Next Stop, the World

At this moment, there is a member of the Mason Nation on just about every continent of the globe: conducting research, mastering a language, learning a new skill, and acquiring new knowledge.

For decades, George Mason University has advanced global learning opportunities and fostered international research. We have leveraged partnerships like INTO George Mason University to bring thousands of international students to George Mason from more than 130 countries and speaking 80 languages, while providing courses in nearly two dozen countries each year through the Global Education Office (GEO) for those who wish to study abroad.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the university’s campus and operations in South Korea. Mason Korea launched in Songdo in March 2014 as part of the Incheon Global Campus, a national project established by the Korean government and Incheon Metropolitan City to innovate the Korean education system and nurture the next generation of global leaders.

More than 1,000 students, representing more than 18 countries, are currently studying at Mason Korea, and that success has led to conversations exploring similar partnerships.

“I’ve always appreciated that Mason’s U.S. campuses are so international. So when students from our U.S. campuses go to Mason Korea, they are not encountering an international campus for the first time, but different kinds of internationalism,” says Robert Matz, the former dean of Mason Korea. “This shared—but different— internationalism in one reason I think Mason Korea has been so successful.”

It is all part of preparing students for success in an increasingly international and interconnected world. Expanding and enriching George Mason’s global footprint is a priority—making it critical for the university to reimagine and redesign George Mason’s global vision and establish a path forward.

Enter Chrishon Blackwell, an organizational development leader with a deep understanding of international education, as the senior international officer and executive director of the Global Education Office (GEO).  

Since arriving at George Mason in 2023, Blackwell has been identifying how to leverage the university’s resources in ways that will further enhance students’ experiences while simultaneously exploring ways for the university to maintain global competitiveness and strengthen relationships with its global partners.   

“The goal is to create stronger global citizens and to do that it is critically important to identify, help facilitate, and advance what’s already happening on campus,” says Blackwell. “If GEO is to provide students opportunities to immerse themselves in holistic activities that result in individuals who can compete on [an] international scale, we need to think more intentionally about what impacts them across the disciplines.”

GEO offers a variety of study-abroad program options, ranging from short-term to semester-long experiences. The programs are organized into four distinct categories.

George Mason-led Programs

These are the traditional study-abroad experiences that many George Mason alumni remember. As the name suggests, these programs are led by George Mason faculty and usually run over winter break, spring break, and during the summer. A few programs are offered for an entire semester, and there is often course credit attached.

During the 2023-24 academic year, 670 students traveled to 29 locations on short-term programs and 25 students went on semester-long experiences.

In March 2023, two different groups of Schar School of Policy and Government students traveled to the southern border of the United States and Mexico to experience firsthand the policy debates on both sides of the immigration issue.

Other trips included studying criminal justice in the United Kingdom and Ireland and a trip to the Balkans to look at reconciliation and post-conflict reconstruction.

Global Gateway

In this program, first-year students can spend their fall semester at George Mason and their spring semester at one of 10 different locations in such countries as Costa Rica, Morocco, or Greece.

Global Gateway is specifically designed for first-year students with a curriculum that allows students to satisfy many core requirements while taking advantage of local expertise. During the fall semester, students enroll in GEOC 108 Mason Transitions on the Fairfax Campus with fellow Global Gateway participants. In the spring, they travel with a cohort to another country. According to Jon May, GEO’s assistant director for Global Gateway, the program hosted 108 first-year students in 11 cohorts—two in Korea—during the spring 2024 semester.

Global Internships

The university’s Global Internships Program allows undergraduate and graduate students to learn more about their chosen field of study and earn course credits with travel, virtual, and hybrid internships during winter break and the summer, fall, and spring semesters. Students are placed with companies that align with their field of study and spend the term absorbing knowledge and the country’s culture, whether in person or virtually.

“Our existing programs cover 35 different career fields with many crossovers,” said Kelly McNulty, experiential programs manager for GEO. “Students also have the opportunity to create their own internship by finding and applying to an internship and working with our team to set it up for course credit.”

In 2023-24, 103 students from George Mason interned across the globe with companies in 21 countries. The top travel destinations were Japan, Argentina, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Korea, India, Italy, Czech Republic, Morocco, Germany, and Australia.

Partner Schools

George Mason works with dozens of partners worldwide and was able to send 89 students to more than 16 locations during the 2023–24 academic year. While most students enrolled in semester-long programs, some enrolled in an international summer school. 

One of the most popular study-abroad programs in this category is also George Mason’s most prestigious—the Oxford Semester, which launched in 1995. Each semester, a small group of high-achieving George Mason undergraduate and graduate students is selected to study in the United Kingdom as affiliated students at one of the 39 Oxford colleges.

Other partner schools include a number of universities in Australia, France, and Japan; Ghent University in Belgium; and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Global Residencies

Outside GEO, there are additional opportunities to study abroad and even some programs that require it.

In the mid-1990s, George Mason’s Costello College of Business began requiring its graduate students to participate in a global residency. These residencies offer firsthand experience on how business is conducted outside of the United States and highlight the importance of acknowledging the cultural differences that exist between countries.

Global residencies are typically 10-day travel and business experiences where students are immersed in educational programming including company visits, discussions with industry leaders, meetings with executives, and cultural excursions. Faculty play an integral leadership and mentoring role before, during, and after the residency.

For students, these trips are typically the most memorable class of their graduate program. Since the program’s inception, students have participated in more than 100 residencies around the globe. This summer, seven groups traveled to Dubai, Japan, Greece, South Africa, Brazil, Ireland, and France.

Travel Fellowships and International Exchanges

The Alan Cheuse International Writers Center, part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, offers travel fellowships to graduate students in George Mason’s Creative Writing Program. These awards are designed to help students pursue an international writing project.

Since the program began in 2017, fellowships have taken George Mason students to the Philippines to learn more about World War II Filipino resistance fighters and to Germany to research the life of 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who was one of the few female authors of medieval Europe.

The Cheuse Center also hosts established and emerging international writers for a residency in Northern Virginia. These visiting writers continue their creative work, teach classes, and take part in events that highlight international literature. This residency seeks to strengthen the bonds between George Mason, Washington, D.C., and international literary communities. In 2023, the center hosted award-winning novelist Juan Gómez Bárcena from Madrid, Spain.

Reimagining George Mason’s Global Footprint

Following a thorough review of George Mason’s current international offerings, Blackwell recently identified a series of priorities in research, teaching, and engagement to expand the university’s global footprint. These priorities include initiatives such as exploring ways to support George Mason’s global research activities and collaborations, examining strategies to globalize the student learning experience, and conducting a comprehensive review of George Mason’s international partnerships.

George Mason’s revamped global engagement and emphasis on global learning signifies a deep commitment to advancing the university’s internationalization efforts. Not only will it elevate the student experience and provide valuable opportunities for faculty to engage globally, but it will also include perspectives from alumni and partners who can assist in establishing new initiatives.

Looking forward, Blackwell says this new centralized direction will allow the university to “think creatively and boldly about ways to expand international capacity” and will “make George Mason a rich and diverse tapestry that will ensure the university is competitive around the world while meeting the community’s needs.” 

Jennifer Anzaldi, Achim Loch, Ryley McGinnis, Colleen Kearney Rich, and Pam Shepherd contributed to this story.