Peter N. Stearns Global Citizenship Award Global Affairs

This award was established in honor of our former provost, Peter Stearns, who along with a core group of dedicated faculty members, had a clear and remarkable vision for promoting the scholarly pursuit of global studies here at Mason. This award was established as a legacy to Dr. Stearns and his commitment to Global Affairs and the success of our students.

2021 Awardees

Abigail Bilby

Abigail Bilby

Abigail Bilby is from Suffolk, Virginia. She came to Mason because it had so many opportunities for her to take advantage of being so close to DC and as such an internationally focused school. Before coming to college, she knew that she wanted to help people; she just had no idea what she meant by that, in what way, and where to start. However, once she saw the Global Affairs major, she knew it was what she wanted to do. 

Now She is graduating summa cum laude with her Global Affairs MA degree with a concentration in International Development. She also have minors in Immigration Studies and Conflict Analysis and Resolution. During her time at Mason, she have been an Assistant Lab Manager of the Peacebuilding Lab for the Center of Religion, Diplomacy, and Conflict resolution, and a Mason Ambassador. Abigail also spent a semester at Christ Church College at Oxford University as part of the Oxford Tutorial Semester Experience study abroad program.

One of her best experiences at Mason was being a part of the Honors in the Major for GLOA program. In this program, she designed and conducted research on local perceptions of NGO aid in Montrouis, Haiti. Although she has worked with a nonprofit organization in Montrouis since 2016, interviewing people face-to-face about how they think we the internationally community is aiding or failing them was truly an enlightening experience. With the help of her mentor Dr. Hultin, her work was even accepted in the National Conference for Undergraduate Research and published into the proceedings with glowing reviews. 

With these experiences, she plans to work for an international humanitarian aid and development organization. Although she plans to attend grad school in the future, there are crises and issues across the globe that she wants to be a part of solving. The global COVID-19 pandemic has helped her to realize that she wants to be a part of those efforts as soon as possible. 

As she approaches graduation, she is forever grateful to the people who helped her get to this point. Abigail’s family and friends have been a steadfast support system and her professors over her four years here have gone above and beyond to encourage her to succeed. The stellar professors that she has been fortunate enough to learn from at Mason have always encouraged her interests and challenged her to push herself to be the best academic and global citizen that she can be. Abigail would like to thank Dr. Hultin, Dr. Gopin, and Dr. Leeman as just a few of the phenomenal professors who took the time to make her time at Mason a truly fulfilling experience. 

Although because of the pandemic her undergraduate degree- the culmination of four years and countless hours of perseverance, challenges, and discovery- came to an end at 7:52 on an inconspicuous Wednesday zoom call, she would not trade her experience with Mason and with GLOA for the world. 

Jin Seong Choi

Jin Seong Choi

Jin Seong Choi is a Senior student majoring in Global Affairs with a concentration on Global Governance. His academic interest lies primarily in the area of political science, especially in certain themes under the political science such as international relations, security studies and diplomacy. To fulfill his academic curiosity, Jin Seong has been working as a Student Fellow and a Research Assistant at the Center for Security Policy Studies-Korea (CSPS-Korea), a satellite branch of CSPS situated at George Mason University’s Mason Square campus. Throughout his Fellowship, he assisted organizing two International Security Symposiums on: “Environmental Challenges and Solutions” and “Human Security in the Gray Zone: North Korean Defectors and Their Children,” and participated in a research project on sport diplomacy which was sponsored by the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After graduation, Jin Seong plans to earn a Master’s degree in the field of international politics and continue with developing his academic interests.

Taking this opportunity, he would like to convey his heartfelt gratitude toward Dr. Soyoung Kwon, Professor of Global Affairs at George Mason University Korea and the Director of Center for Security Policy Studies-Korea, who always has encouraged him to think outside the box and poured efforts to drag him out of his comfort zone. He was able to realize his academic interests after her intriguing and insightful Government classes. Thanks to her, he had the honor of taking part in a governmental project as well as organizing Symposiums on international security, which are a quite rare opportunity for an undergraduate student. The moment he met her was a turning point in my life.