The Mason Spirit

Mason basketball superfan and psychology professor Lou Buffardi was one of the lucky 15 faculty and staff members chosen by lottery to be a sideline coach with the men’s basketball team during a home game.

Continue Reading On the Bench with Mason Psychology Professor Lou Buffardi

The Sideline Coaching Program allows one Mason faculty or staff member per game to get an insider’s view by attending team meetings, practices, and meals, having access to opponent scouting reports and being in the locker room before games and at halftime. The topper, though, is being on the bench.

Continue Reading The Best Seat in the House

The not-so-lazy days of summer—A camp where girls participate in activities that revolve around STEM and leadership building.

Continue Reading Bringing STEM into FOCUS

No two days at the FOCUS Camp are alike, but all are filled with lively, stimulating activities that offer plenty of hands-on learning. Monday’s emphasis is science, Tuesday technology, Wednesday engineering, and Thursday math. Activities range from maneuvering a robotic arm and creating Play-Doh electron conductors, to designing computer games. Campers attend a final workshop on Friday, give poster presentations, and take part in an awards ceremony.

Continue Reading Meet the Happy Campers— and Counselors—of the FOCUS Camp

In a recording studio on the main floor of the Music/Theater Building last spring, students from the student recording company Mason Noise wrapped up production of a full-length studio album and began mastering the tracks. Each semester Mason Noise selects a student music artist and then records, mixes, engineers, produces, and distributes a full-length album.

Continue Reading Laying Down Tracks

Inch by inch, students carefully make their way around a grid placed on a muddy forensic excavation and research site on the Fairfax Campus. Their assignment: to unearth evidence in a staged outdoor crime scene. It’s the stuff of hit TV drama series. But for these students, the day’s rain-soaked efforts deliver far more than drama. They deliver real-life forensic science training, critical to qualifying for a career that already is waiting for them.

Continue Reading Turns Out, Crime Does Pay

Dancer and actress Sasha Hollinger, BFA Dance ’09, is playing an important element of history in the Tony and Grammy award-winning Broadway musical, Hamilton.

Continue Reading Mason Alumna Cast in Broadway’s Hamilton

For biology major Chris Fernandez, receiving the $7,000 Udall Scholarship provides an opportunity, as the rising senior says, “to understand some of the roots of the conservation movement in the United States.” In August, at a four-day conference tied to the scholarship in Tucson, Arizona, he joined 60 scholarship recipients to work with professionals on case studies concerning environmental and Native American issues.

Continue Reading Student Profile: Chris Fernandez

After completing his MBA in 1995, Tom Bagamane moved to Los Angeles and was struck by the enormity of homelessness there. He decided to combine his new business skills and his compassion for the homeless to impact his new city by similarly affecting more lives—many more.

Continue Reading Helping Others Is His Business

Mason engineering alumna Ashley Stroupe, a staff engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was the first woman to “drive” on Mars.

Continue Reading Driving on Mars