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George Mason dance students perform alongside Limón Dance Company

Shayla Brown — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 17:27:00 +0000

George Mason dance students perform alongside Limón Dance Company Shayla Brown Wed, 12/03/2025 - 12:27

This fall, ��’s dance studios buzzed with excitement as School of Dance students prepared for and performed José Limón’s 1958 original composition Missa Brevis, alongside professional dancers from the Center for the Arts artists in residence Limón Dance Company.

“We’re thrilled to welcome one of the most prestigious modern dance companies to George Mason,” said Victor Adebusola, assistant director of programming and engagement in the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “Their residency gives our School of Dance students the opportunity to learn from and collaborate with incredible professional artists.”

More than 80 George Mason students participated in an intense audition process, led by Limón company members Kurt Douglas and Logan Francis Krueger, and 13 were selected to perform the piece.

Junior dance major Avery Nank said that these auditions can get pretty intense. Nank had previous experience with the dance company, participating in two Limón summer intensive sessions in Colorado and New York City, but auditioning still made her nervous.

“I had previously learned some of the choreography, but I was still really nervous because I wanted it so badly,” she said.

After winning a spot in Missa Brevis, the students then worked with Douglas and Krueger to learn the choreography and prepare for the company’s November Concert Hall performance.

Guest artist residencies are intense learning opportunities and a chance for George Mason dance students to make connections that are invaluable to their careers. After the guest artists choose their cast, a challenging 10-day rehearsal period begins that parallels a professional work schedule. These long days result in a finished work that is performed before a Center for the Arts audience.

School of Dance students rehearsing with Limón Dance Company members. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding.

Limón Dance Company was founded in 1946 by José Limón and Doris Humphrey. The piece Missa Brevis takes place during World War II and was inspired by Limón’s tour of Europe, organized by the U.S. Department of State. The choreography is meant to reflect resilience and hope amidst devastation.

“When [Limón] went to Poland, he saw how ruined it was, but also how uplifting the people were,” said sophomore dance major Robert Harris. “He wanted to carry that and show the world that even though something can be torn down, the fight against adversity is higher and that you can achieve what you want to with your community.”

The guest artist program lets George Mason dancers learn to perform the piece and gain insights into the lives of professional dancers.

“It was cool to hear about the dancers’ experiences that led them to Limón,” said Harris. “They were very open with us, answering all of our questions and being very patient with us. It was a very eye-opening experience because it showed me that there really is a possibility of me being able to do this in the future.”

“As a young student, it's not often that you get to work with a professional company as a learning opportunity. I’m very thankful knowing that I was able to be a part of this. It was once in a lifetime,” said Harris.

Nank said her biggest takeaway was the possibility of growth when working as a team.

“We can all grow immensely if we're doing it at the same time and we’re doing it together. It just takes patience, discipline, and taking the time to care about the people around you,” she said.

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Students in Honors College class examine food insecurity on college campuses

Shayla Brown — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 18:19:21 +0000

Students in Honors College class examine food insecurity on college campuses  Shayla Brown Wed, 11/19/2025 - 13:19

At college campuses across the nation, as many as 30-40% of students grapple with food insecurity, unable to consistently access nutritious and culturally relevant meals due to financial constraints.  

At ��, students in Tawnya Azar’s Honors College 260 Society and Community Engagement course are focused creating awareness campaigns around hunger and food scarcity. The course aims to empower students through writing and collaborative efforts, fostering a critical examination of the challenges surrounding food access and inspiring tangible solutions. Other community engagement course sections engage students on topics such as civic engagement, philanthropy, and using dialogue for understanding and connection.

Azar partnered with George Mason’s Patriot Pantry and Greenhouse and Gardens Program where students completed 15 hours of volunteer work as part of the class. 

The course explores different models of community engagement including the approach of mutual aid, a community-based system where both parties involved benefit, which Azar says is “arguably the direction the field is heading in. Mutual aid is the more effective model for serving a community's needs.” 

Mehmood Shajih volunteering at George Mason's Honeybee Pollinator Garden on the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Shayla Brown.

“George Mason’s students continue to be more and more diverse, coming from different backgrounds, and as the economic pressures that they face increase, food insecurity is also going to increasingly become an issue in this country, especially among college students,” said Azar, term associate professor in the Department of English. 

 “We also have to have challenging conversations about what the limitations to everyone having access to free nutritious meals or to reliable, nutritious meals all the time can look like,” said Azar. 

“Although there can be a lot of negative stigma and stereotypes associated with the issue, many of my students very generously shared experiences they or family members have had with access to reliable, nutritious food sources,” she said. 

Another one of their community partners is Community of Faith Food Pantry in Herndon, which recently received a commendation from the state of Virginia via the state legislature for the work they’ve done to address food insecurity. 

Azar, who previously worked for Community of Faith, said the organization offers fresh produce, meat, eggs, and dairy products and serves about 300 families every week. They rely exclusively on volunteer support and charitable donations, she said.   

The students developed an awareness campaign to inform members of the George Mason community about food insecurity as well as increase awareness and access to existing food resources for food insecure community members. 

Junior Mehmood Shajih called the class “the most important Honors course I’ve taken because it’s talking about an issue that is so prevalent in colleges.  

“It taught me that about 40% of college students face food insecurity throughout their four years, which I was very surprised to learn,” said the psychology major who worked with the Greenhouse and Gardens Program. 

“It also allowed me to explore different ways to help out, but then this class goes a step further because we also approach it through community writing and group campaign tables that we did across the George Mason campus, where we passed on the information we were obtaining in class,” he said. 

The students' interactive games in the format of the Jeopardy! game show. Photo provided.

The student groups were able to get creative in their outreach efforts, making interactive games in the format of the Jeopardy! game show in the Johnson Center, which included questions about food insecurity. 

Through this course, senior biology major Rori Martinez-Breitenstein started volunteering at a Fairfax food bank, Food for Others, completing tasks such as picking up donations from grocery stores and local vendors and packing lunches for K-12 students experiencing food insecurity in Fairfax County. 

“I find working with Food for Others very rewarding, and I've also had the opportunity to make a lot of connections with different people who are also there because they want to support the community,” said Martinez-Breitenstein, who is also volunteering at George Mason’s Potomac Heights Organic Vegetable Garden tending to the vegetables. 

Martinez-Breitenstein is also a residential advisor on the Fairfax Campus and is collaborating with Patriot Pantry on a food and resource drive, collecting non-perishable food items as well as personal hygiene products for students in the residence halls who might not have access to these products otherwise, she said. 

“I'm passionate about public health. My main goal will always be working toward making sure everyone has equitable access to the necessary resources for their highest level of health and quality of life,” said Martinez-Breitenstein, a public health minor.  

Shajih and Martinez-Breitenstein say they plan to continue working with these organizations even after completing the course and hope to get their family and friends involved in community service as well. 

“I’m honored to be involved in something that's bigger than myself,” said Martinez-Breitenstein.  

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Costello students put skills to work for Fairfax charities

Jennifer Anzaldi — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 21:36:37 +0000

Costello students put skills to work for Fairfax charities Jennifer Anzaldi Wed, 11/12/2025 - 16:36

Not often can you take a course where you receive top-level instruction for how to prepare for a career, while also having the opportunity to give back to the world around you; but that is exactly what students in ��'s BUS 303 class experienced this past spring semester when they planned and hosted multiple “Humanitarian Happy Hours.”

Gretchen Hendricks, senior instructor of business foundations in the Costello College of Business, brought this new spin to her course titled Developing Professional Skills—Advanced Elements, providing students with the opportunity to develop their professional skillset through a humanitarian lens. Students put into practice the soft skills emphasized in the course, including teamwork, persuasive writing, effective communication, problem-solving, networking, and leadership, all while flexing their civic responsibility by contributing to the well-being of the community.

Professor Gretchen Hendricks with students at Lucky Dog Animal Rescue

“The Humanitarian Happy Hour events were designed to bring together individuals with similar interests and ideals in a social forum to learn about and potentially get involved with charitable organizations championing great causes,” says Hendricks. “The desired outcomes were apparent—to increase awareness, volunteerism, and donations that result in meaningful change for those in need.”

Students worked in teams to identify and research multiple Fairfax-based charities they were passionate about supporting. Once identified, each team collaboratively wrote a proposal to a senior leader within the organization to persuade them to partner. The proposal included how their team core values and goals aligned with the charitable organization's mission and needs, as well as the benefits (raising awareness, volunteerism, and donations) of holding the event.

Once all four charities—Dulles South Soup Kitchen, Lucky Dog Animal Rescue, Food for Others, and Britepaths—said YES, the event planning and management part of the project began to ensure they executed them successfully. Each team worked directly with a charity point of contact to handle tasks including venue selection and logistics, outreach to corporate sponsors, and identifying attendees to include current students, faculty, staff, and alumni from George Mason as well as key community members.

“The Humanitarian Happy Hour events were designed to bring together individuals with similar interests and ideals in a social forum to learn about and potentially get involved with charitable organizations championing great causes."
—Gretchen Hendricks, senior instructor of business foundations

“I was inspired by the Humanitarian Happy Hours,” said Christine Landoll, BS Accounting ’89, MS Taxation ’92, director of business engagement at Costello. “This idea is so aligned with who Gretchen Hendricks and Costello are: bold, community driven, and rooted in purpose. Each event, sponsored by local partners and spotlighting a nonprofit, empowered students to step outside their comfort zones, grow professionally, and lead with kindness. At George Mason, we’re All Together Different—and Gretchen’s class showed how by immediately stepping up to give back and help others move forward.”

This section of BUS 303 is just one of the many experiential learning opportunities at Costello that prepare students for successful careers. Programs like the Patriot Pitch Competition, Career Takeover Days with our corporate partners, the Montano Student Investment Fund, Costello Fellows on Wall Street, Students Run the Show with Mason Athletics, Impact Fellows, the Honey Bee Initiative, and others—have given students a distinct advantage over other candidates in a very competitive job market.

“Participating in the Humanitarian Happy Hour event was one of the most rewarding experiences I have been through during my time in the Costello College of Business,” says Grant Goodson, a senior business management student who served as a team leader. “From hurdling unexpected obstacles to coordinating timelines and tasks, these skills haven’t just been tested but have grown. Seeing the team’s hard work come together in an impactful way and witnessing the difference we made for Food for Others doing life changing work in our community was immensely fulfilling. I also learned how effective leadership and collaboration can turn a couple of ideas into something with real, tangible impact in the community.”

Students fundraising at Britepaths Humanitarian Happy Hour

In the continued spirit of keeping it local, four Fairfax restaurants—Honor Brewing Kitchen, Velocity Wings, Oh George!, and Banditos Tacos and Tequila—were targeted as locations for each happy hour. And in the spirit of charitable giving, they all hosted the events at no cost.

While the events raised an incredible $3,910 in donations for the four charities, the real win was the power of connection. Each event hosted a mixture of current students, staff, faculty, and alumni, as well as representatives from the charities and other members of the community, including many student family members.

“The thing I enjoyed the most was the people,” says Honors College student Adam Miller, a rising sophomore with a concentration in business management. “I met so many wonderful students, faculty, and people outside of George Mason that were not only good connections to have, but also kind and genuine people to talk to and get to know.”

“One of the best parts about being a professor is spending time with students, says Steve Pilloff, instructional professor of finance at Costello. “And the happy hour events allowed me to do that in an environment that was fun, involved a good cause, and where the students could demonstrate the wonderful work they did to successfully pull off the events.”

“Food for Others appreciated having the opportunity to work with Costello College of Business students on their Humanitarian Happy Hour,” says Hannah Brockway, development manager for Food for Others. “The care and intention the students put into researching Food for Others, our impact, and how to best contribute was apparent throughout the semester. Students were able to connect, both with their George Mason neighbors and the greater community, while contributing to a food secure future in Fairfax, Virginia.”

Corporate sponsors also supported each Humanitarian Happy Hour including Angel Tips, Good Neighbor Exterior Services, TFA Soft Skills, Thompson Greenspon, and VLP Financial Advisors.

Dan Lash, BS Economics ’97, partner and advisor with VLP Financial Advisors, says serving as a corporate sponsor “allowed VLP to continue our support of the University with a broader focus on assisting the community.”

“Participating in the Humanitarian Happy Hour event was one of the most rewarding experiences I have been through during my time in the Costello College of Business."
—Grant Goodson, a senior business management student

Hendricks considers a project such as this an extension of her involvement with Mason Chooses Kindness, also supported by the Costello College of Business at large.

“What I enjoyed most was seeing the ways the George Mason community upholds the pillars of Mason Chooses Kindness: education and awareness, positive connections, sense of belonging, courageous advocacy, compassion, and well-being,” says Zareena Khan, assistant director of student well-being programs. “It reminded me that connecting intentionally with one another and giving back to our communities are simple but impactful ways that we can enrich our lives and the lives of others.”

Hendricks is not new to using her class to bring good to the world. In 2022, her BUS 303 students designed and pitched a socially conscious networking site offering personalized acts of kindness called ThreeWishes.

“Our students value experiential learning and appreciate the opportunity to develop job-related skills,” says Cindy Parker, BS Psychology ’92, MS Industrial/Organizational Psychology ’94, PhD ’98, instructional professor of management, director of faculty success, and Leidos Corporate Partner Faculty Fellow at Costello. “This type of semester-long project allows students to not only develop critical teamwork and project management skills but also provides them with insight into how business can—and should—contribute to society.”

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Exploring fear and fascination with a Popular Horror class

Colleen Rich — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 14:15:57 +0000

Exploring fear and fascination with a Popular Horror class Colleen Rich Thu, 10/30/2025 - 10:15

When �� English professor Eric Gary Anderson steps into the classroom to teach ENGL 419 Popular Horror, he’s not just talking about things that go bump in the night—he and his students are exploring what makes people seek out horror in the first place.

HarperCollins issued a new edition of The Exorcist in 2025 with a glow-in-the-dark cover. Photo provided

For more than a decade, Anderson has taught classes that blend literature and the supernatural. He’s led semester-long dives into vampires, ghosts, and zombies. His Indigenous literature class regularly focuses on ghosts and hauntings. “The ghosts are everywhere in Indigenous literature so it turns out to be a really nice way to introduce people to the subject,” he said. “And it opens up doors for thinking about other cultural things.”

He admits it is always a challenge deciding what goes on the syllabus. “Horror does so many different things—it goes in so many directions,” Anderson said. “I didn’t want the class to just be about bestsellers, but about what draws people to horror and the kinds of horror that are thriving right now.”

The course breaks horror down into categories such as vampires, demonic possession, Indigenous horror, and found footage, pairing classic works such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist with films and more contemporary readings and criticism.

Though horror stories often center on isolation, Anderson’s classroom is anything but lonely.

“This class is a blast,” he said. “When you put horror fans together, there’s this incredible bond. We’re all kind of weird in the same way, and it makes it really fun.”

In fact, that’s why English major Madison Perino signed up for the class—the community. “I love horror and wanted to be around people who like horror and want to talk about it.”

Eric Gary Anderson. Photo provided

Perino said she also appreciates hearing the different perspectives on the works being studied, and there are a lot of them. In the classes leading up to Halloween, Anderson was facilitating lively discussions about The Exorcist. The students complained about Father Karras dragging his feet in requesting an exorcism as they discussed the book in depth.

The walls of Anderson’s Music and Theater Building class are covered in white boards and he gets the class up and moving around as they put their thoughts on the walls. One panel this week is simply labeled “Demons.”

The students said that sometimes at the end of class they will take a kind of “gallery walk” around the room and read the walls. Anderson also documents the written comments with photos.

In addition to the discussions, English major Alex Miles said he finds horror and what it says about the culture fascinating. “And the fact that I get to ‘hate watch’ The Nun and write an essay about it makes me very happy,” said Miles.

Anderson said, “It’s fascinating to think about what was scaring people in the 1970s. [The Exorcist novel] is a slow burn—it’s unsettling in a different way than the movie. And when you pair it with the surge of interest in things like The Nun, which is one of the highest-grossing horror films of all time, it opens up questions about religious horror and why it continues to resonate.”

He also sees horror evolving with new forms of media. “Some of my students encounter horror through gaming—zombie games, survival horror, found footage-style stories. That’s all part of popular horror now.”

Anderson also encourages creativity in his classes. For their final projects, students can choose to produce original works—short fiction, paintings, or multimedia pieces—alongside a critical reflection.

“The creative projects blow me away every semester,” Anderson said. “Just opening that door and saying, ‘You’re allowed to do this,’ is really meaningful for [the students].”

For those looking for a chilling Halloween read, Anderson recommends The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, an Indigenous vampire novel that reinvents familiar tropes. “If you’re a vampire, you start taking on the traits of whoever—or whatever—you’ve been drinking from,” Anderson said. “It’s such a clever twist.”

He also praises Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts, a modern possession story that blurs the line between faith, fear, and media spectacle. “It has one of the best unreliable narrators I’ve ever read,” he said. “You’re never quite sure what’s real.”

Ultimately, for Anderson, horror isn’t just about fear—it’s about fascination.

“It’s a really great time to be alive if you like horror,” he said. “These stories let us explore what scares us most, and in doing so, they help us understand the world—and ourselves—a little better.”

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Costello MBA students are turning their ideas into successful companies

Greg Johnson — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 13:55:26 +0000

Costello MBA students are turning their ideas into successful companies Greg Johnson Mon, 07/07/2025 - 09:55

“I wanted to start my own business,” says Patcharaporn Adchariyavivit, a Costello MBA student, “It seemed like this course was going to help me start it. But I didn’t expect it be this good, you know?”

Skip West

Skip West, founder of MAXSA Innovations and adjunct faculty at the Costello College of Business at ��, offers the course Turning Ideas into Successful Companies once a year to MBA students. The concept for the course came from West’s own entrepreneurial experiences of turning his ideas into companies. He has co-taught the MBA version of the course with Suresh Shenoy, an engineer, senior business executive, and philanthropist.

When he was in graduate school at Stanford, West took a course that was attended by both engineering and business students, working together to turn their ideas into companies. Several years later, he reconnected with his partner from the class to build upon their ideas from school. Together, they founded DesignTech International, where they pioneered remote car starting and keyless entry, among other automotive safety accessories and wireless home automation products. The successful launch of the business took many years, but it really began in the collaborative environment of a classroom.

Now, Skip West has designed the curriculum for his course at the Costello College of Business so that students can realize their own success.

“It’s all about the students coming up with their passion. It’s not what I care about. It’s what they care about and developing a business that they’re interested in," says Skip West, founder of MAXSA Innovations and adjunct faculty at the Costello College of Business at ��.

Ramel DuPree. Photo provided

Ramel DuPree entered the course with his idea for a men’s special skincare brand that is primarily targeted to Black men. “Once I was presented with the possibility to actually take a graduate level course, to actually learn more and go into details with it, and also have some guidance, I just jumped at the opportunity.”

Adchariyavivit also entered the course with a concept already in mind. Inspired by observing all the processes in her family’s restaurant business—combined with her previous professional experience as a project manager in an IT startup—she had been working on an AI-powered restaurant consultant application.

“In today’s digital world, where AI makes market research, competitive analysis, and business plan writing almost mundane, the real skill is learning how to learn,” says Shenoy. “That means teaching students to validate, verify, and seek relevant information to bring their ideas to life.” Throughout the course, the students examined every facet, from manufacturing to marketing and everything in between. “In the end, they develop a business plan, and it’s a lot of pitching to the class, feedback from your classmates, feedback from us,” says West. “It’s a discovery class.”

Patcharaporn Adchariyavivit. Photo provided

The class has made a significant difference in the business ideas from both Adchariyavivit and DuPree. “With Skip, the guy’s more practical, and he is a real investor and a real entrepreneur,” says Adchariyavivit. DuPree appreciated how the feedback loop kept him on his toes and focused on eliminating any blind spots. “Once I was able to get that feedback,” he says, “I had to come back. I had to readjust. I had to restructure. It was super beneficial to allowing me to do an outside-looking-in perspective for myself.”

The course was tailor made for students to turn their passionate ideas into successful companies, but it’s beneficial to all business students. “Even if you’re developing your business conceptually, it forces you to look at everything holistically,” says West. “You get to see all the aspects of a business.”

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Student-led Chesapeake Bay project showcases George Mason’s commitment to environmental stewardship

Colleen Rich — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 19:32:22 +0000

Student-led Chesapeake Bay project showcases George Mason’s commitment to environmental stewardship Colleen Rich Wed, 06/25/2025 - 15:32

Innovation and environmental stewardship are alive and well in �� classrooms, where students are translating ecological science into hands-on projects.

Vulcan Materials was on site to help with the concrete pouring. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

In spring 2025, students in EVPP 480 Sustainability in Action gave a crucial boost to Chesapeake Bay oysters by constructing oyster reef balls where the bivalves can attach, grow, and develop into natural reef structures. The course is co-taught by Department of Environmental Science and Policy professors and George Mason alumni Dann Sklarew, PhD Environmental Science and Public Policy ’00, and Jennifer Sklarew, PhD Public Policy ’15.

Unlike species that rely on habitats created by others, oysters are the habitat. As a keystone species in the bay, their growth forms the foundation of reef structures that support a wide array of marine life.

“Oysters are critical to water filtration, carbon sequestration, and nutrient cycling,” said environmental science major Camille Larkin, who graduated with her bachelor’s degree in May. “Unfortunately, their populations have declined due to habitat degradation, disease, and overfishing.”

Larkin and classmates Noah Beck, BA Environmental and Sustainability Studies ’25; Erin Dougherty, BA Environmental and Sustainability Studies ’25; and Alex Peterson, BA Environmental Science ’25, worked together to develop the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Education Project, an interdisciplinary effort focused on habitat creation, environmental education, and community engagement.

The reef balls will take a year to cure before being place in the Chesapeake Bay. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

With support from the Patriot Green Fund, they partnered with Coastal Conservation Association Maryland (CCA) and its flagship initiative the Living Reef Action Campaign (LRAC) to host a two-day event on George Mason’s Science and Technology Campus that brought together nearly 25 volunteers. Using molds provided by CCA, volunteers assembled the molds and assisted in the concrete pouring effort, courtesy of Vulcan Materials, to build 20 artificial reef structures, called oyster reef balls. The reef balls are approximately three feet high and weigh about 250 lbs. each.

“This project started with four students who asked, ‘Why stop at improving our campus when we could make a difference across the entire Chesapeake Bay?’” said Dann Sklarew. “The [reef balls] were designed with rough surfaces to enhance the attachment of oysters and other stationary estuarine organisms, creating habitats for fish, shellfish, and even dolphins that pass through the bay.”

Helping the volunteers was LRAC representative and George Mason alum Jesse Howe, MEd Elementary Education ’15, assistant director of CCA. Howe has been conducting these reef-building workshops throughout the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area for several years as part of his CCA advocacy work.

Jesse Howe. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Howe said he was happy to hear from the students when they reached out to him about reef project. “I’ve always felt a strong connection with George Mason and was excited to be back on campus,” he said.

After graduating from George Mason, Howe taught in Latin America for nearly a decade before turning to conservation work. “This organization just really aligned with my personal values,” he said of CCA. And those teaching skills serve him well as he talks students of all ages through the steps of building the reef balls.

“It’s important work,” Howe said. “These volunteers are helping to create an ecosystem and support life in a spot of the Chesapeake Bay that has been devoid of that life for many decades.”

After the concrete structures cure for more than a year, they will be deployed at sites across the lower Potomac River and middle Chesapeake Bay and are expected to bolster oyster populations and habitat to support diverse marine life.

To extend the project’s reach, miniature versions of the reefs will be displayed on campus, alongside educational materials about oyster ecology and conservation in the Chesapeake Bay.

“We believe giving the George Mason community a hands-on role in this project builds awareness and fosters a sense of personal connection to local environmental challenges,” said Dougherty.

By combining cutting-edge scientific research with community-driven action, George Mason faculty and students are advancing reef science while realizing tangible restoration results.

Additional reporting by Colleen Kearney Rich.

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Christopher Kardambikis on the Power of Print, Publishing, and Possibility

Lakin Raybuck — Mon, 02 Jun 2025 17:27:21 +0000

Christopher Kardambikis on the Power of Print, Publishing, and Possibility Lakin Raybuck Mon, 06/02/2025 - 13:27

Christopher Kardambikis never set out to create work that would sit behind glass or live in private collections. Instead, he found his voice and purpose through publishing zines, artist books, and prints—things people could hold, trade, collect, and care about without needing a trust fund.

Now an associate professor and director of studio art at ��'s School of Art, Kardambikis brings that same ethos into the classroom. He teaches printmaking, book arts, and a deeply collaborative publishing minor that opens students up to something much more tangible than the "starving artist" cliché.

"I want the work to be distributed," he says. "I want normal people to actually access it."

It's a perspective shaped not just by art school or gallery walls but by real-world experiences that most students never hear about. Before coming to George Mason, Kardambikis worked as an artist's assistant and then at an art shipping warehouse in Long Island, New York. His job? Packaging up expensive artwork and preparing it for storage, sometimes indefinitely.

"There's so much work that just sits in crates," he recalls. "These paintings get bought by wealthy collectors, but no one ever sees them. They're not even being enjoyed. They're investments, sitting on shelves."

With print-based art, he found a medium that could move freely, outside the confines of exclusivity.

Christopher Kardambikis of George Mason's School of Art. Photo provided

His long-running podcast Paper Cuts was born from that same spirit of access. Launched initially during his artist residency at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, the project started as a way to interview zinesters and small press artists as an excuse to talk to people about the books they make. Over the years, it's grown into a traveling platform for community, collaboration, and archival storytelling.

It also gave him a way to connect. "When I moved to new cities—Pittsburgh, San Diego, LA, New York—I always started a publishing project. That's how I made friends. That's how I met people and became part of a scene."

At George Mason, he's helping students see how print and publishing can do the same for them.

Students team up with working artists, presses, and organizations across the region through the School of Art's Dynamic Publishing minor. They produce real books, collaborate with local creatives, and watch their work move from concept to finished product—all while developing a skill set that's adaptable, entrepreneurial, and community-focused.

And while he's quick to point out that not everyone needs to start their own press, he wants students to understand the range of what's possible. He introduces them to people building careers through small studios, cooperative print shops, local arts education, and community-centered creative work.

"You're not limited to being in a gallery," he says. "You don't have to wait for someone to give you permission."

One of his goals is to help students see just how resourceful they already are. In his classes, students don't just learn the techniques. They learn how to plan, produce, and problem solve, often using materials or processes far outside traditional expectations. "You learn to do the research, figure it out, and follow your vision wherever it leads. That's not something you can teach in theory. You have to live it."

He also believes deeply in the relevance of physical work in a digital-first world. Books, he says, still matter. Maybe now more than ever.

"Websites disappear. Apps go away. But books can last hundreds of years. They're solid. They hold stories. They're touchable, tangible, real."

It's not about resisting technology. It's about remembering that the physical and the digital don't have to be at odds. In fact, for many of his students, learning how ink interacts with paper changes how they think about design altogether.

"Once they've made something by hand. Once they've printed it, folded it, held it, it shifts how they understand what they're doing," he says. "It gives it weight."

And for Kardambikis, that's the point: helping students create work that carries weight not just on the page but also in the world.

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Solo soaring success: Four students take important step in aviation training

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 27 May 2025 19:29:34 +0000

Solo soaring success: Four students take important step in aviation training Nathan Kahl Tue, 05/27/2025 - 15:29

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John Shortle

Four �� students in the aviation flight training and management minor took to the skies recently for a solo flight, the final step in completing requirements for the program.

Zaki in the air. Photo provided.

Allyson Bautista, Laila Elbaddaly, Makary Meseha, and George Zaki each piloted a small plane for approximately 30 minutes with no one else in the craft with them, an accomplishment that is a significant step toward a career in aviation.

Three of the students had existing exposure to the industry prior to taking on the minor, which requires 15 additional credits and classes such as SYST 460 Introduction to Air Traffic Control, including the flight training leading up to the solo flight. Elbaddaly works for Lufthansa Cargo, handling import and export tracking for multiple airlines. Her workspace at Dulles Airport is near where Meseha, who told her about the program, works for Emirates Airline. Bautista works for Aero Elite, a flight training school, as a flight dispatcher.

Were the aspiring aviators antsy as they ascended? Elbaddaly said, somewhat jokingly, “The only thing in my mind was, ‘What if I can’t land right? Will I be stuck in the air forever?’”

Maseha readies for lift-off. Photo provided.

Despite a fear of heights, Meseha reported being confident in his attempt, while Bautista said, “The day before, I was absolutely shaking in my boots. I could not believe my instructor was trusting me with that plane.”

Zaki had a hiccup leading up to lift-off. “The day before I flew for six hours, so I was tired when we did our stage check (an evaluation a flight instructor does of a student) and then I did almost everything wrong, so I was hesitant about the solo. On the day of, my instructor said, 'Look, I want to see three consistent patterns (loops around the airport) and I will get out of the plane,’ and I did 14 consecutive patterns very well. That’s when I knew I was ready for my solo flight.”

Elbaddaly pilots the plane. Photo provided.

For many of the pilots, the interest in aviation began at a young age. Bautista became curious when she was in high school and said, “I'm a travel geek, so I travel a lot and I was flying to Japan in 2022. When I got onto the plane I looked up at the cockpit and I thought, ‘I want to be in the front of this plane, up there.'” She said that women pilots—and particularly Asian ones (she is Filipina)—represent a tiny portion of the total population, and she’d like to increase representation for her demographic.

Meseha also wanted to fly from a young age, but cited the cost of continuing with the training and education and the disruptive schedule as reasons he might choose to work as a mechanical engineer and not a pilot.

To continue their studies, the next step is to log more hours and complete what is called a “cross country” flight, which, unlike what the name suggests, is only required to cover 50 nautical miles.

"It is quite an accomplishment to complete the solo flight test," said Systems Engineering and Operations Resarch chair, John Shortle. "It takes dedication, discipline and perseverance. We are very proud of the students that have achieved this milestone. George Mason is glad to address the nation-wide airline pilot and air traffic controller shortage through this excellent program."

Topics

Aviation

air travel

Systems Engineering and Operations Research

innovative classes

Students

Honors College course uses opera to explore landmark court case

Shayla Brown — Thu, 22 May 2025 18:28:04 +0000

Honors College course uses opera to explore landmark court case Shayla Brown Thu, 05/22/2025 - 14:28

Historical dramas may be nothing new to the theater, but an original opera based on a landmark Supreme Court Civil Rights case? Rick Davis knew this was something different.

After learning that Virginia Opera was planning to stage their new opera, Loving v. Virgina—based on the historic Supreme Court case striking down a Virginia law that banned interracial marriage—Davis seized the unique opportunity for his students. 

The result was HNRS 360 Opera as Social Change, an Honors College course taught by Davis, the dean of ��’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, that explored the role opera can play in presenting—and changing—a community’s shared history. 

“I love bringing the arts together with other subjects because I want to get people from the community interested in the arts by meeting them at their personal interest—in this case, through opera,” said Davis. “I pitched the idea for the class to the Honors College, and they're always so wonderful about backing experimental course design ideas.” 

Rick Davis poses with a student's project. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

“[In the class] we focused on the intersection of arts and politics,” said government and international politics major Kayla Goldschmidt.  

“I’ve learned that opera is another way to tell important stories and it can make it more accessible to different populations. This course did such a great job of highlighting that,” she added.  

The course, which took place in fall 2024, culminated in the students creating final projects that represented the court case as expressions of public dramaturgy, the connection of theater and stagecraft with contemporary society. 

Goldschmidt used the system software ArcGIS to create an interactive story map using an assigned reading from the class: Race, Sex, and the Freedom to Marry by Peter Wallenstein. “I settled on this idea because I’m very passionate about geography and in the assigned reading, I felt that the geographical aspect was very present throughout the narrative,” said Goldschmidt. 

Kayla Goldschmidt poses with her project. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

“[The book] takes us to every location of the Loving story, so I tried to simulate that with my final project. It was so different from anything I had done for a final before in college,” she said. 

For her final project, junior forensic science major Madison Dragon created a reference paper that spelled out “loving,” with each letter referencing other relevant court cases or people who were monumental in the Civil Rights movement. 

“People can pick out a letter, and I provided a little blurb on what the letter represented, so it was more educational. I had the court cases written as the foundation for different themes, so one was on marriage law, for example,” said Dragon, who is currently obtaining her bachelor’s and master’s degrees through George Mason’s Bachelor’s to Accelerated Master’s program. 

“Working in the CFA is actually how I met Rick. He knew of my love for the arts, so at one of the shows I was working, we talked about this course and I was immediately interested in joining,” said Dragon, who is the house manager at George Mason’s Center for the Arts. 

“The goal of opera is to make you question what you know and whether you should be taking action. Referencing this historic court case in class was amazing because we’re still seeing similar issues in today's society,” Dragon said. 

The course also featured guest speakers including George Mason faculty members LaNitra Berger, Wendi Manuel-Scott, Richard Leech, and Jennifer Casey Cabot. 

Berger, director of George Mason’s African and African American Studies Program, talked about the historical background of the Loving case with the students. “We discussed the segregation laws prohibiting interracial contact and the price the Lovings paid for falling in love across racial lines and refusing to back down when they wanted to get married.” 

The students' final projects. Photo by Shayla Brown/Office of University Branding.

“Unfortunately, I think that younger people, including our students, have real-world experience about what it looks like to discriminate against people for who they are,” Berger said. 

Guest speakers from Virginia Opera included composer Damien Geter, librettist Jessica Murphy Moo, and conductor Adam Turner, as well as Gregory Spears and Kevin Newbury, the composer and director, respectively, of the opera Fellow Travelers, staged by the company in 2023.

When Loving v. Virginia was performed in the Center for the Arts on May 3-4, the students’ final projects were on display in the Concert Hall. Read more about the world premiere opera performance here.

In This Story

Rick Davis

Topics

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Honors College

Center for the Arts

Bachelor’s/Acclerated Master’s Program

innovative classes

Students

George Mason civil engineering students are helping local communities improve their flood resilience

Katarina Benson — Wed, 07 May 2025 18:04:10 +0000

George Mason civil engineering students are helping local communities improve their flood resilience Katarina Benson Wed, 05/07/2025 - 14:04

In September 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and quickly became the deadliest hurricane in the United States since Hurricane Katrina. It brought catastrophic flooding, storm surge, landslides, and tornadoes, resulting in more than 250 deaths and $78.7 billion in damages, which some estimate may rise to $110 billion. Areas of Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee were devastated by the rainfall it brought, and Southwest Virginia experienced significant flooding.

“Flooding is a growing issue across local communities,” said Celso Ferreira, who leads ��’s Flood Hazards Research Lab. “It is one part of engineering that’s not well-solved. Communities want to understand and adapt to flood risk, but it’s expensive. If it were easy and cheap, it would already be solved. That’s where this idea came in—we thought, why not involve students? Not just teach them engineering but help them create useful products for these communities. Can we make a difference without a multimillion-dollar firm? Can we bridge the gap?”

George Mason PhD student Diana Veronez runs a modeling demonstration for the Flood Hazard Engineering and Adaptation course. Photo provided

Ferreira recently redesigned the CEIE 445/645 Flood Hazard Engineering and Adaptation course to work with community partners to deliver real projects as part of the Institute for a Sustainable Earth’s (ISE’s) NSF Accelerating Research Translation (ART) Seed Translational Research Project (STRP) Program. He taught it for the first time in its new format in fall 2024 and plans to offer it again this fall.

In CEIE 445/645, a course for civil engineering students, undergraduate and graduate students work together on teams to develop flood risk maps and conduct analyses to help real clients in local communities improve their flood resilience. For some communities, especially smaller counties or tribes with fewer resources or no engineers on staff, this can provide critical data to help them address areas at higher risk of flooding.

The student teams used the recently developed Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) models, which provided ground elevation surface (topography), hydraulic friction values, and surface water infiltration values. This served as a common framework each project could be built upon.

The class used Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation models to run scenarios. This figure shows areas of potential flooding in the Town of Quantico. Photo provided

During the first part of the semester, the students learned how to create models like those provided by Virginia DCR. Then, they worked with their clients to address individual case studies on flood mitigation.

“I think it’s transformational for the students,” Ferreira said. “I’m glad we’re able to do that. At the beginning, they wonder what they’ve gotten themselves into, but by then end, they’re proud of the projects they built. [This challenge] really captures their attention, and they get enthusiastic about it.”

Examples of student projects include:

Pamunkey Reservation Flood Resiliency Plan - Located on a peninsula east of Richmond, the reservation is just slightly above sea level, increasing its risk of tidal and pluvial (surface water) flooding. The student team—Jacob Ryan Tomechko, Amanda Mullen, Paul Pacheco, Angela Haines-Perez, and Heriberto Perez—helped identify potential problem spots for roadway flooding including scenarios to address sea-level rise and significant storm events such as hurricanes.
Forwarding Roadway Resiliency Efforts in Mathews County – Matthews County is located on Virginia’s middle peninsula and is at risk of coastal and pluvial flooding due to its low-lying roadways. The student team—Matthew Cantos, Daniel Cardona, Mike DeCarlo, Eglal Salih, and Allyson Skahen—assessed which areas were at a higher risk of flooding due to poorly designed drainage ditches or other characteristics.
Flood Adaptive Roadways in Quantico, Virginia – Located in Prince William County, the Town of Quantico is near the Potomac River and Quantico Creek. The student team—Sebastian Galarza, Marcos Sanchez, Roberto Mejia, and Gabby Wade—helped the town assess roadway flooding scenarios to inform future evacuation efforts.

As part of their work, the student teams created ArcGIS storymaps for each project, available through the course website.

After the course, several students were hired as undergraduate research assistants to continue working on the projects so that they could take them beyond one semester’s work and provide the clients with more advanced projects. They are reviewing and enhancing all the projects to improve alignment with the clients’ requests and developing a standardized product that each client will receive.

One client was interested in using the student maps and analysis to assist with their proposal for funding to address these flooding issues. This is one way Ferreira sees clients being able to use the student projects. He explained that when communities apply for a grant to hire an engineering company for a project, they need to do preliminary analysis as part of this proposal. Many communities don’t have this capacity—they don’t have engineers to do preliminary analysis.

Ferreira worked with a graduate research assistant, two post-docs, and a PhD student over the summer of 2024 to redesign the course. “The funding from the ART program made it possible. It provided the resources to adapt the course in this way. It was key to have those resources, because it was a huge undertaking that couldn’t be done by one faculty member alone.”

The goal of the NSF ART program is to translate science from the university to real solutions for local communities that can help them better prepare for climate-related disasters. The ISE and Virginia Climate Center (VCC) are collaborating with the University of Kentucky and the Center for Climate Strategies on the NSF ART initiative to close this gap and help communities in Virginia improve their resilience.

CEIE 445/645 will be offered in the fall 2025 semester, and applications are still open for local communities to participate as clients.

View the course website