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Sophia Ramirez participated in Mason’s Early Identification Program. Now she is a University Scholar in the Honors College, majoring in history.

Mason incoming freshmen Jacie Hernandez, Linh Vu, and Neyda Gonzalez spent six weeks on campus this summer as a part of the Student Transition Empowerment Program (STEP)

The First-Gen+ Center’s mission is to support students who are historically underrepresented in higher education and their allies, while specifically focusing on students who identify as first-generation, who identify as undocumented, have refugee status, or belong to families with limited income.

Mason's Early Identification Program provides access to educational resources, mentoring and programming for students from seven local public school systems. In May, 112 high school seniors graduate from the program. Ninety-five of them have been admitted to college, including 41 who will be attending Mason.

Mason will award more than 9,700 degrees at its Spring Commencement on Friday, May 20. Here are the stories of a few of the students in the Class of 2022.

Knowing the importance of first-generation students to Mason, Tharuna Kalaivanan, a doctoral student in sociology, created a section of HNRS 131 Contemporary Social Issues dedicated to learning about their experiences.

Tharuna Kalaivanan is a PhD student in the Public and Applied Sociology Program at ��������. She graduated from �������� with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology in 2020. She is also an Honors College Alum.

Isidore Nsengiyumva, only four years old at the time, was in the fields with his father and older brother in Burundi, when suddenly they heard the sound of motors and guns. Troops involved in the country’s civil war attacked their village, and rapidly, their lives were changed.

“We hid in a bush, and when the noise of the guns and fighting subsided, we went back and found our home burned,” Nsengiyumva said. “That’s when my dad decided it was no longer safe.”

In recognition of the National First-Generation College Celebration on Nov. 8, �������� celebrates the successes of its first-generation students and alumni.

Tharuna Kalaivanan carves out a vital space for first-generation college students in the world of academic research at Mason. After earning her B.A. in Psychology in the spring of 2020, Kalaivanan continues to make an impact on the Honors College.