Why George Mason

Why would a Marine Corps major come to the Schar School to earn a Master of Public Policy degree? For Major Anthony Matacotta, he believes it will make him “a better-informed citizen, able to effectively participate in government.”

George Mason University was recently recognized as a member of the Northern Virginia team that earned one of the four national Pete Taylor Partnership of Excellence Awards for 2024 from the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC).

George Mason's Board of Visitors discussed the potential for a dedicated university center devoted to expanding academic programs and supports for former or current servicemembers and their families.

George Mason University’s commitment to the military community was officially recognized with a top designation as a 2024-25 Gold Military Friendly® School in the latest Military Friendly listings.

Nearly 100 student representatives and 20 advisors from 13 Fairfax County public high schools gathered on Mason’s Fairfax Campus in June for a day of workshops and team-building activities to support the peer-led student ambassadors program.

Jennifer Connors, director of Mason's Office of Military Services, is the first recipient of the Admiral John Harvey Career Achievement in Military Education Excellence Award, which was presented by the Virginia Department of Veteran Services in September.

Mason doctoral students LeNaya Crandall Hezel and Lt. Col. Michelle Ruehl are part of the 2021 class of Tillman Scholars, named in honor of Pat Tillman, the former NFL star who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 while serving with the U.S. Army Rangers.

For his dedication to Mason’s military community, Ryan Barnett is one of only 19 people nationwide recognized as a 2021 Veteran Champion of the Year in Higher Education by G.I. Jobs.

A strong sense of duty is what led Michael Manges to George Mason University, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Sport Clips Help A Hero Scholarship is helping him realize his dream.

The first students in a new Headquarters Marine Corps program, which makes higher education opportunities available to Marine Corps Officers, began studies in July at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University.

The associate athletic director for academics and intercollegiate athletics is a well-known personality around Northern Virginia, and has positively affected lives and futures as an adjunct professor, evinced by the binder full of laudatory letters sent to him by former students in his GOVT 351 class, Administration in the Political System.