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A few days after Khalid Noor was born in Takhar, Afghanistan, the Taliban seized the province, and his family had to escape to another region on foot.

“We were constantly moving from city to another city,” he said. “When one district was taken or collapsed, we had to move to another.”

It wasn’t an ideal life, but Noor is motivated to change that for future generations—and he’s negotiating with the Taliban to do so.

Louie Al-Hashimi is driven by service. It started in high school, he said, when his history teacher encouraged him to get involved in community service and he began volunteering at a local food pantry, supporting road cleanup projects, and organizing school concerts for charity.

“That, coupled with my studies, encouraged me to pursue public service,” said Al-Hashimi, who earned his master’s in public administration from ����AV in 2020. “Having the opportunity to build or facilitate a connection with other people—that’s what I’m drawn to.”

Smialek, a single mother of one daughter, has been juggling parenting, teaching or going to school and her work as an Air National Guard medic for a while.

Earlier this year, Melissa A. Long, a 1995 graduate of ����AV’s Antonin Scalia Law School, was sworn in as the first Black justice on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

Mason's Homecoming 2021 celebration kicked off Friday, Feb 5 with the SI2G0 truck at the Tip-Off party, and continued with headliner Tom Felton with a virtual performance on Saturday. Check out homecoming.gmu.edu for more details.

Patricia completed a feature film, "Tournament", starring Ricardo Chavira. It screens at the E St Cinema on October 12th, 2017. She directed, produced, and co-wrote the film. She also co-created and runs the 9th Annual Lady Filmmakers Festival and Foundation.

Born and raised in Washington DC, Kelly Thomas is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist, technician, and educator. She earned an MFA in Contemporary performance from Naropa University in Boulder Colorado and her BA in Theatre from ����AV in Fairfax Virginia.

Dawn Taylor-Torres is currently pursuing a career in Atlanta GA, one of the two biggest markets in the US for film and television production today. She arrived in Atlanta in 2014 and within one year she went from being an extra, to stand in, to photo-double, to off-camera reader for the Vampire Diaries stars, to getting signed with one of the top agencies in Atlanta. She credits her success to her hard work and willingness to put herself “out there,” as well as to all the support she received from her professors back home at Mason!

Rafael Sebastian is a professional actor and musician based in Washington D.C. Since earning his double minor degrees in music and theater in the Spring of 2013, he has performed throughout the DC/Baltimore region, as well as the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento theater communities in California.

I'm currently the founder and Executive Director of Lab Theater Project, a theater company devoted to the development of new works and new theater artists. I am also a Doctoral Student at the University of South Florida, College of Education, with a focus in Program Development. My research is in Storytelling and what can be taught through Narrative.