Winter graduation is Wednesday, Dec. 21. File photo by Ron Aira
Nearly 4,000 George Mason University students will be honored at two Winter Graduation ceremonies Wednesday at EagleBank Arena on the Fairfax Campus.
The 9 a.m. ceremony is for graduates in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Science, the Schar School of Policy and Government, the Antonin Scalia Law School and the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
The 1 p.m. ceremony is for the School of Business, the College of Health and Human Services, the College of Education and Human Development, the Volgenau School of Engineering and the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The 2,509 students earning bachelor’s degrees hail from 33 countries and 24 states. Of bachelor’s graduates who report parental education level, 34 percent say they will be the first in their families to earn a degree, according to the university’s Office of Institutional Research and Reporting.
The 1,482 students earning master’s, law or doctorate degrees are from 36 countries and 32 states.
George Mason President Ángel Cabrera will host both ceremonies and Mason Board of Visitors Rector Tom Davis will award honorary degrees to the two speakers, Sheila C. Johnson (morning) and Tony Nicely (afternoon).
Johnson is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who co-founded Black Entertainment Television and is the only African-American woman to be a part owner of three professional sports teams―the Washington Wizards of the NBA, the Washington Capitals of the NHL and the Washington Mystics of the WNBA. She has served as an executive producer of socially conscious documentaries and the feature film “The Butler.”
Nicely is chairman and CEO of GEICO, the nation’s second-largest auto insurer. Fifty-five years ago he started at the company as a clerk―in what he expected to be a temporary position. Nicely took statistics and calculus courses at Mason in the early 1980s and is a former director of the George Mason University Foundation Inc.
The top five undergraduate majors among the fall 2016 class are psychology; accounting; criminology, law and society; information technology and biology. Twenty-three percent of the bachelor’s degrees will be awarded to STEM majors and another 9 percent to health sciences majors.
The top five master’s majors in this graduating class are curriculum and instruction, special education, education leadership, public administration and business administration.
The top five doctorate majors are education, psychology, economics, conflict analysis and resolution, and earth systems and geoinformation science. Twenty-six percent of graduate degrees in this class are in STEM.