When I arrived at Mason three years ago, College of Education and Human Development Dean Mark Ginsberg shared one statistic I still find quite remarkable: about one-half of the administrators and one-third of teachers in Northern Virginia schools are Mason alums.
Since then, I’ve become accustomed to hearing similarly impressive statistics from Mason colleagues and CEOs of the largest organizations in our community.
A few days ago, I was invited by MITRE President Al Grasso to give a presentation about Mason to his colleagues. MITRE is a non-profit research corporation that works on cutting-edge, high-impact projects sponsored by the federal government, from aviation safety to cyber security to healthcare.
In preparing for the presentation, I was reminded that more than 500 of MITRE’s professionals are Mason alumni. And I was delighted to be welcomed in a standing-room only auditorium, which indicated to me just how much this organization cares about what happens at our university.
A simple LinkedIn search helps highlight where Mason talent lands. LinkedIn numbers underestimate actual values because not all graduates have LinkedIn profiles, but they nevertheless help illustrate the close relationship between George Mason alumni and the economy of Northern Virginia, where the majority of our graduates settle.
On the public side, our alumni work in all branches of government, the military, and education. In the private sector, Mason graduates work for the largest federal contractors, healthcare organizations, professional service firms, defense companies, as well as information technology firms such as IBM, Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, and Oracle. And, of course, in addition to landing coveted positions, our graduates also are creating jobs for others by forming their own companies and firms.
When we claim that Mason fuels the economic engine of our region, we mean it!