The Mason Spirit

Vincent Oppido, BA Music ’08, who penned his first composition at age 14, is well on his way to joining the ranks of talented composers, such as Mozart and Chopin, who began their musical careers at a young age. Currently a graduate student in Mason’s School of Music where he is working toward a master’s…

Continue Reading Music Alumnus Collaborates with Broadway Legend

Checking In I was a nurse and worked a bit when we moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I’m in the older-than-65 age group and still keep my license active. I have been thinking about taking a refresher [course]. The nurses of today have it so much easier than we did. I have two beautiful…

Continue Reading From Our Readers

Duffner would tell you that part of her motivation in forming the team was to put Mason on the map. Not only did she succeed in achieving this goal, she did so in remarkably short order. Just two years later, Mason cracked the top 10, taking seventh place at the 1973 National Forensics Association national…

Continue Reading Professors We Love: Margaret Duffner

Capital Beltway traffic may be at a near-constant standstill, but Angie Goff, BA Communication ’01, is in motion at all times. Goff, traffic anchor, entertainment correspondent, lifestyle blogger, and morning show fill-in anchor for WUSA-9, joined the Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate in 2007 after working as a news anchor and reporter in Iowa and South…

Continue Reading A Drive to Give: Anchor and Alum Devoted to Volunteering

When Robert Knight, BA History ’85, graduated from Mason, Top Gun was a hit movie, so it wasn’t surprising that Knight joined the Navy and set out to “get jets.” What is surprising is that 24 years later he would find himself stationed in Iraq with the Army’s 305th Psychological Operations Company as a noncommissioned…

Continue Reading In the Danger Zone

When Alan Plevy , JD ’77, and Jason Smolen, JD ’77, decided to go into business together after graduating from Mason’s School of Law, the two young, single classmates had nothing to lose—except a brand-new iBM selectric ii typewriter. “We paid $100 a month on it,” says Plevy. “we still use it 32 years later.”…

Continue Reading As Alma Mater’s Reputation Grows, So Does Firm’s

  Year: Senior Major: Film and Video Studies Hometown: Charlottesville, Virginia Webmaster Extraordinaire: Plank started WrongPlanet.net, an online community for individuals and the parents of those with autism, Asperger’s syndrome, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other neurological differences, with a friend he met online while he was still in high school. WrongPlanet.net currently has almost…

Continue Reading Patriot Profile: Alex Plank

Jessica Anthony, MFA Creative Writing ’04 McSweeney’s, 2009 The Convalescent tells the story of an unlikely hero named Seymour Akos Pfliegman. Set in the Virginia suburbs, the story mixes Hungarian history with the hero’s entrepreneurial adventures. Anthony has been published in Best New American Voices, Mid-American Review, and New American Voices 2006. She won McSweeney’s…

Continue Reading The Convalescent

Peter G. Levine, BA Speech Communication ’87 Demos Health, 2008 Written for stroke survivors, their caregivers, and their loved ones, Stronger after Stroke puts the power of recovery in the reader’s hands by providing easy instructions for reaching the highest possible level of healing. Codirector of the Neuromotor Recovery and Rehabilitation Laboratory, Levine is a…

Continue Reading Stronger after Stroke: Your Roadmap to Recovery

Jeffrey McDaniel, MFA Creative Writing ’93 University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008 The Endarkenment delves into the world of poetry with vividly mature poems about family, sexuality, and society. The poems reflect an autobiographical glimpse of McDaniel’s life experiences—good, bad, funny, or serious. The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, McDaniel…

Continue Reading The Endarkenment