Mason Medal

Tech entrepreneur Kimmy Duong to receive the Mason Medal

Colleen Rich — Tue, 16 May 2023 19:55:52 +0000

Tech entrepreneur Kimmy Duong to receive the Mason Medal Colleen Rich Tue, 05/16/2023 - 15:55

Kimmy Duong, an accomplished tech entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a refugee who has overcome countless obstacles to achieve success in life, will receive the Mason Medal, ��AV’s highest honorary award, at the 2023 Spring Commencement on Thursday, May 18, at EagleBank Arena.

Kimmy Duong. Photo provided

Born in Nha Trang, Vietnam, in 1945, Duong earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Law from the University of Saigon in 1966. She started her career working for the Ministry of Social Welfare before joining IBM in 1968, where she worked until she escaped from the communist government in 1975. She came to the United States with just $30 in her pocket.

Despite the challenges she faced as a refugee, Duong's belief in education, hard work, and family guided her. While still in a refugee camp, she secured employment with IBM through a representative at the camp. She moved to Northern Virginia and continued her work with IBM while raising seven nephews and nieces and pursuing multiple side jobs to make ends meet.

In 1994, Duong joined Pragmatics, where she currently serves as vice chairwoman and CFO. Over the past 30 years, she has overseen finance, legal, facilities management, and human resources departments, playing an instrumental role in the significant growth of the company.

In addition to her professional success, Duong has been active in philanthropy for over a decade. In 2011, she and her husband, Long Nguyen, donated $5 million to ��AV for what is now known as the Long and Kimmy Nguyen Building, and in 2015, she established the Kimmy Duong Foundation (KDF). The KDF supports a range of health, education, and welfare initiatives in the United States and Vietnam, and has established multiple scholarship programs with endowments of more than $4 million that administered by local universities.

Duong's commitment to philanthropy is evident through the KDF's scholarship program centered in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The program has awarded 218 scholarships to date and plans to award 150 more in 2023. During the pandemic, the KDF started a program to support families dealing with economic hardship, which has benefited 160 families since 2020.

Through her philanthropic work, Duong aims to give back to the United States and Vietnam and to spread a message of service and gratitude to everyone she impacts. She believes that the investment of the United States in a refugee like her has been rewarded with a lasting legacy of good works, and she hopes to inspire others to pay it forward.

At a scholarship breakfast on campus this spring, Duong shared her story.

“Education is the cornerstone of life,” Duong told those in attendance, saying many in her generation worked multiple jobs to send their children to college. “Now, we are giving back.”

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College of Engineering and Computing

Mason Medal winner has helped Mason grow and thrive

Melanie Balog — Mon, 13 May 2019 15:52:58 +0000

Mason Medal winner has helped Mason grow and thrive Melanie Balog Mon, 05/13/2019 - 11:52

Few figures in ��AV history have served in as many roles as Joseph A. Heastie. He has been a student, Board of Visitors member, and Alumni Association Board president, and he has led Mason efforts related to diversity and access. On Friday morning at Mason’s 52nd annual Spring Commencement, Heastie will have a new vantage point on the university—from center stage at EagleBank Arena, where he will receive the Mason Medal, the university’s highest honor, for his many years of service.

“There’s a great sense of pride to be able to think that I was a part of the transition of watching the school become what it has become,” said Heastie, 77, a resident of nearby Vienna, Virginia. “I saw it in some of the very early days. To watch what it has become is just absolutely amazing.”

Within a span of less than 20 years, beginning in 1984, Heastie earned a master of public administration degree at Mason (attending graduate school as a father of two with a full-time government IT job) and served two stints on the Board of Visitors, chairing key committees as secretary, vice rector and rector. Then came a term on Mason’s Alumni Association Board, including as president.

Heastie also is the father of a Mason alum—daughter Eleanor Barber earned a master of education in counseling and development in 1996.

“I felt at one point in time that at least half of my adult life I was at George Mason doing something or other,” Heastie said with a laugh. In 2000, he received the Alumni Service Award.

Heastie played an important role in the university prioritizing access to higher education. Mason today is the most diverse public four-year university in Virginia and one of the top 25 most diverse in the country.

Heastie chaired the BOV’s Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Committee. After his second BOV term, President George W. Johnson asked him to help develop what became the Diversity Advisory Board. That group brought together minority executives and business owners in Northern Virginia to raise scholarship money for minority students and to pair working students with career-relevant jobs tied to their majors.

Throughout his service at Mason, Heastie was impressed with the caliber of faculty the young university attracted and with the creative and aggressive leadership from Johnson and local business leaders. They shared a vision of how a budding research university could anchor the region, and how an initial emphasis on computer-related majors could set the university apart from its more established state peers.

“At the time that I got on the BOV, Mason was a lot smaller school and did not have the physical facilities,” Heastie said. “But still it had kind of an attitude about it that it was going to not compromise on quality of education or quality of anything that it pursued or tried to do. I believe they’ve accomplished that.

“Now with Amazon coming and the reputation Mason has gained worldwide, it’s hard to imagine what the future might be.”

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Campus News

Mason Medal

Mason Medal winner takes pride in helping shape university traditions

Melanie Balog — Thu, 18 May 2017 17:28:04 +0000

Mason Medal winner takes pride in helping shape university traditions Melanie Balog Thu, 05/18/2017 - 13:28

Jimmy Hazel appreciates the opportunities that abound at ��AV—not only for students, faculty, and staff but for eager supporters willing to invest their time to help shape the university’s future. At Commencement on Saturday, Hazel will receive the university’s highest honor, the Mason Medal, for his three decades of service to George Mason. The real honor for the local businessman, however, is continuing to play an active role in the university’s emergence.

“This is a place where you can put forward new ideas, and there are people willing to give them a chance,” Hazel said. “That makes it fun to be involved. At some places, tradition can prevent new events and new ideas from moving forward. Here we develop our own traditions.”

Since graduating from Mason’s law school in 1984, Hazel has served as president of the Law Alumni Association, as chair and trustee of the ��AV Foundation, as a member of the Board of Visitors, and as president of the university’s Alumni Association.

Hazel currently serves as chair of the Board of Visitors development committee as well as chair of the Faster Farther campaign. In addition, he has endowed three university funds to benefit faculty and students, and he has supported many other initiatives to benefit the Mason community.

“Jimmy has served the university in every possible way,” Mason President Ángel Cabrera said. “He even came to visit me in Arizona when I was announced as Mason president, to welcome me, to offer his help. For more than 30 years, he has been a firm believer in Mason and in the value that a world-class research university in Northern Virginia provides to the commonwealth.”

Growing up a short walk from the Fairfax Campus, Hazel absorbed Mason talk at the dinner table and observed Mason support from his family. His father, John “Til” Hazel Jr., considered one of the founding fathers of Mason, was awarded the first Mason Medal in 1987.

“People who have received the Mason Medal in years past are the folks who were visionaries and got things started here,” Hazel said. “I think a lot of them didn’t know where we’d be today as a university―the largest public university in the state, a Carnegie Tier-1 research university―but they knew we’d have a bright future. I feel much the same now. We have not reached our full potential.”

Hazel will continue to find ways for the university to maximize that potential. Receiving Mason’s highest honor is just a milestone along the way.

“I appreciate everything the Mason Medal means,” Hazel said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s time to sit back and let somebody else do everything.”

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Mason Medal

Mason Medal winners have long records of public service, passion for higher education

Melanie Balog — Wed, 11 May 2016 20:50:01 +0000

Mason Medal winners have long records of public service, passion for higher education Melanie Balog Wed, 05/11/2016 - 16:50

The George Mason Medal is the university’s highest honorary award. Those who receive the award are characterized by a record of service to their community, state or nation consistent with the level and quality of George Mason’s public service in his own time. George Mason was a public leader in the cause of freedom during the Revolutionary War and formative years of the United States.

This year the university recognizes three outstanding individuals for their service.

Charles J. Colgan

In 1975, when Charles J. Colgan began his 40 years of public service in Virginia’s legislature, ��AV was a little-known upstart, a former outpost of the University of Virginia yet to find its place in the region’s higher education community.

With Colgan’s considerable help in Richmond, George Mason has become the commonwealth’s largest research university, with nearly 34,000 students, 6,500 faculty and staff members and campuses stretching from Arlington and Fairfax, Va., to South Korea.

Included among those campuses is the 134-acre Science and Technology Campus in Colgan’s home district of Prince William County, where the former Occoquan Building was recently renamed the Senator Charles J. Colgan Hall.

“The senator was known and respected for reaching across the aisle to achieve state objectives, inspiring his colleagues and future public servants to work together for the common good,” said Mason president Ángel Cabrera.

“He was an ardent supporter of higher education, and the architect behind hundreds of millions of dollars invested in our university, Northern Virginia Community College and universities across the commonwealth.”

Colgan, 89, the longest-serving state senator in Virginia’s history, sponsored $1.2 billion for Virginia’s higher education system during his tenure, some $660 million of that earmarked for the development of Mason, according to Senate finance figures.

-Buzz McClain

Jim Larrañaga

Jim Larrañaga isn’t one for individual awards.

“I think everything in life is about teamwork,” he said, “how people bring out the best in each other.”

The former ��AV men’s basketball coach said he’s proud to accept the Mason Medal as recognition of those who supported him during his 14 seasons with the Patriots.

Larrañaga helped put George Mason on the map when he led it out of the unheralded Colonial Athletic Association to the 2006 NCAA Final Four. “I might be the one being honored, but it’s really more about the great team effort we got from the time we arrived.” He credits then-university president Alan Merten with integrating him into the community.

He and his wife, Liz, established two endowed scholarships for the athletic department here. Though he has coached the University of Miami since 2011, he has always felt a special connection to the Patriot family. That was apparent in March, when he brought his Miami players to EagleBank Arena to practice before the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

“It felt like we were going home,” he said.

Larrañaga, whose 273 victories are a Mason record, and who finished his Patriots’ career with 13 consecutive winning seasons and five NCAA tournament appearances, said he lives by a philosophy based on attitude, commitment and class.

“If I don’t set the right example, if I don’t have the right attitude, if I don’t behave in a first-class manner, how can I expect others to?” he said. “It’s all about setting the proper example, laying the foundation for success.”

-Damian Cristodero

Long V. Nguyen

For Long Nguyen, helping others is part of the job.

A longtime philanthropist, he has established relief funds for numerous disasters around the world, including earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes.

His parents emphasized education to Nguyen as a young man, sending him to college in the United States from their home country of Vietnam. He earned his undergraduate degree in physics at North Carolina State University; his master’s degree, also in physics, at the University of Virginia; and his doctorate in computer science at Iowa State University.

One of Nguyen’s goals was to start his own company. He had the idea in 1970 but realized he needed to build a track record first. His planning and patience paid off when he started the IT firm Pragmatics 15 years later.

Nguyen’s connection to George Mason fits into his overall philosophy of helping others and providing a quality education.

“We want George Mason to be the best university possible, not only in Northern Virginia, but nationally and internationally.”

Long and his wife Kimmy donated $5 million to Mason’s Volgenau School of Engineering, and the Engineering Building bears their name. He is a past member of Mason’s Board of Visitors and the Board of Trustees of the Academy for Government Accountability. He has created endowments at Mason and Iowa State to honor past academic advisors, and in 2007, he established an endowed chair in software engineering at the latter in honor of his parents. He has also made two endowments at Mason’s School of Law.

When he retires, he wants to return to his first love, teaching.

“When we reach the top of the ladder, we need not only to leave the ladder, but help others climb,” he said.

- Michele McDonald

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Mason Medal

Devoted ‘Pathway’ Founder Robert Templin to Receive Mason Medal

admin_alpha — Mon, 11 May 2015 09:01:00 +0000

Devoted ‘Pathway’ Founder Robert Templin to Receive Mason Medal admin_alpha Mon, 05/11/2015 - 05:01

By Cathy Cruise

Robert Templin, a longtime partner and supporter of ��AV, will be awarded the Mason Medal at this year’s Commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 16, at the Patriot Center on the Fairfax Campus.

Templin served as the fourth president of Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) from 2002 until this February. Under his tenure, NOVA began a strategic plan to increase college access and student success by strengthening relationships between NOVA and the region’s high schools, community-based nonprofit organizations, universities and employers.

Templin was instrumental in bringing more than 30,000 NOVA students to Mason, many of them first-generation college students, through his Pathway to the Baccalaureate initiative. The program helps open doors for qualified students who might otherwise be unable to attend college. Mason’s Pathway students have made the most of their opportunities—about 83 percent have earned degrees here.

NOVA transfers more students to Mason, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison, Virginia Tech and UVA than any other institution. Templin’s recent assistance facilitating a Mason/NOVA collaboration in Loudoun County enabled thousands of families in the region to have greater access to Mason offerings.

The Mason Medal is the university’s highest honorary award. Its recipients have a record of service to their community, state or nation consistent with the level and quality of American patriot George Mason, the university’s namesake.

Mason president Ángel Cabrera, in his nomination letter, said Templin’s “guiding hand and progressive vision have benefited more than 500,000 NOVA students of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds” and that “scores of them continue their educations at Mason.”

Templin said he is humbled at receiving this award, and sees it as a testament to Mason and NOVA’s collaboration, promising even greater opportunities for the future.

“I am so very pleased that NOVA’s relationship with Mason has blossomed into one of the nation’s exemplary partnerships between a community college and a great university,” Templin said. “When we see two great institutions like NOVA and Mason educating students, we see an outstanding future for our students. When we see these two great institutions serving tens of thousands of students together, we see an outstanding future for our region.”

Since 2010, Templin has served as chair of the board of directors of Achieving the Dream, a national community college reform network. He is founding chair of the C-4 Network that supports the design and implementation of collective impact partnerships between community colleges and Goodwill Industries International. And he was named a “Champion of Change” by the White House, following the White House Summit on Community Colleges.

Templin recently accepted an appointment as a senior fellow with the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C., where he will continue his national community college reform work and develop programs for the next generation of community college presidents. He will also serve as a professor at North Carolina State University.

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Mason Medal

Gerald “Jerry” T. Halpin to Receive Mason Medal

admin_alpha — Thu, 15 May 2014 09:02:00 +0000

Gerald “Jerry” T. Halpin to Receive Mason Medal admin_alpha Thu, 05/15/2014 - 05:02

The Mason Medal is the university’s highest honorary award. Those receiving this recognition have a record of service consistent with the level exhibited by the university’s namesake, George Mason. Gerald “Jerry” T. Halpin is one of the three recipients this year.

Ordinary people look at a piece of land and see what is; Mason Medal recipient Gerald “Jerry” T. Halpin imagines what might be.

The founder and former president and CEO of WEST*GROUP Management LLC, Halpin, along with his partners, is credited with creating the West*Gate and West*Park areas of Tysons Corner, Va., and with developing more than 14 million square feet of office, retail, residential, resort and industrial space in Northern Virginia and Maryland.

At the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC) in Front Royal, Va., the G.T. Halpin Family Living and Learning Community—named in honor of the Halpin family’s $5 million gift to the university—provides LEED-certified academic, residential and dining facilities for conservation students.

The Halpin gift also established an endowment for the SMSC supporting undergraduate and graduate scholarships, curriculum and program development, and faculty research.

Halpin’s interest in and commitment to the environment—and to Northern Virginia—is deep and long-standing. A founding member of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, he has been a director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and a trustee of the National Parks and Recreation Association and the Wolf Trap Foundation.

“The generous gift by the Halpin family is having a life-changing impact among this new generation of conservation leaders and practitioners,” says Alonso Aguirre, executive director of the SMSC.

Students spend a semester living on the Front Royal campus studying endangered species and ecosystems. Smithsonian scientists, Mason faculty and colleagues from U.S. and international conservation organizations connect students to current work in the field.

“West*Group and the Halpin Family have been a part of Northern Virginia and Fairfax County for more than 60 years, and we have always been mindful of our obligation to give back to our Northern Virginia community,” says Halpin, a former member of the ��AV Board of Trustees.

“George Mason has been such an important part of the continued success of Fairfax County and of the well-being and education of its citizens that we are pleased to have made this gift,” Halpin adds. “The conservation work that the university is doing in Front Royal, in association with the Smithsonian, is ultimately of terrific importance for us as citizens of a great metropolitan area, and as inhabitants of this planet.”

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Mason Medal

Stearns To Receive University’s Highest Honor—the Mason Medal

admin_alpha — Tue, 13 May 2014 09:02:00 +0000

Stearns To Receive University’s Highest Honor—the Mason Medal admin_alpha Tue, 05/13/2014 - 05:02

The Mason Medal is the university’s highest honorary award. Those receiving this recognition have a record of service consistent with the level of George Mason the man’s public service. Provost Peter N. Stearns is one of the three recipients this year.

He’s published more than 125 books. He’s brought down the house performing excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan operas on stage and at faculty functions. He’s provided historical perspective on “Meet the Press.” He was among the first faculty members to offer impromptu “flash” lectures around campus—in fact, offering flash lectures was his idea. He’s travelled six continents helping ��AV extend its reach and advance global education. During his tenure, George Mason became the largest public university in Virginia, expanded its research and doctoral levels, and earned a large number of national and international accolades. And, this Saturday, for his efforts on behalf of Mason, Provost Peter N. Stearns will be awarded the Mason Medal, the university’s highest honor.

Stearns joined the university as provost and professor of history on January 1, 2000. Educated at Harvard University, Stearns previously taught at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Rutgers University and Carnegie Mellon University. During Stearns’s leadership as provost, Mason has more than tripled its level of funded research and tripled its number of doctoral programs.

Expanding global partnerships has been a hallmark of Stearns’s tenure at Mason. His efforts include a growing number of dual-degree programs and elaborate connections with students and universities in such countries as Brazil, China, Russia, South Korea and Turkey.

Recently, he spearheaded several particularly important initiatives to expand the university’s global presence, namely the establishment of the branch campus in Incheon, Korea, and the collaboration with INTO to increase the number and diversity of students recruited from abroad. Each of these projects is deeply rooted in a desire to increase global understanding and opportunities for constructive collaboration among different societies.

Mason received the 2006 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education, and in March 2012, the university launched a Global Problem Solving Consortium with several distinguished international partners, for which Mason received the Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for Campus Internationalization.

Stearns has also sought to maintain a creative balance between teaching and research at Mason, with innovations such as the Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence, research leave for junior faculty members and formal programs for undergraduate research. Since Stearns has been at Mason, student retention and graduation rates have steadily improved, along with expansion of honors programs and residence life.

Stearns has written or edited more than 125 books, mainly on social history, including the history of emotions, and world history. Recent works include “Doing Emotions History” and “Peace in World History.” Since 1967, he has served as editor-in-chief of “The Journal of Social History.”

He was named University Professor in January 2011. Despite the considerable workload as chief academic officer for the university, he has taught an introductory undergraduate history course each fall semester, as well as a graduate course each spring.

After 14 years as provost, Stearns steps down on June 30. But he’s not retiring. The man who has seemingly boundless reserves of energy will still teach history at Mason and will continue his research and writing.

An event to celebrate Stearns’s legacy was held in the Center for the Arts Concert Hall on Monday, May 12.

“This is unquestionably the most interesting and fulfilling job I have ever had,” he said. “I was somewhat surprised I got it and was then, and am even more now, truly grateful for the opportunity.”

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Mason Medal

Ernst Volgenau Honored with George Mason Medal

admin_alpha — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:29:00 +0000

Ernst Volgenau Honored with George Mason Medal admin_alpha Thu, 05/09/2013 - 13:29

By Catherine Probst

In recognition of his service to ��AV, Ernst Volgenau will be honored with the George Mason Medal at the university’s 2013 Commencement ceremony. The ceremony takes place in the Patriot Center at 10 a.m. on May 18.

In 1978, Volgenau founded SRA International Inc. in the basement of his Reston, Va., home. SRA is a technology consulting and system integration company serving primarily the federal government. SRA sustained rapid growth and now has about 6,000 employees. SRA was the sixth most successful initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2002 and for ten years in a row, SRA was named by Fortune magazine to the list of “100 Best Places to Work in America.”

For three years, Volgenau was a member of the ��AV Foundation Board of Trustees. In 2004, he was appointed to the ��AV Board of Visitors and served as rector from 2007 to 2012. Contributions given to the School of Information Technology and Engineering, now the Volgenau School of Engineering, by Volgenau and his wife, Sara, are enabling the school to make strategic investments in critical areas of study such as biotechnology, knowledge management and information security.

“As someone who has a long-standing record of public service to ��AV and to our country, I can think of no better recipient of this year’s Mason Medal,” says C. Daniel Clemente, rector of the ��AV Board of Visitors. “We are honored to present this award to Dr. Volgenau, who has been a driving force behind the success of the university and the community.”

Volgenau has 40 years of experience analyzing, designing and developing large technological systems of all types. He was commissioned as a U.S. Air Force lieutenant in 1955, and later served as an analyst and team leader in the Office of the Secretary of Defense conducting large-scale weapon system and command structure analyses. He also helped develop space boosters, satellites and computer systems. He taught astronautics and graduated from the Air Force astronaut course. He retired as a colonel after 20 years of service.

From 1976-78, he was director of inspection and enforcement for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where he managed an office of nearly 700 engineers and physicists that inspected all of the commercial nuclear power plants under construction and in operation in the United States.

Volgenau received his PhD in engineering in 1966 from the University of California at Los Angeles. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. He is a professional engineer and a member of Tau Beta Pi.

“It is a great honor to be recognized for my service to our country and to ��AV, and I am truly humbled by the kindness of my colleagues,” says Volgenau.

The George Mason Medal is designated as the university’s highest honorary award. Those receiving the award, which honors George Mason, the man, should have a record of service to their community, state or nation consistent with the level and quality of George Mason’s public service in his own time.

The first George Mason Medal was awarded to John T. Hazel in 1987. Other former Mason Medal Recipients include Lovey Hammel, Sally Merten, and Sidney O. Dewberry.

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Mason Medal