Volunteers needed for pilot tool on community engagement

P Shepherd — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 20:21:07 +0000

Volunteers needed for pilot tool on community engagement P Shepherd Thu, 01/11/2024 - 15:21

The Office of Community Engagement and Civic Learning (CECiL) will soon launch Collaboratory, a university-wide community involvement tracking database that will provide a portrait of George Mason University’s footprint across the region.

With this new tool, faculty and staff will be able to share the details of their community engagement and public service activities, highlight their community-engaged teaching and research, effectively share research and services with potential donors, funders, and partners, and explore what other units and centers are doing across campus.

“We anticipate this tool to help leverage relationships with community partners that are already established on campus to assist with coordination, communication, and building trust within the community,” said CECiL Director Kristen Wright. “Collaboratory allows us to take a systematic approach to highlighting academic and co-curricular service with community organizations and support the institutional mission of inclusive excellence.”

Individuals interested in being part of the pilot and including their community engagement and public service projects in the database should email Shanelle Highsmith, Program Manager for Outreach and Partnerships

Topics

Office of the Provost

Provost Newsletter

Community Engagement

Center of Community Engagement and Civic Learning CECiL

Office of Community Engagement and Civic Learning

Mason welcomes its largest, most diverse freshman class to date at New Student Convocation

Colleen Rich — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 20:30:51 +0000

Mason welcomes its largest, most diverse freshman class to date at New Student Convocation Colleen Rich Fri, 08/19/2022 - 16:30

In This Story

Gregory Washington

President Gregory Washington at the 2022 New Student Convocation at EagleBank Arena. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

George Mason University President Gregory Washington welcomed thousands of new students Friday by informing them they had already made two of the most important decisions of their lives—whether and where to go to college.

“I contend to you, these are great choices!” Washington told the newest Patriots at a spirited New Student Convocation at EagleBank Arena. Mason this fall welcomes the largest (about 4,200) and most diverse freshman class in its history.

Washington rattled off several points to support his contention—the opportunity to work alongside world-class faculty at a top research university, diverse student demographics that resemble what the country will soon look like, bountiful internship and job opportunities in the Washington, D.C., region, and a host of others.

“They’re all keys to your success,” Washington said, with special shout-outs to first-generation students and community college transfers. “Just take a key and open a door…. Mason is a place where the only limits are the limits you place on yourself.”

Students learn the Fight Song at New Student Convocation. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

Provost Mark Ginsberg posed a question to the students, asking, “Do you know what time it is? It’s Mason’s Time,” he said to cheers. “It’s also another time. It’s your time. It’s your time to explore. It’s your time to meet new friends. It’s your time to learn new things. And it’s your time to push yourself to new heights.”

Faculty keynote speaker Karen Akerlof, assistant professor in the College of Science, encouraged the students to engage in “good trouble” by determining what social changes they would like to see on campus, in their hometowns, or even nationally or internationally, and what actions they can take to help achieve them.

To spur opportunities for student impact, Akerlof said the Office of Community Engagement and Civic Learning (CECIL) will host monthly hour-long “community conversation circles” throughout the fall semester.

Mason student body president Sophia Nguyen told students to be open to new experiences. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

“You don’t have to wait until you come back here for graduation in your robes to start thinking about and acting on the ways in which you want to make an impact on the world,” Akerlof said. “Both in and outside of the classroom, this university is a place where you can explore these questions, work with others, and make your voices heard.”

Doc Nix and the Green Machine surely got the students to make their voices heard in a different context—by teaching them the university fight song and making a date to meet back up at EagleBank Arena on October 14 to kick off basketball season with Mason Madness.

Mason student body president Sophia Nguyen recalled feeling confused and overwhelmed, yet eager, as a first-year Mason student, but said she soon busied herself in various campus activities.

Students show off their new Mason hoodies. Photo by Ron Aira/Creative Services

“You’ll find that there’s always something every day for everyone here at Mason,” said Nguyen, who held a White House internship this summer. “You just have to be open to finding it.”

Washington emphasized to the incoming students to be mindful of their mental health and to take advantage of the many resources available to help them.

“Remember one thing,” he said. “You are not alone. You are never alone—even if you might feel that way sometimes. This is indeed a family, and you are a part of that family.

“Our faculty, staff, students and alumni—we all take care of each other. And we’re going to take care of you, too.”

Topics

Campus News

New Student Convocation

Green Machine

Center of Community Engagement and Civic Learning CECiL

Meet the Class of 2026