Academic Achievement Global Affairs

John is completing a B.A. in Global Affairs with a concentration in Global Economy and Management. John has also finished a minor in Teaching English as a Second Language. He is grateful for the opportunity to have studied in the Global Affairs program at Mason. John has particularly enjoyed and been challenged by his classes in Global Conflict Management, Arabic, Economics and Marketing, and each Linguistics courses he has gotten to take. He is thankful for the ways that his time at Mason has further equipped him for living and thriving in an international context. John also thanks his family, particularly his wife and parents, for all of their endless support for him through prayers, finances, and unconditional love. Most of all, John thanks God and give Him all glory, honor, and praise for any good that is in his life. He gives salvation to all who call on His name through the Lord Jesus Christ, guaranteeing forgiveness of sin and resurrected life with Himself for eternity. He has given him confidence in all of his weaknesses through this hope, knowing that in Him John is made strong.

Batool Ibrahim is a global affairs and communication double major. In her first semester at Mason, she took gloa 101 to fulfill her mason core credits and she fell in love with the major. Her GLOA concentration is media, communication and culture and she has loved every class she has taken for her major especially environmental policy making in developing countries and media criticism! Batool will be attending George Washington University in the fall to pursue a master’s degree in public policy and hope to work with a nonprofit in the future on data privacy and artificial intelligence policy. 

Macy is graduating with a concentration in Global Inequalities and Responses and a minor in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. For her honors in the major project, she focused on political homophobia in Russia, published her paper in the NCUR Proceedings, and presented her project at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, the Global Conference on Women and Gender, and the National Undergraduate Humanities Research Symposium. She also participated in an undergraduate think tank for diversifying Russian area studies and presented at the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Annual Convention in 2020. Additionally, she’s worked at Fenwick Library since spring 2020. She hopes to continue with Russian and East European studies and to work in libraries in the future.

Yelim Ku is majoring in Global Affairs with a concentration in Global Economy and Management and minoring in Marketing. Since she is a Mason Korea student, she could take advantage of both campuses in Korea and Fairfax. One of the most remarkable things she made in Mason Korea is connections with Gbemi Disu, who is a former Chief Business Officer, and her life mentor.  She is the most inspiring woman Yelim has ever met! Thanks a lot for all her support and encouragement. In Fairfax campus, Yelim implemented several marketing projects with amazing team members, which she really enjoyed and has become one of the most valuable experiences she had.

Yelim would like to thank her parents and grandparents who have always given her unconditional love and fully supported her, my love, Gueyong, who has been always standing by her side throughout this long journey, and many other friends of hers!

Yelim got accepted to Thunderbird School of Global Management's specialized Master of Global Management degree in Fall 2021. It is the No. 1 master’s in management ranking in the Times Higher Education/Wall Street Journal 2019 Business Schools Report. She looks forward to continuing her journey in Arizona and many other countries with amazing people she will get to know.

During Danny Le’s time in the Global Affairs program, he chose to concentrate in Global Inequalities and Responses with his interests in learning more about nonprofit work and social movements. Much of his student involvement included working with Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, but also being involved with cultural and identity-based groups. He felt that during his time in the program, Danny was able to relate his interests and student involvement with his coursework in having the opportunities to learn about interesting topics from all over the world.  

This program helped Dylan to meet other students, faculty, and staff that helped him feel a lot more engaged in the learning process. His favorite courses had to be his language courses with Korean and Chinese, but also his capstone course with Professor Jonathon Repinecz. He was able to learn more about what he would like to pursue in his future career in working with AAPI communities in nonprofit work while exploring nonprofit opportunities abroad. He made the choice to change his major to Global Affairs during his sophomore year, and it was a decision that he is glad he made as it allowed him to explore his own interests while learning valuable information from his professors and other students in the program.

Kevin Omans is graduating with a Global Affairs concentration in Asia. In addition to Global Affairs, he majored in Foreign Languages (Korean and Spanish). He is especially interested in Asian Studies and Cultural Studies. Something super cool he got to do while at Mason was help give a tour to North Korean defector students who were visiting. He also enjoyed helping out with Mason's Central Asia & Caucasus Club. Academically, Kevin really enjoyed GLOA 101 with Professor Miles. That class really cleared up a lot of confusion of what Global Affairs was, and it was a great introduction to the field.

In the short term, Kevin will continue taking Korean classes. After this, he hopes to go to graduate school to study cultures and languages. In the long term, he wants to pursue a career in teaching or study abroad advising. Global Affairs definitely taught him to think outside of the box and search for the connections between fields, events, and more. Kevin is grateful for having had the opportunity to explore different disciplines this way. Thank you to all of his professors, advisors, and friends at Mason. It would not have been possible without you.