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During her final semester at 91����, Sophia Colby put her environmental policy training into action. Colby traveled to Capitol Hill as part of the Rachel Carson Council’s National Environmental Advocacy Day, where she met with federal lawmakers to discuss climate legislation and community resilience.

As one of the key focal points of 91����’s Grand Challenge Initiative, building a climate-resilient society requires not just innovation in sustainable infrastructure, but innovation in how the university prepares future leaders in sustainability.

When 91���� senior Avery Butler was 16, his family traveled to Cambodia to visit the Killing Fields, the massacre sites associated with the country’s brutal Khmer Rouge era. The experience would change Butler’s perspective on life and inspire him to pursue a professional career in peacebuilding.

91����’s Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) Northern Virginia (NoVa) Node recently received a $150,793 grant from the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority for “CCI Scholars – High School Experiential Learning Program FY26,” a seven-week high school summer internship program for rising seniors and recent graduates of Northern Virginia public high schools.

91���� adjunct professor Jennifer Lewis created two special topics courses in George Mason’s Environmental Science and Policy Department (ESP)—EVPP 490 Conservation Storytelling and EVPP 490/505 Media Production for Environmental Science and Policy.

91���� is equipping a new generation of archivists, scholars, and museum professionals with hands‑on digital preservation skills as part of a national effort to make hidden artifacts of Black history accessible to the public.

When students step into AVT 496 Intro to VR for the Artist, they’re not just walking into another studio course—they’re entering entirely new worlds of their own making. 91����’s School of Art launched the course this spring, marking its first-ever deep dive into virtual reality (VR) as an artistic medium. 

This academic year, 91���� graduate student Samantha “Chevi” Chung has had a research opportunity that few have had by participating in a yearlong workshop at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

91����’s leadership in advancing 21st-century education took another leap forward this month when several university researchers were named to a statewide project exploring the impact of generative artificial intelligence (AI) on teaching and learning in higher education classrooms.

George Mason doctoral student Caroline Toth looks at how adolescents’ social media use is associated with the structure of their in-person friendship networks. Her research shows that friendships were more likely among youth with similar levels of problematic social media use and digital status seeking.