Summer is often a time for reflection. I am thinking about a summer thirty years ago. In July 1993, I was moving down to Virginia to begin my new job at George Mason as an assistant professor of English. Thirty years later into my George Mason journey, I find myself in Incheon, Korea—a lot farther away than the 50 miles I moved from Baltimore, Maryland, where I finished my graduate education, to my new home in Arlington. Farther than I could have imagined in 1993.
When George Mason University President Washington addressed our new students last August, he told them that at Mason “there are no limits to what you can accomplish.” Mason has always been a place of opportunity for students, as well as for faculty like me, and for our staff. It is a place that takes members of its community farther than they might ever have expected to go.
There are at least three reasons that Mason is a place of such opportunity.
The first is our location. Just twenty miles east of the US capital, we are close to all the US branches of government and a myriad of governmental agencies, professional organizations, and cultural institutions. As a scholar of English Renaissance literature, I could spend the day at the Folger Shakespeare Library, one of the world’s largest collections of rare books from the English Renaissance, and located just feet from the US capitol building. Mason is also located in a rich technology hub. Seventy-five percent of the world’s data travels through Loudon County, just twenty miles or so north and west of Mason.
The second is our rapid growth. Mason is a young university—just over 50 years old. When you are young and new you need to work a little harder, a little scrappier, a little more creatively. As a result, members of Mason’s community—whether we are students, faculty, or staff—are hardworking, scrappy, and creative. And when we exceed expectations, so does George Mason.
The third, and to me the most important, is Mason’s governing belief in “accessible excellence.” Mason is a top-ranked US university. But it has always been about including rather than excluding, about providing opportunities for our students, believing in their potential, helping them reach it, and then watching what they will do.
Where has your Mason journey taken you? We have been featuring stories about our alumni in Korea, and what they have done since leaving Mason. If you’d like to provide your alumni story, please contact Ms. Christina Cha at ccha2@gmu.edu or fill out the form on this page.