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 families@gmu.edu 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 families@gmu.edu or (703) 993-2475.

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

During our traditional, in-person Family Weekend, families in attendance have the opportunity to meet and mingle with university leadership. In order to provide you with a similar experience this year, we have created opportunities for you to engage and get to know Rose Pascarell, Vice President of University Life; Dr. Mark Ginsberg, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President; and Dr. Gregory Washington, President. Read about each of our senior leaders below and register for their virtual events at MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu/FW-Schedule. Please note that a limited number of spots are available for each event.
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Meet the Veep: Rose Pascarell, Vice President for University Life
Friday, Oct. 30; 5:30 p.m. ET

Meet with Vice President for University Life Rose Pascarell for a conversation about all things student life at Mason! She has held several leadership positions in the university as Associate Vice President for University Life, Associate Dean for Campus Life, and Associate Director of the Women’s Studies Research and Resource Center. Vice President Pascarell’s leadership work in University Life has focused on increasing student engagement and academic success, and the building of just communities.

Vice President Pascarell has worked on campus climate and multicultural/diversity issues for the last 15 years. Her teaching and workshops focus on race, class, gender, sexuality, and the formation of just community through the examination of difference.

Vice President Pascarell earned a BA in Sociology, Criminology, and Conflict Analysis at the State University of New York at Albany. Her MA in Sociology is from George Mason University.

Register to meet with the Vice President.
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Pencil in the Provost: Lunch with Dr. Mark Ginsberg
Monday, Nov. 9; 1 p.m. ET

Learn more about Dr. Mark Ginsberg and his role as the university’s Interim Provost and Executive Vice President. He serves as the university’s chief academic officer, charged by the Board of Visitors and the President with overseeing all aspects of education, research, and public engagement of the university. The Provost has direct oversight for all colleges, schools, and academic support units and is responsible for the allocation of resources.

He joined the university in 2010 as the dean of the College of Education and Human Development. Dr. Ginsberg’s career spans more than a 35-year period as a professor, psychologist and skilled administrator. He has published extensively in the areas of education, psychology, human development and human services. In addition, he has lectured and presented at over 200 conferences, seminars and other educational meetings and professional development events, both within the U.S. and internationally.

Dr. Ginsberg served as the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) from January 1999 until June 2010. Prior to joining NAEYC, Dr. Ginsberg was chair of the Department of Counseling and Human Services in the Graduate Division of Education at The Johns Hopkins University and a member of the faculty of both the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Medicine in the School of Medicine. He had served as a member of the Hopkins full-time and part-time faculty for more than 25 years. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Dr. Ginsberg held the position of Executive Director of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) from 1986-93. From 1981-86 he was a senior member of the management staff of the American Psychological Association (APA), after having been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology at the University of Rochester.

Dr. Ginsberg serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the respected international organization, Parents as Teachers (PAT). He also serves on the Board of Directors of Hopecam, a non-profit organization that supports children with cancer and their families and as an appointed member of the Fairfax County (VA) Successful Children and Youth Policy Team. He is a Past-Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and had served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of Academic Deans of Research Education Institutions (CADREI) and the Board of Directors of the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF). He also is a past-president of both the International Step by Step Association (ISSA), a nongovernmental organization of education and child/youth development focused NGOs in Europe and Central Asia, and the Society of Psychologists in Management (SPIM).

Dr. Ginsberg is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Maryland Psychological Association (MPA), a Clinical Member and Fellow of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and a member of the American Counseling Association (ACA), American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) of which he was elected to serve on the national Board of Directors.

Dr. Ginsberg completed his master’s degree in 1978 and his doctoral degree in 1981 at The Pennsylvania State University, after having been awarded a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Cortland in 1975. He also completed a Fellowship in Clinical Psychology at the Yale University School of Medicine. In 2006, he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters by the State University of New York.

He is married to Elaine A. Anderson, the former Chair and a Professor in the Department of Family Science in the School of Public Health at the University of Maryland. They have two adult children, Andrew, a faculty member in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Maryland, and Robert, an Executive at Fundrise, a Washington, D.C.-based financial technology company.

Register to meet with the Provost.
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Conversation with President Gregory Washington
Friday, Nov. 13; 5:30 p.m. ET

Join us as we spend time getting to know Dr. Gregory Washington, George Mason University’s 8th President. Dr. Washington became Mason’s president on July 1, 2020. He is the former dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and former interim dean of the College of Engineering at Ohio State University.

In his seven years at UCI, Washington expanded undergraduate and graduate enrollment in the engineering school and recruited and hired one of the most diverse engineering faculty cohorts in the country. In addition, he established the University of California’s first student makerspace and launched the OC STEM Initiative, one of the nation’s first STEM ecosystems, in Orange County, California.

Washington created new graduate and undergraduate programs with the UCI business and humanities schools and led the development of the Horiba Institute for Mobility and Connectivity to advance next-generation advanced mobility systems.

The first African American dean of engineering at any University of California campus, and the first African American president at Mason, Washington established an Office of Access and Inclusion at UCI to enhance campus life for all students and chaired the Task Force on Ensuring a Positive Climate for the Campus’ Black Community.

Washington began his academic career in 1995 as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State University and served as interim dean of the engineering school from 2008 to 2011. Washington received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, the Harrison Faculty Award for Excellence in Engineering Education, and the Lumley Research Award. He also received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.

A first-generation college graduate, Washington is a New York City native. He earned three degrees in mechanical engineering, including his PhD, at North Carolina State University.

Register to meet with the President.
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For more information about Mason’s Family Weekend, visit MasonFamilyEvents.gmu.edu. If you have questions, contact us via email at Families@gmu.edu, 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

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