The Mason Spirit

A new National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) semi-professional soccer team is expected to draw not only players affiliated with Major League Soccer’s D.C. United but also George Mason University players and top amateurs from around the United States. And a George Mason alum is the owner.

Continue Reading From College Player to Team Owner: Mason’s Wagoner Starts Semi-Pro Soccer Club

The image scrolls by in an instant, and unless you are looking for it, you might not see the name “Vincent Oppido” rushing over Kristin Chenoweth’s glittery gown at the end of February’s broadcast of the 85th Academy Awards. But there it was, and now it’s on Oppido’s resume, along with a host of other accomplishments achieved during and after his studies at George Mason University.

Continue Reading Vincent Oppido: Composing a Career from Mason to Hollywood

In 1996, Elyse Leeds Acanda, BA English ’94, continued a life of fitness–which included cheerleading throughout high school and college–by immersing herself in the practice of yoga. She took classes with a variety of qualified yoga teachers, practiced multiple styles of yoga, and even trained in locations from Arlington, Virginia, to Miami.

Continue Reading Mason Alumna’s Impact Stretches Throughout World

A career in animal research has kept Jolanda Luksenburg, PhD Environmental Science and Policy ’12, hard at work all over the globe, but it was a trip she made while vacationing that led to one of her most fascinating discoveries, and to having her name bestowed on a whole new species.

Continue Reading Newly Discovered Owl Species Named for Mason Alumna

Everyone likes getting more bang for their buck and credit cards with reward programs have become increasingly popular because they offer perks and bonuses on purchases. Figuring out how rewards programs work, however, can be a bit of a hassle. Some offer a percentage of cash back or number of reward points for a specific…

Continue Reading School of Management Alumnus Develops Credit Card Rewards App

Mason benefactor Don de Laski deeply believed in the importance of connections in changing lives. The impetus for one of Mason’s largest and most important gifts didn’t start here; it started in a classroom at Duke University. That’s where the young Don de Laski, an accounting major, encountered a comparative religion class that expanded his perspective and changed his life.

Continue Reading Don de Laski: Cultivating a Dream

Many say the key to success in business is reinvention—the ability to reinvent yourself, your product, your company. That may explain the success that Mason MBA grad Martin Dunphy has had throughout his career that has seen him reinvent himself from trained chef to soccer star to globe-hopping entrepreneur.

Continue Reading From Soccer Star to Globe-Hopping Entrepreneur: Martin Dunphy Finds Success

Mason alumnus Bobby Saini did his homework in the Johnson Center—as a student at a different college. After three tries, the budding entrepreneur was finally admitted to Mason. Now he is helping lead a technology startup into the burgeoning field of cyber security.

Continue Reading Twice Denied, Finally Accepted, Now Mason Grad Helps Lead Promising Tech Firm

Mason alumnus Juan Pacheco is a counselor with Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP), whose staff emboldens promising high school students to enroll and succeed in college. This position is not Pacheco’s first experience with the program. As a teenager, he was on the other side of the counseling table, in need of his own encourager to say, “You can do this. You can make it in college.”

Continue Reading Encouraging Success: With Life Turned Around, Alumnus Now Mentors Others

When Nicole Livas, BA Communication ’90, returned home to Hampton Roads, Virginia, in 2001 to work as an on-air journalist for WAVY-TV 10, she had rather large footsteps to follow, namely those of her mother, Becky.

Continue Reading A Newsworthy Family Business