Author: Rebecca McCrory

New Student and Family Programs (NSFP) is excited to introduce the Mason Family Connection – the official platform for university communication and family engagement. This platform provides a space for you to find your community within the larger family community and become actively involved at Mason.

Everything you need to make the most of your Mason family experience is now located in one centralized location within the Mason Family Connection. You can post comments on articles, interact with other Mason family members in your selected communities, and view upcoming events, important dates, and deadlines.

The Mason Family Connection allows you to customize the content you receive to include relevant information for your Mason family. You can also set the frequency of how often you wish to receive updates. If you want to make account changes, you can do so at any time.

You should have received a welcome email on Monday afternoon, but if you did not, visit gmu.campusesp.com and create an account using your email address. Once you create your account, select the communities you want to be a part of and customize the information you wish to receive. Watch this instructional video to see how to platform works: youtu.be/KlIWcv0qnsk

Set up your account and start exploring the Mason Family Connection today! We invite you to join the Mason Family Connection Q&A on Wednesday, April 7 at 6 p.m. via Zoom to ask questions and provide feedback on the platform.

We understand that there are a lot of communication changes happening within New Student and Family Programs, and we want to ensure we are supporting you through this transition. If you need assistance, please contact us at [email protected] or visit our website at MasonFamily.gmu.edu.

Daylen Orlick
Assistant Director for Family Programs
New Student and Family Programs

Mason Recreation is here to start the new year right and help our Patriots prioritize their health and well-being! We want to give our students the best collegiate recreation experience possible in this new reality of distance learning. That means offering a variety of virtual and in-person opportunities – focusing on safety and engagement. So have no fear Patriot Parents – we will have something for all our students to enjoy, no matter their location!

Safety First
Safety is our top priority, so we will be keeping our Covid-19 safety policies in place throughout the spring semester. Safety and entry policies include:
• Making a reservation to use our facilities and our indoor/outdoor courts and fields
• Show a completed daily Mason Health Check – result must be green to enter
• Always wear a face mask – even during your workout
• Maintain a 10ft distance from others at all times
• Clean fitness equipment before and after use
• Wash/ sanitize your hands often
• Increased facility and equipment cleaning throughout the day

Students and members will need to make a reservation online to enter our facilities and work out, swim, or use any of our indoor/outdoor courts and our outdoor fields. A successful, completed daily Mason health check is will be necessary for entry to our facilities, as well as to engage in our programs. You can find out more about our Covid safety plan at Recreation.gmu.edu/ReturnPlan.

In-Person Engagement
While not all our Patriots are on campus this year, we want to make sure that those who are have opportunities to get active and stay engaged. Following our safety policies above, students and members can safely access our recreation facilities at this time. Students can stop by for a workout and make use of our indoor and outdoor court space for activities such as basketball, badminton, racquetball/squash, volleyball, and more. Our facilities are open in one-hour increments, and then closed for 30 minutes to allow for staff cleaning. This means a reservation is necessary for entry and facility use. Read more about these policies at Recreation.gmu.edu/ReturnPlan.

We are doing our best to find ways to offer a few in-person events during the spring semester, and we will share all that information on our Mason Recreation communication channels! So, make sure your Patriot stays up to date on all thing’s recreation related by visiting our website at Recreation.gmu.edu, following us on social media
@GeorgeMasonRec, and signing up for our monthly e-newsletter.

Virtual Engagement
We want to make sure our students are getting a quality recreation experience no matter their location! To ensure that we are keeping our students healthy, active, and engaged we are offering various virtual recreation programs. Some of our spring offerings include online group fitness classes, e-gaming, intramural sports, outdoor adventures, and team building with the EDGE! For many of these online activities, online registration will be necessary. For program details and more information, please visit Recreation.gmu.edu.

BurnAlong for YOUR Well-being
Don’t forget about BurnAlong – Mason’s free, on-demand, well-being platform that offers classes and programs on many topics: from physical fitness to stress management, life coaching, financial well-being, and more! Students can access this from home, campus, or wherever they like! Students can take a class alone or invite a friend to virtually join the class with them.

Now our Mason Families can enjoy BurnAlong too! Students can add up to 4 users for free and do it in 3 simple steps:
1) Login to your BurnAlong account
2) Go to My Profile
3) Scroll down & click Add Free User.
More information is available at Fit.BurnAlong.com/gmu.

Stay Connected to Mason Recreation
Website: Recreation.gmu.edu
Social Media: @GeorgeMasonRec
Email Newsletter: Sign up here.

Jennifer De La Rosa
Assistant Director of Marketing
Mason Recreation

Back in August, we held a virtual Fall Family Kick-Off event to replace our Family Farewell event that we traditionally held in person during Move-In Day. We received positive feedback from both our Mason families and campus partners so we decided to recreate it for the spring!

We invite all Mason parents, family members and supporters, both of new and continuing Mason students, to register for our Spring Family Kick-Off and join faculty and staff from around the university next Tuesday, January 19 from 5:00-7:30 p.m. ET. Turn on your camera and microphone, and get your questions answered from key offices in real time. You will also learn important university information and explore opportunities to support your student’s learning and success.

[maxbutton id=”1″ url=”https://masonfamily.gmu.edu/spring-family-kick-off-registration/” ]

 

This event will be rotation style, and the schedule of participating academic and student support offices is in the chart below. Be sure to register to ensure you receive the event instructions and additional details later this week.

For more information about our virtual family initiatives, visit masonfamily.gmu.edu/virtual-family-initiatives or contact New Student and Family Programs at [email protected] or (703) 993-2475.

Rebecca McCrory
Associate Director of Family Programs
New Student and Family Programs

Our Mason faculty are doing some impressive work and we want to show it off to you! We are spotlighting three Mason faculty members during this year’s Family Weekend. Read about each of the professors and their research below and register for their virtual events at MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu/FW-Schedule.

#LivingWhileBlack: Social Justice in the Age of Social Media
Friday, Oct. 23; 7 p.m. ET
Listen as Dr. Shayna Maskell, Assistant Professor in the School of Integrative Studies, discusses the current racial injustices in America and social media’s role in advancing racial justice.

Dr. Maskell has her PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland, where her dissertation examined DC hardcore punk 1979-1983 and the construction of gender, race, and class through sound. Her areas of research include popular and youth culture, music, social movements, and subcultures.

Dr. Maskell has taught for over a decade at such institutions as the University of Southern California, California Institute of the Arts, University of Maryland, and Corcoran College of Art and Design, before coming to Mason.

Her classes often focus on intersectionality and the ways in which concepts of self and society are constructed through a multitude of texts. Publications include “I Predict a Riot: Riot Grrrls and the Contradictions of Feminism,” “Performing Punk: Bad Brains and the Construction of Identity,” “The Zombie as Foodie: Liv, iZombie, and the Politics of Consumption,” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame: Washington Nationals, Walk-Up Music, and National Identity.”

Register for Dr. Maskell’s faculty spotlight.

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Inside the Real Criminal Minds
Saturday, Oct. 31; 7 p.m. ET
Ever wonder what goes on inside the real criminal minds? Listen to Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole, Director of the Forensic Science Program in the College of Science, share her experience as one of the FBI’s most senior and accomplished profilers.

Dr. O’Toole is an internationally recognized Forensic Behavioral Consultant who regularly works with corporations, government agencies, law enforcement, educational institutions, mental health and the media. She specializes in the recognition and assessment of concerning, troubling and dangerous behavior that, if unaddressed, can have a wide range of serious consequences from loss of business and revenue to loss of lives.

Prior to her work at Mason, Dr. O’Toole served as an FBI agent for nearly 28 years. For more than half of that time, she worked in the Bureau’s prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit, the unit featured in the hit TV series, Criminal Minds.

She has published many books and worked on multiple high-profile cases including the Elizabeth Smart abduction, the Unabomber case, the Green River Killer, and the Natalee Holloway investigation.

Register for Dr. O’Toole’s faculty spotlight.

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Exploring Emerging Infectious Disease and COVID-19
Thursday, Nov. 12; 5:30 p.m. ET
How do infectious diseases emerge and evolve? Join Dr. Amira Roess, professor of Global Health and Epidemiology in the College of Health and Human Services, as she discusses the history of emerging infectious diseases, how she studies them, and the challenges to this field of study.

Dr. Roess is an epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases epidemiology, multi-disciplinary and multi-species field research, and evaluating interventions to reduce the transmission and impact of infectious diseases. Dr. Roess currently oversees several longitudinal studies to understand emergence and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases globally, including the emergence and transmission of Campylobacter (with support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), MERS-CoV (with support from the US National Science Foundation), and the development of the microbiome during the first year of life.

She is also leading and is part of a number of COVID-19 projects. She studies breastfeeding patterns and their association with future health disparities and has also studied the impact of hurricanes on morbidity and mortality in the United States, links between food animal production and emerging infectious and zoonotic disease emergence globally, and mHealth (especially apps) technology integration and evaluations to reduce the impact of infectious diseases outbreaks, promote health care and health reduce disparities.

Dr. Roess holds a PhD in global disease epidemiology and control from Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining academia, Dr. Roess served as the Science Director for the Pew Commission on Industrial Food Animal Production at Johns Hopkins and was an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She has served as consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development, the World Bank, and Westat Inc.

Register for Dr. Roess’ faculty spotlight.

For more information about Mason’s Family Weekend, visit MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu. If you have questions, contact us via email at [email protected], phone at (703) 993-2475, or our live chat at MasonFamily.gmu.edu.

Rebecca McCrory
Associate Director of Family Programs
New Student and Family Programs

*To receive more articles like this straight to your inbox, sign up for the Mason Family Association at masonfamily.gmu.edu/mason-family-association.