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The hidden cost of environmental policy uncertainty

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:30:50 +0000

The hidden cost of environmental policy uncertainty Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 10/21/2025 - 11:30

Air quality standards do more than reduce pollution for noncompliant counties; they increase the cost of funding public infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and roads.

Air pollution regulations are meant to protect public health, but new evidence shows they also carry an unexpected cost: higher interest rates on the bonds counties issue to fund schools, hospitals, and infrastructure. When a county falls out of compliance with federal ozone standards, borrowing becomes expensive. The result is that the municipality faces higher costs to fund public infrastructure like schools, hospitals, and roads.

Stephen A. Karolyi

That is the central finding of a study published in Management Science, authored by Stephen A. Karolyi, a finance professor at Costello College of Business at ��, and co-authors Akshaya Jha and Nicholas Z. Muller of Carnegie Mellon University.

The study focuses on how the municipal bond market responds to the Clean Air Act, which sets thresholds for pollutants like ozone. The official term for exceeding the threshold for ozone pollution is “nonattainment.”

“If your county is not compliant with this federal standard, then there are repercussions. You have to create a plan to get back in attainment,” explains Karolyi. Prior work has shown how these federal standards generate significant health benefits relative to these compliance costs.

But for investors in municipal bonds, this raises two concerns: higher default risk due to strained county finances, and uncertainty about how regulations will evolve.

The researchers focused on two critical types of announcements. First is when the EPA proposes and finalizes new ozone standards. Second is when the EPA releases its annual designations of which counties are in or out of attainment. Together, these announcements create information shocks that allow researchers to track how bond markets update their expectations. The team measured changes in municipal bond yields surrounding the two types of announcements, analyzing more than 140 million trades between 2005 and 2019.

“Because municipal bond investors dislike uncertainty, one implication would be that policymakers should be concerned not only with the level of air quality standards, but also uncertainty over changes in air quality standards.”

The results reveal a consistent pattern. When new standards were proposed, yields rose by one to four percent, reflecting an increase in uncertainty perceived by investors. Once the final standard was announced, the estimated yields fell by about 0.5 to 1.3 percent, due to a corresponding decrease in uncertainty. When analyzing the annual compliance announcements, the authors found that counties that slipped into nonattainment experienced an increase in yields of nearly one percent, compared to counties that maintained their status or newly achieved attainment.

“Being non-compliant means that you’ll have to create and execute abatement plans, which bondholders expect to be costly,” explains Karolyi. Those expectations push yields higher, which makes it more expensive for counties to fund public infrastructure projects and services, though the current study does not explore all possible channels that are impacted.

The research shows that these expectations are well-founded. Karolyi explains, “When the bond market reacts more negatively to annual compliance announcements, we see larger decreases in house prices over the subsequent years. That’s consistent with the perceived cost of getting back into attainment. As a county, in order to get into attainment, one approach may be to restrict output, which may mean less employment and consequently a decrease in house prices.”

The implications are wide-ranging. For policymakers and local leaders, the findings underscore that environmental regulations also have repercussions for public finance. For investors, the findings highlight how traditionally safe assets like municipal bonds are sensitive to environmental policy risk.

Looking ahead, the researchers plan to extend their work to other areas where environmental rules intersect with local finance. Commercial real estate, for example, is an emerging area of interest as cities experiment with new sustainability requirements.

By examining how financial markets respond to environmental regulation, the team hopes to shed light on the hidden economic tradeoffs and potential unintended consequences of well-intentioned policies. To be sure, prior work has documented that more stringent air quality standards have generated billions of dollars in public health improvements. According to Karolyi, a key contribution of this paper is to show that these benefits come about in part due to investors anticipating the effects of standards and the costs of noncompliance.

“Because municipal bond investors dislike uncertainty, one implication would be that policymakers should be concerned not only with the level of air quality standards, but also uncertainty over changes in air quality standards,” Karolyi says.

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Stephen A. Karolyi

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George Mason marketing professor receives prestigious research funding

Katelynn C Hipolito — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:56:59 +0000

George Mason marketing professor receives prestigious research funding Katelynn C Hipolito Wed, 10/08/2025 - 10:56

Jessica Hoppner

Jessica Hoppner, associate professor of marketing at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at ��, has been named a recipient of Academy of Marketing Research Funding for 2025.

According to the submitted proposal, the awarded project—entitled “Bridging the Digital Divide: The Paradox of Sales and Marketing Collaboration on Social Media”—“will contribute to both academic research and industry best practices, guiding B2B firms toward more effective digital engagement strategies.”

The Academy of Marketing’s research sub-committee chooses a mere handful of recipients each year for grants of up to £5,000. Funding is offered in collaboration with Marketing Trust, an independent charity dedicated to supporting marketing projects serving the public good.

Hoppner’s co-PI on this project is Severina Cartwright, senior lecturer (associate professor) in marketing at University of Liverpool.

Hoppner and Cartwright plan to use the grant money to carry out an in-depth practitioner survey leading to the creation of a unique and granular data-set. Anticipated final output will include an academic article submitted to a top marketing journal, as well as a whitepaper and other translational content for a practitioner audience.

As per the proposal, the project will unfold in three phases: survey development and pre-testing, data collection and analysis, and dissemination and knowledge transfer. Hoppner and Cartwright aim to complete their project within a twelve-month timeframe.

Saurabh Mishra

“Congratulations to Prof. Hoppner on this well-deserved funding award—an achievement that underscores the excellence of her work and exemplifies the innovative and managerially meaningful research being conducted within the marketing area in Costello.”

— Saurabh Mishra, marketing area chair

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‘Nothing to see here’: How corporate spin confuses Wall Street

Katelynn C Hipolito — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:38:35 +0000

‘Nothing to see here’: How corporate spin confuses Wall Street Katelynn C Hipolito Wed, 10/08/2025 - 10:38

Managers’ attempts to distract investors from bad news have serious implications for market efficiency.

Public-relations professionals call it “getting ahead of the story”—feeding positive spin to the media to blunt the impact of unflattering news to come. Celebrities engage in it; so do companies when, for example, their forthcoming earnings report is destined to disappoint. But do these face-saving distraction tactics affect the long-term movement of share prices?

Min Shen, associate professor of accounting at Costello College of Business at ��, recently published a paper in The Accounting Review suggesting that traders see through these pre-emptive disclosures of positive news, and change their info-seeking behavior accordingly.

Shen’s co-authors were Edward Xuejun Li of Baruch College, K. Ramesh of Rice University, and Joanna Shuang Wu of University of Rochester.

The researchers analyzed share price movements surrounding corporate and non-corporate disclosures between January 2003 and March 2016 (35,330 firm-year observations in their sample). Corporate disclosures included earnings announcements, management guidance, press releases, SEC filings, etc. Non-corporate disclosures come from intermediaries such as analysts, credit rating agencies and journalistic outlets.

Splitting the firm-years into “good” and “bad” years based on stock performance, the researchers uncovered a striking discrepancy. During a bad year (i.e. when a company was underperforming relative to peers), the market’s immediate response to corporate disclosures had much less of a lingering effect, accounting for a mere 40 percent of price discovery over the course of the year. The equivalent figure for good years was around 60 percent.

Shen stresses that corporate disclosures were no less frequent during bad years, but they were seen as less informative. Press releases were one of the main drivers of the disparity: Their contribution to price discovery fell from an average of 27 percent during good years, to three percent in bad times.

Min Shen. Photo by Costello Marketing and Communications.

“A company might rush a press release announcing a new AI model, or a new five-year contract with the government, in anticipation of an upcoming adverse disclosure,” Shen says. “And for bad news, they try to delay it as much as possible, until they are forced to disclose in mandatory SEC filings.”

This gap was basically unaffected by the 2008 global financial crisis. “We picked 2009 as the cut-off year, and compared pre-crisis to post-crisis,” Shen says. “In the post-crisis period, we find management teams became somewhat more cautious and less inclined to withhold bad news. So the gap between good-news and bad-news years narrowed a bit, but the main findings still hold.”

So if official disclosures from underperforming companies became less influential, where was the market getting its information during bad years? In the absence of reliable public disclosures, investors intensified their search for private information. The price-setting power of so-called “extreme order imbalances”—incidents of severely lopsided supply and demand that are often triggered by private information-sharing—was greater during bad years.

Moreover, by sharing what they know, outside monitors such as short sellers, equity analysts, and dedicated long-term institutional investors can put pressure on managers to be more transparent about bad news. Shen and her co-authors found that more stringent external monitoring by these market participants was associated with faster disclosure of bad news. When managers see that the news they are trying to bury is leaking out anyway through other channels, they may conclude that there’s nothing to be gained by continuing the cover-up.

Shen says her paper calls attention to how conflicting managerial incentives shape disclosure. “Managers are driven by compensation and job security incentives, which are pegged to benchmarks such as target share price or debt-to-equity ratio. That’s why they disclose good news as fast as possible, and try to hide bad news.”

But managers’ attempts to control the narrative are bounded by government regulations (e.g. SEC reporting requirements) and the company’s risk of a shareholder lawsuit that may follow a sudden decline in share price. Therefore, Shen suggests that policymakers could consider playing a more active role.

“SEC filings are quite significant for price discovery during bad years and insignificant during good years,” Shen says. “Mandatory disclosure brings bad news to light faster, because management faces more severe penalties and heightened litigation risk if they insist on burying it.”

In This Story

Min Shen

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Accounting - Costello

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Camp Costello gives first-year students a head start in their college careers

Sarah Holland — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 14:13:54 +0000

Camp Costello gives first-year students a head start in their college careers Sarah Holland Wed, 10/01/2025 - 10:13

No matter how big or small your university, the first semester of college can feel overwhelming. But a new initiative in the Costello College of Business at �� is hoping to make that transition a little smoother.

Camp Costello participants and student mentors. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business

This year, Costello hosted its inaugural Camp Costello: a three-day program for incoming first-year students starting on move-in day and ending with New Student Convocation.

“Many students attend Orientation early in the summer, so this was designed to bridge the gap,” said Maxwell Gocala-Nguyen, director of undergraduate recruitment and engagement in Costello. “It was a way for us to build community for students in an intentional way.”

Amanda Ngour, a business management major, came to Camp Costello, “because I wanted to have a head start for this semester and to be in a fun and creative community.”

In between community building exercises like challenge courses at The Edge on the Science and Technology �� and icebreakers led by student mentors, the 50 participating students met with staff and faculty from various campus offices, such as Housing and Residence Life, Career Services, University Life, and the Alumni Association.

“We want to remove the barriers,” said Gocala-Nguyen. “We want them to see faculty, staff, and administrators as accessible, approachable, and committed to their success.”

Dean Ajay Vinzé poses with student mentors. Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business

That includes barriers between first-year students and upperclassmen. “As student mentors, we’re there to help, to say, ‘hey, we knew exactly what you’re going through,’” said one of the eight Camp Costello student mentors Abhinav Dinesh, a senior business major and Honors College student. “And that student-to-student interaction can give them the confidence to, for example, reach out to faculty or offices that will help them. “I wish I had an opportunity like this when I was an incoming student,” Dinesh added. “It can be overwhelming in your first year, but our job is to show them that these offices and people are here for them, and to send them into their first semester feeling confident and prepared.”

Based on the support from the community, external as well as internal partners see Camp Costello’s mission as an important step on a new student’s path. “Our corporate partners, benefactors, and the Costello team really made this inaugural program come together,” said Gocala-Nguyen. “They offered their time and energy to give back to the university to help the next generation be successful.”

Even Dean Ajay Vinzé joined the students for some of the panels. Being able to speak directly with the dean is not an opportunity often afforded to college students. But that’s what makes George Mason and Costello special. “Our leadership wants students to knock on their door and tell them their stories,” Gocala-Nguyen said. “We want to bring students into the conversation.”

“[The dean] is a student-first person and his involvement in Camp Costello really showed incoming students that he wants them to talk to him,” said Dinesh.

Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business

For marketing major Geoffrey Yuan, a quote from Dean Vinzé is something he thinks he’ll carry with him throughout the coming school year. “He told me, ‘never say no to opportunities and work hard wherever you are. In this way more doors will open for you, but even if a door doesn't open, you're still on the right path to get to wherever you're trying to go,’” Yuan reported.

Camp Costello is a one-of-a-kind experience for first-year students that Gocala-Nguyen hopes will continue to grow year after year.

“By breaking down barriers, we’re showing how people at all levels of the university are deeply invested in student success and dedicated to building community that sticks with you long after graduation,” he said.

Dinesh said the bonds made during Camp Costello are persisting.

“These are the types of friendships that can last your entire time in college,” he said. “And having friends like that is one of the best ways to succeed.”

Photo by Hannah Patterson/Costello College of Business

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Costello College of Business welcomes eight new research-focused faculty

Katelynn C Hipolito — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 19:31:43 +0000

Costello College of Business welcomes eight new research-focused faculty Katelynn C Hipolito Mon, 09/29/2025 - 15:31

Meet the newest Costello researchers, and become acquainted with their scholarly profiles.

For the 2025-26 academic year, Costello College of Business at �� welcomes an illustrious cohort of eight new research-focused faculty members. Their research profiles below typify the seamless integration of scholarly rigor and impactful relevance for which the Costello faculty is already well-known.

Associate Professors

Stephen A. Karolyi

Stephen A. Karolyi

Associate Professor, Finance

Stephen comes to Costello from a stint as senior economic advisor of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, U.S. Department of the Treasury. Prior to that, he served as assistant professor of finance and accounting at Carnegie Mellon and received his PhD from Yale University.

He has published widely in top-tier academic journals on topics including banking, financial intermediation and corporate finance. His recent work draws upon his regulatory experience to explore questions of direct policymaking relevance. For example, his co-authored paper in Journal of Finance uses the banking industry as a test case to show how competition may affect short-termism among publicly listed firms.

Min Shen

Min Shen

Associate Professor, Accounting

Min returns to ��’s accounting faculty as the Phillip G. Buchanan Endowed Fellow after holding an associate professorship of accounting at Baruch College.

Min’s research on corporate disclosures, capital markets and information dissemination has been published in top-tier journals. Her recently published co-authored paper in The Accounting Review finds that the impact of corporate disclosures upon price discovery varies greatly with the financial performance of the company concerned in a given year. Min received her PhD from Michigan State University.

Mengxin Zhao

Mengxin Zhao

Associate Professor, Finance

Prior to joining Costello, Mengxin served as a senior financial economist at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and was an associate professor of finance at the University of Alberta. Her research has three overlapping themes: corporate governance, international finance and capital market frictions. Mengxin’s 2022 co-authored paper in The Review of Corporate Finance Studies challenges standard explanations of how equity market liberalization leads to growth in emerging economies.

Her scholarship has been recognized by the Pearson/Prentice Hall best paper competition and the European Corporate Governance Institute’s Standard Life Investment Best Paper Award, among others. She received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.

Assistant Professors

Qiaodan (Jordan) He

Qiaodan (Jordan) He

Assistant Professor, Information Systems and Operations Management

Qiaodan’s research focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI), user behavior, and online platform strategies in mobile commerce and social media contexts. In a recent co-authored working paper, she analyses how aspects such as facial expressions and beauty filters affect engagement (“likes”) for online user-generated videos. She received her PhD from Lehigh University, where she also was awarded the Warren York Fellowship.

Chen Jing

Chen Jing

Assistant Professor, Marketing

Chen’s research examines the social impact of firms, as well as how innovative technologies like generative AI are reshaping business and society. For example, one of his co-authored working papers uses machine learning to assess firms’ attempts to mitigate negative sentiment on social media following sociopolitical crises. His PhD is from Boston University.

David S. Lucas

David S. Lucas

Assistant Professor, Management

David is a three-time �� alum, having received his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD from George Mason. He comes to Costello from Syracuse University, where he was the Edward Pettinella assistant professor of entrepreneurship.

He has published widely in top journals on topics ranging from entrepreneurship to public policy and grand societal challenges. His 2022 article in Academy of Management Journal was a finalist for the Responsible Research in Management Award.

Barbara Su

Barbara Su

Assistant Professor, Accounting

Barbara comes to Costello from Temple University, where she was assistant professor of accounting. Her research specialty areas include financial institutions and debt markets. For example, Barbara’s co-authored 2022 paper in Contemporary Accounting Research uncovered how bank deregulation fueled changes in borrowing firms’ compensation structures for top managers.

Prior to entering academia, she acquired professional experience as an analyst and financial auditor for Diageo, Bain & Company and General Electric in Beijing and London. She completed her PhD at University of Toronto.

Zhechao Yang

Zhechao Yang

Assistant Professor, Information Systems and Operations Management

Zhechao’s research interests include the economics of AI, social media, e-commerce retailing and design science. For example, her co-authored working paper finds that adding AI players to online video games boosts engagement and teamwork among human gamers. She has also published in Production and Operations Management. She received her PhD from University of Florida.

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George Mason researcher is using AI to identify human trafficking hot spots

Katelynn C Hipolito — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 18:20:46 +0000

George Mason researcher is using AI to identify human trafficking hot spots Katelynn C Hipolito Mon, 09/29/2025 - 14:20

Illicit massage businesses (IMBs) run by human trafficking rings are rampant in the United States. A �� professor has helped build what may be the best artificial intelligence (AI)-driven tool to root them out.

Human trafficking rings are at their most dangerous when they masquerade as legitimate commercial activity. IMBs are one of the most common ways in which exploitive networks operate in plain sight.

The Network, an anti-trafficking nonprofit, estimates that there are more than 13,000 IMBs active in the United States, raking in annual total revenue of more than $5 billion.

Abhishek Ray

“You are stuck in a massage business. You’re not allowed to go out,” says Abhishek Ray, assistant professor of information systems and operations management at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason, describing the plight of IMB workers. “Your passports are taken away, and you’re supposed to do a certain amount of business every day and give the money to the trafficker. It’s a really abhorrent form of abuse.”

Ray is one of a growing group of researchers exploring how various forms of AI could help resource-constrained law enforcement agencies differentiate between IMBs and the legitimate enterprises they try to mimic. His ongoing research using graph neural networks has yielded more promising results than rival approaches, when put to the test in a recent experiment.

His co-researchers on the IMB project are Lumina Albert and Swetha Varadarajan of Colorado State University.

According to Ray, “Graph neural networks are just a fancy way of saying that if I get a graph of a city or locality at one point in time, and I add data to it, can I predict future patterns on this graph if I know the past?”

This approach made sense for detecting IMBs, because try as they might to appear above board, they have geographical needs that conventional businesses don’t. “IMBs don’t allow their trafficked employees to go out of the parlor,” Ray says. “But since they’re humans, they need sustenance. They have to be near groceries, gas stations, where they can get stuff and come back.”

The researchers combined several graph neural networks into a framework called IMBWatch. The training data-set for IMBWatch comprised publicly available information such as online customer reviews, arrest and raid data for known IMBs, and advertisements from websites promoting illicit activities (e.g., the infamous Backpage). The result, in essence, was a series of snapshots mapping the evolution of the IMB network in a given city or county over a period of time. This could then be overlaid on geographical maps to tease out hidden patterns.

To gauge IMBWatch’s relative performance, the researchers let it loose on a testing data-set alongside four other AI models, which were not as sensitive to the nuanced interplay of spatial and temporal factors. Of the five models, IMBWatch provided the most accurate, precise and informative predictions. In other words, it outperformed the others at spotting IMBs among a larger mass of local businesses.

While encouraging, these outcomes require further confirmation with a larger data-set. “IMBWatch was trained on data from Georgia and Louisiana, not the entire United States,” Ray says. “These were small, manageable data-sets, but we will now scale up to major states such as New York and California.”

The researchers are also looking at enhancing IMBWatch with data related to how workers end up wandering into trafficking webs. These might include “proximity to hospitals, religious places, etc. because a lot of times people are coerced by religious compulsions, or because they’re pregnant and need some care,” Ray says.

This is not Ray’s first foray into the field of AI-fueled anti-trafficking. Previously, Ray co-developed a model for improving machine learning-based detection of human trafficking activity at transit stations and on fishing vessels.

However, law enforcement agencies and other pertinent stakeholders (e.g., business owners) are often wary of adopting AI-based solutions, due to a lack of trust in the technology. Ray and his co-researchers are currently devising a framework that will clarify how these stakeholders can work together with tech experts and, perhaps most importantly, human trafficking survivors to make the best possible use of AI.

“This qualitative piece is required to make sure that people who are on the sidelines, on the fences about using this actually start using it, because that’s the need right now,” Ray says.

Learn more about Artificial Intelligence at George Mason

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WISE program launches to empower entrepreneurs in Fairfax County

Katelynn C Hipolito — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 14:13:11 +0000

WISE program launches to empower entrepreneurs in Fairfax County Katelynn C Hipolito Wed, 08/27/2025 - 10:13

On Saturday, August 9, the WISE program officially launched at the Hybla Valley Community Center in Alexandria, Virginia—marking a significant milestone in advancing entrepreneurship and workforce development for aspiring entrepreneurs in Fairfax County.

A key component of the SOAR Initiative, the Workforce Innovation Success through Entrepreneurship (WISE) program is spearheaded by the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) within the Costello College of Business at ��. This initiative is made possible through a strategic partnership with Melwood, the W.I.S.H. Center, and the Fairfax County government. Thanks to this powerful collaboration, the WISE program is offered to participants completely free of charge.

Costello College of Business Dean Ajay Vinzé (left) chats with current RISE participants Fershta-Barakzai (middle) and Madina Barakzai (right). Photo by John Boal Photography.

Ajay Vinzé, dean of the Costello College of Business, opened the event by emphasizing the power of entrepreneurship to solve problems, build communities, and drive economic growth. “A successful entrepreneur takes an idea, builds a company around it, and makes it profitable,” he said.

The college, named after local entrepreneur Donald G. Costello, is deeply rooted in the belief that entrepreneurship is a vehicle for social impact and upward mobility.

With initiatives like the Patriot Ventures Program, the Honey Bee Initiative, and the Patriot Pitch Competition, CIE equips aspiring entrepreneurs with essential training, mentorship, and resources. The center is distinguished for its commitment to opening doors for those traditionally excluded from the entrepreneurship ecosystem through these core programs and the SOAR Initiative.

In addition to WISE, which supports Fairfax County residents, SOAR includes two other targeted efforts: one focused on building entrepreneurial ecosystems in rural and emerging communities, and the other supporting refugees and immigrants through strategic partnerships. The latter, known as the Shrivastava Family Refugee and Immigrant Success through Entrepreneurship (RISE) program, has already had 79 participants complete the entrepreneurship bootcamp training, with approximately 42 new jobs and 17 new businesses created so far.

WISE program leadership and implementation team celebrates ribbon cutting with RISE and WISE program participants. Photo by John Boal Photography.

Rodney Lusk, supervisor of the Franconia District within Fairfax County, was instrumental in envisioning the possibilities for the WISE program. His commitment to make Fairfax County a place where community members can truly thrive is deeply appreciated by the Costello College of Business and all the program stakeholders. On hand to give remarks, along with Dean Vinzé, were Larysa Kautz, CEO and president of Melwood; Yolonda Earl-Thompson, community expert and lived experience consultant; Eboni Borden, W.I.S.H. program director; Andres Jordan, WISE program entrepreneurship training instructor; and Rebecca Howick, director of operations and engagement at CIE.

“Our partnership with Melwood, the W.I.S.H Center, and Fairfax County is an incredible opportunity to expand our social impact within the region,” says Howick.

“The SOAR Initiative’s holistic approach to small business development creates new pipelines for community members that aren’t already part of the ecosystem. We are revitalizing hope, transforming lives, and boosting our economy."

— Rebecca Howick, director of operations and engagement at the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The launch of the WISE program marks a powerful step forward in harnessing the transformative potential of entrepreneurship rooted in community. By uniting visionary leaders, strategic partners, and leveraging internal and external entrepreneurial resources, this initiative empowers individuals to shape their own futures while strengthening the fabric of the region. As the SOAR Initiative continues to expand its reach, it reaffirms a vital truth: when entrepreneurship is made accessible, it becomes a force for resilience and shared prosperity.

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Rebecca Howick

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This intern is learning the ways of the workplace at Warner Bros.

Sarah Holland — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 18:19:40 +0000

This intern is learning the ways of the workplace at Warner Bros. Sarah Holland Mon, 08/11/2025 - 14:19

�� is ranked #1 in Virginia for internships, that also contributes to career success post-graduation. For 2023 graduates, 88% reported job success relating to their career goals. Throughout the year, our students travel near and far to gain valuable experience at some of the world’s top companies.

Nimisha Kumar, a rising senior, is studying management information systems in the Costello College of Business. Over the summer, she moved to New York City to complete a summer internship with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Why did you choose George Mason and how did you decide your major?

I knew a lot of alumni that went to school at George Mason, and they thought they got a lot of resources that helped them in their careers, as well as lots of opportunities for extracurricular activities. And I think there’s a lot of opportunities when it comes to being so close to Washington, D.C.

I picked management information systems as my major because there are so many things you can do with the skills you learn in the program. What you learn can apply to health care, media companies, law, or engineering. It’s a flexible degree where, if you do change your mind about something, you can still use that experience to adapt to other roles and responsibilities.

What projects have you been assigned during your internship?

Photo provided

As an internal audit intern, I’ve been working on three projects. The first is a cybersecurity initiative project where we’re working to protect and ensure the integrity of global financial networks. Warner Bros. contains a bunch of global networks: CNN, TNT, Food Network, etc. And we basically try to detect early risk that could happen in the backend of these systems.

The second project is my end-of-internship project. Warner Bros. is splitting into two major sides: the global networks side and the streaming and studios side. So each intern has been assigned a side, and we’re creating pitches to deliver to current employees to persuade them to work for one side or the other.

My third project is a test script analysis for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region during the SAP Compass Release cycle. Using Microfocus Quality Center, I reviewed failed test cases from the APAC SIT1 cycle, checked for linked defects, and documented defect IDs and failure reasons to support QA reporting and defect tracking.

What’s one of the most valuable things you’ve learned?

That it’s OK to be curious and ask questions. I think that’s really important, because it shows initiative and that you’re invested. Even just walking around and asking people what they’re up to in their work can show that you’re interested in the work and want to learn more.

How have your courses at George Mason helped prepare you for the internship?

Doing a mix of a lot of things outside of my major has been really beneficial. In all my Mason Core classes, I knew there was at least one thing that I could take from the course and expand it to apply to my career goals. I took FAVS 300 Global Horror Film [in Film and Video Studies] for example, and I learned how to analyze a piece of media and more clearly communicate my feelings and reactions to it.

How have your internships prepared you for the workforce?

I think diving into that 9-to-5 work schedule where I’m working alongside people with years of experience in internal audit has taught me how to carry myself in a professional environment. And you can’t really get that experience without being in the workplace.

What advice would you give to students starting an internship?

You really only have those two to three months, and they go by really quickly. You've got to take every opportunity offered to you and make the most of that short time you have. And I think it’s important to remember that you’re not supposed to know everything; that’s why you’re here. You're here to learn and to grow.

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Gift from Charles Schwab Foundation Will Help Develop Next Generation in Certified Financial Planning

Katelynn C Hipolito — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 13:34:26 +0000

Gift from Charles Schwab Foundation Will Help Develop Next Generation in Certified Financial Planning Katelynn C Hipolito Mon, 08/04/2025 - 09:34

�� has announced a generous multi-year commitment from Schwab Advisor Services in partnership with the Charles Schwab Foundation to grow and strengthen George Mason’s Financial Planning and Wealth Management Program (FPWM) and to position it to meet the region’s strong demand for certified financial planners.

“Our partnership with Schwab Advisory Services is an extraordinary benefit for our students,” said Ajay Vinzé, dean of the Costello College of Business. “Charles Schwab’s engagement with the college has given our students valuable insights into the personal finance industry, and this grant will help to attract and retain world class talent to lead the program and bring it to the next level.”

Costello’s FPWM program was launched in 2019 in response to a growing need for financial planners and wealth managers, particularly in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region. The Charles Schwab grant will allow the college to strengthen its ability to meet this demand by establishing a dedicated faculty member with certified financial planning (CFP) experience to lead operations within FPWM, teach key courses, and to deepen relationships within the CFP industry.

“Charles Schwab is an enthusiastic partner to business education institutions, including the Costello College of Business,” said Jon Beatty, head of Schwab Advisor Services. “Costello students include those with backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in the financial planning and wealth management profession, and we share the college’s vision of developing these students into qualified professionals who will be able to serve the diverse clients in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.”

The Costello FPWM program benefits from its association with the college’s Financial Planning and Wealth Management Advisory Board, comprising George Mason and Costello alumni, business professionals, individual supporters, faculty, and NextGen Board members who link students with industry veterans. The board has developed the program in consultation with more than a dozen registered investment advisor (RIA) and financial planning firms in the Northern Virginia region. FPWM students graduate from George Mason with a bachelor of science degree in business, with a concentration in financial planning and wealth management.

“Our objective is to create the next generation of financial planning professionals,” said David Johnson, chair of the Financial Planning and Wealth Management Advisory Board.

“With cross-pollination from Costello’s finance and accounting academic disciplines, our graduates will possess the technical skills, soft skills, and ethical grounding that will launch them into successful careers.”

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