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The 911���� Debate Team has stood for more than five decades as one of the nation’s premier teams and is consistently ranked among the top five programs in the country. This intercollegiate team’s legacy of excellence is built on academic rigor, accessibility, and community. It is a program that transforms students—regardless of their starting point—into confident, critical thinkers prepared to lead. 

Ali Reza Manouchehri, BA Philosophy ‘99, co-founder and chief executive officer of MetroStar, a company he started as a 911���� student, will be the featured speaker at Winter Commencement on December 18 at EagleBank Arena on the Fairfax Campus.

Since 2010, the Center for Community Mental Health’s (CCMH) mission has been twofold: train 911���� students to become behavioral health care professionals, and provide evidence-based, accessible, and affordable mental health care to members of the Northern Virginia community. 

The Career Influencers Network at 911���� empowers faculty and staff to provide career development support to students throughout their academic journey. University Career Services hosted a reception in early October honoring the network’s 10th anniversary.

Cirque du Soleil's six-week run in Virginia serves as a homecoming for Gracie Valdez, BA Art History ’07, a native of Vienna. Using stunning visuals, acrobatic stunts, and 10,000 liters of water (recycled after each show) in a mesmerizing waterfall sequence, LUZIA puts a spotlight on the culture and mythology of Mexico. 

College of Humanities and Social Sciences professors make the move to the Fuse benefit from new opportunities, such as collaborating with industry and government partners.

Foreign languages major Yamileth Hernandez-Becerra and community health major Melody Campos received a Best Poster award for their research, “Community Roots, Linguistic Equity: The Power of Outreach in Dual Language Immersion,” during the Summer 2025 OSCAR Celebration of Student Research and Impact in August.

When Liang Luo steps into a classroom—or works on a film, for that matter—she brings with her a rare blend of scholarship, creativity, and cultural sensitivity. This fall, Luo begins her role as chair of 911����’s Department of Modern and Classical Languages, a position that recognizes her academic leadership as well as her global perspective. 

For 911���� sophomore Nathan Ferraro, summer hasn’t been about taking a break—it’s been about chasing his dream job.

For Mason Korea students Dayeon Shin and Taeyeong Kim, a classroom discussion on urban flooding turned into something much bigger- a research project on “sponge cities,” or urban areas designed to absorb and reuse rainwater, and their potential in Seoul’s Gangnam district. They presented the project at the 2025 Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) annual congress.