the Johnson Center, especially in the evenings when the building buzzes with students.

“It’s kind of motivating to study there because everyone is typing and you’re like, I’ll do that too. I love it,” she said.

While Grabovska is “just looking forward to my whole new life,” the ongoing war in Ukraine and concerns about her family’s safety are never far from her thoughts. She talks to her parents daily.

“I read the news about Ukraine and the war every day,” she said. “I still get notifications about air alerts. So, when I see an air alert in Kyiv, I text my dad, Are you in a bomb shelter?”

Grabovska feels grateful that she is safe in the U.S. and able to pursue her education as a member of the Schar School community, many of whom are aware of what she has been through.

“Sometimes, when my friends see me, they will say, Slava Ukraini [Glory to Ukraine], and I’m so touched in this moment,” she said. “That’s so cool. They understand what’s going on and they support us. That’s just Mason Nation and I’m happy I ended up at this university.”

Grabovska’s journey to Mason was fraught with danger: ‘We were bombed every hour. We had no way to even call our relatives to let them know we were alive.’