Honors College: In their own words

The Honors College at George Mason University offers students a unique opportunity to pursue undergraduate research with experienced professors and undertake multidisciplinary studies in small classes that tap into the resources of a top-tier, large research university with faculty who provide one-on-one attention. 

But don’t just take it from us: Learn more from the professors who design the classes specifically for Honors College students, the alumni who hit the ground running after graduation and current students who are discovering new doors to open. ​

Shruthi Prabhakar 

(Neuroscience, Class of 2020)​

Shruthi Prabhakar applied to the Honors College because she believed the program stressed the three core principal experiences she was looking for in a college: opportunities to expand her perspectives, the motivation to excel and the chance to learn from challenges.​

The Honors College, Prabhakar said, opened doors she didn’t know existed, including a study-abroad opportunity in Italy during her freshman year and clinical research with Associate Professor Ali Weinstein and University Professor Naomi Lynn Gerber. She also conducted research on artificial intelligence with Professor Robert Axtell through Mason’s Center for Social Complexity.​

“I’m incredibly happy to be at Mason and a part of a smaller community with the Honors College. I’ve made so many friends and learned so many things, both in terms of street and book smarts,” Prabhakar said. “Overall, Mason’s Honors [College] has taught, and continues to teach, me new ways to become a successful individual.” 

Lauren Lapid 

(Art and Visual Technology, Class of 2019) ​

Lauren Lapid said she wanted a multidisciplinary education in addition to her course work as a fine artist. She said the Honors College offered exactly that, and the college’s focus on interdisciplinary research helped her learn skills critical to user experience design.​

“The Honors College taught me critical thinking, research, and writing skills that have helped me grow my career and expertise beyond the realm of graphic design,” Lapid said. “Understanding research methods has made me a better designer.”​

Learning how to conduct multidisciplinary research in the Honors College helped Lapid secure internships at Paramount Pictures, where she designed marketing promotions for the movie “Transformers: The Last Knight,” for Adobe Systems in Silicon Valley and as part of the interactive graphics desk at USA Today. ​

“As a rising user experience designer, being able to conduct research, synthesize data, and come to productive conclusions based on my research is so crucial to my design’s success,” Lapid said.  

Madison Gaines 

(Creative Writing, Class of 2021)

Madison Gaines combined creative writing and social sciences in her unique research project, which explores biracial identity, by composing poems based on interviews with individuals who identify as biracial or multiracial.

Her work, “Illuminating Biracial Identity and the Juncture of Social Science and Poetry,” received an award from the Honors College for best research project at the Fall Research Exhibition, and she will speak at the Cultural Studies Association’s national conference at Tulane University in New Orleans in May. She has performed the poems at small community venues near Mason. 

"If I wasn't in the Honors College, this research would have never happened,” Gaines said. “I already have them to thank for this great experience."

Her research began with an assignment in identity, community and difference. After she finished the class, her professor, Blake Silver, encouraged her to continue her research and apply for a grant from Mason’s Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities and Research(OSCAR). She received additional support from Dean Zofia Burr, who is herself a poet, in a multidisciplinary research and creative projects seminar.

“I owe [Silver] everything,” Gaines said. “He’s been my mentor this whole time; he’s fantastic.” 

Alex Mertz

(Mathematics and Religious Studies, Class of 2019)​

Alex Mertz said his favorite classes usually were in the Honors College.​

“I really enjoy the smaller class sizes, because it allows the professor to focus more on discussion rather than on rote memorization and exams,” he said.​

Mertz said he has pursued intensive research projects in religious studies within the Honors College and with support from OSCAR. His projects have included an examination of the rise of the Christian church as a political force in the late Roman Empire and a study of how a medieval bishop navigated politics and theology during the rise of the Holy Roman Empire. ​

He said the mentorship he received from the Honors College was invaluable, as are the lifelong friends he made within the Honors Living Learning Community. ​

“Everyone in the college has touched my life in some way over the past four years, and I cannot say enough about the mentorships that have developed in my time at Mason,” Mertz said. 

Joe Russell 

(Government and International Politics, Class of 2018) 

The Honors College gave Joe Russell a chance to do research into health care policy, and Mason’s proximity to Washington, D.C., helped him gain an internship working on political campaigns across Virginia.

That real-world experience helped Russell secure a job immediately after graduation as a field director for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick's victorious campaign in Arizona's second congressional district.

“The ability to spend my time in college, not just learning from expert professors in my field, but also having the flexibility and opportunities to work on campaigns, on Capitol Hill, and with advocacy organizations, made sure that upon graduation I had the experience to get jobs most of my peers from other universities could not,” said Russell, who earned a Truman Scholarship while at Mason and was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist. 

“The guidance given to me by professors at the Honors College, the emphasis on learning and getting experience outside of the classroom and the friendly competition that exists between Honors College students—all pushed me to make the most out of my time at Mason,” he added.

Russell now works in the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., as a legislative correspondent.

Jeffery Wood

(Foreign Languages, Chinese, Class of 2015)

Jeffery Wood said he wanted to attend a university that would push and challenge him academically. He said he found that in the Honors College.

"Whenever I took classes at the Honors College, I felt that the professors really got to know their students on a one-to-one basis," Wood said.

Now stationed in Bangladesh as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, Wood praised his Honors College mentors, especially Director of Fellowships LaNitra Berger, who helped Wood apply for and secure a Fulbright Scholarship, a Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship and a Public Policy and International Affairs Fellowship. 

Woods studied in China after receiving a David L. Boren Undergraduate Scholarship and a Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. While in China, he interviewed then-first lady Michelle Obama as part of Discovery Education’s “Of the People: Live from the White House” online broadcast series. He was recently recognized by his high school with the creation of the Jeffrey Wood Award for Global Citizenship. 

Spencer Crew

(Robinson Professor of U.S. History)

For Spencer Crew, the diversity and backgrounds of the students are what make the Honors College special.

Crew teaches the history of the family, a field in which students explore the evolution of the family and how it impacts the way they think about their own families. 

“Especially in family and history conversations, it makes for a much more livelier conversation,” Crew said. “People have different cultural values they bring to the conversation, and I think that exposure to everyone is very valuable.”

Crew worked at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History for 20 years, including nine as the museum’s director. He returned to the Smithsonian to curate one of the exhibitions at the new National Museum of African American History and Culture that examines the rise of segregation, discrimination and the civil rights movement. Now, he’s contributing to the development of a new exhibition at the museum concerning the Reconstruction era. His expertise and connections to the Smithsonian Institution have enabled him to contribute to co-curricular programming in the Honors College, including a guided field trip to the museum.  

"I really like [the college's] effort to get students from a broad geographic area, not only around the country, but other countries as well," Crew said. 

Laurie Robinson

(Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law and Society)

Laurie Robinson said a multidisciplinary spirit is one of her favorite things about teaching in the Honors College, because students from various degree programs bring with them interesting perspectives and diverse ideas. 

“The students are so bright, but beyond that they are very intellectually curious, and that's one thing I just love about the Honors College student,” Robinson said. “They are so engaged with their minds.”

Robinson has frequently taught an Honors College course focused on researching crime policy. She worked in the U.S. Justice Department for then-presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and regularly brings in experts such as former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and former senator and secretary of the Navy Jim Webb as guest lecturers.

"There are very strong students coming [to the college],” Robinson said. “I see that reflected in the quality of their writing and the overall quality of their research skills."