Ryan Thornton, a senior government and international politics major, is in on the ground floor of the start-up Quorum, a Washington, D.C.-based company that conducts statistical analyses of federal legislators. Thornton handles the company's client relations and media outreach.

Janice Rojas was awarded a master’s degree in forensic science at the 2015 Winter Graduation. She plans to pursue a career as a medicolegal death investigator or a homicide detective.

For her capstone project at Mason, winter 2015 grad Samantha “Sami” Engle studied the topic of compassion fatigue in veterinary and human health care.

Mason biology major Mai Abdel-Ghani, left, with MD student Kirsten Norrell, provides an example of the type of student benefiting from the university's undergraduate research program, which won national recognition as a model for other universities to follow.

Mason sophomore Amrit Tamang, a native of Nepal, helped build temporary shelters for his relatives, headed efforts to bring water to villages, and helped restore electricity with solar panels following a pair of devastating earthquakes.

Xiaoxia Zhang, who is a member of the Sustainability Living Learning Community, wants to set up an organic garden for her parents in China.