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Second Quarter Edition - June 2025
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Congratulations on another successful recruitment cycle! Summer has officially arrived, and we are well on our way to enrolling another historic class at George Mason University this fall. Our undergraduate applications, admits, and intent to enroll deposits have all reached all-time highs for fall 2025, so we are in great shape as long as we can minimize our melt this summer. Yielding this class is a collective effort, and we will need everyone to do their part to push us across the finish line.
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As the 2024-2025 recruitment season comes to an end, I encourage all of you to reflect on what you have learned this year, cherish the relationships you have built, and celebrate all of your personal and professional accomplishments. Your contributions to this team are extremely valuable, and you continue to make a positive impact on countless lives. I am grateful for the hard work and resilience of our staff that allows us to continue to thrive, and it is an honor to serve as the Dean of this amazing team.
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This year has presented higher education with several new challenges, and things will not get any easier for us as we head into the next recruitment cycle. We are facing a demographic enrollment cliff, declining college matriculation rates among high school graduates, the elimination of DEI recruitment programs and scholarships, proposed cuts to the Department of Education and financial aid, international travel bans, and changes to immigration policies that will all have a direct impact on our work in Admissions. Therefore, we will need to adjust our recruitment and financial aid strategies accordingly to position ourselves for success. We will also be implementing new technologies to enhance our operations and communication with prospective students. These are necessary adjustments that need to be made to keep us on track to reach our strategic goals, and I look forward to working with all of you to make it happen.
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Thank you for your dedication and commitment to our mission, and I hope that everyone gets to enjoy some well-deserved time off soon. It is such a pleasure to be on this journey with you, and I look forward to celebrating after we re-write the enrollment record books in August.
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WELCOME TO OUR TEAM!
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Carla Barefoot
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Team: Outreach & Partnerships
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Lexie Lucero-Carter
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Transfer Credit Coordinator
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Christal Watson
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Senior Regional Admissions Counselor (Texas)
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Team: Relationship Management
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Special Features in this Edition
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Congratulations to the beautiful brides on their May weddings!
Tammy Lu, Roser Boltes Beard and Jenny Chis
Melissa Mandac is on puppy watch!
OneTeam SPOTLIGHT on Claire Edwards and Laura Super
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UNIT UPDATES
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HR & Finance
It’s a bustling season for the HR and Finance Team!
We’ve been hard at work alongside the WSP team to onboard summer hires while wrapping up fiscal year purchases and conducting numerous searches for full-time positions. There’s never a dull moment!
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🗓️ Mark your calendars!
Don’t miss the university’s Faculty-Staff Enrichment Day on
October 16—a great opportunity to connect, learn, and grow together.
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Operations
We're pleased to share that Operations is currently tracking ahead of schedule. Key areas—including transfer processing, transfer recruitment and ADVANCE, credit evaluation, graduate processing, INTO Mason, domicile, and the Document Center—are all performing well.
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Here are a few important updates from our team:
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OCR Project: The Optical Character Recognition (OCR) project, which will enhance PDF reading capabilities, is now in the configuration stage with our EMT partners. We will provide further updates as the project progresses.
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Transfer Course Appeal Form: This new form is in the final testing phase and is on track for an official launch on August 1.
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R2 Patriot Connect: The project has successfully completed its discovery phase and is now moving into the design phase.
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Stellic Collaboration: Our credit evaluation, transfer recruitment, and processing teams are actively collaborating with the Stellic development team. The goal is to identify new opportunities for engagement and optimize workflows through enhanced technology support.
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Transfer Credit Expansion: The credit evaluation team continues to work closely with the Associate Provost’s Office and other campus partners to expand the types and volume of transfer credit being awarded.
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Common Application Testing: Updates are currently underway and are expected to be ready for review by June 30.
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We appreciate everyone's continued support and collaboration as we move through a productive summer.
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Transfer Recruitment
Summer is a busy time for the transfer recruitment team! Following a hectic spring travel season, we just held one of the largest transfer events ever with over 300 students in attendance at our virtual event for admitted students! Hats off to our amazing Events Team for organizing such an incredible event. With this event and everything we have done this far, we are on track to enroll a very large transfer class this fall. Our Office of Transfer Services has been busy, as have our virtual and embedded representative appointments. We are seeing hundreds of interested transfers. We will enroll another very large class of ADVANCE students, too!
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We are gearing up for recruitment that will happen this fall. College fair invitations and save the dates are rolling in. ADVANCE and MVP recruitment visits are being booked. Brochures and marketing pieces are being updated. The only thing we are not doing is packing our bags just yet. Goodness knows, I hate to pack!!
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We are excited to welcome the former Office of Community College Partnerships under our division, and we are looking forward to the synergy this will create in the transfer recruitment space. At the divisional level, many exciting things are happening. I am helping co-lead a working group responsible for refreshing our division mission and values statement. You likely will hear from some of the working group members as we solicit your ideas and feedback about what our divisional mission and values statement should encompass. The goal is to have a final product presented to the divisional leads and approved by Vice President Burge in late summer.
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Enjoy the summer! Find some time to take in the sunshine, when it is not raining, which it seems to do a lot of! Try to rest and recharge because the fall semester will be here before we know it!
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Graduate Admissions
Happy (almost) Summer! For some it is their busy season, for others it is their quiet season. For grad admissions we are focused on summer projects and enjoying the lull before the rush of August. Over the summer we are updating processing manuals, doing internal trainings, starting summer and fall audit, and preparing to move into a new system (Patriot Connect) during our busiest time of year!
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Our Risepoint contract has expanded to include all of the College of Public Health graduate programs (on ground or online) which means some changing processes for our team. We are currently training our team for that change to ensure applicants are not negatively impacted.
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Our one remaining graduate student worker at the JC, Somaja Ravi, will be leaving before the end of the month. Therefore, there will be some new graduate students out front in the fall. We are always sad when they graduate but excited to welcome some new students to GMU and to our team!
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Enjoy this hot weather and I hope you have a great summer!
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Freshman Recruitment
Summer months are here, new student orientations are right around the corner, and before we know it the fun of a new cycle will start all over again. While we assist with the final pushes to help get this freshman class in the door, these next few months provide a great opportunity for reflection and setting the table for the 2025-2026 efforts. As the RM team heads into summer mode, we'll see staff assisting with Washington Scholars Program, serving on search committees for our four open positions, researching territories for new/improved territory management plans for next cycle, as well as countless summer projects to set up for future success. Summer months will be gone before we know it, but I'm excited for where we are headed with such a great team.
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All that said, I do want to say a thank you to Nour, Ashleigh, Amanda, Morgan, and Martha. These folks are all taking their talents to new and exciting places this summer, but their impact on the RM team will not soon be forgotten. It is always exciting to see colleagues that become friends get new opportunities, but they will all leave big shoes for us to fill this summer. In that same line, it is very exciting that we already have two positions filled with Christal Watson as our new TX Regional, and Olga Diupina as our new Assistant Director for the visit experience.
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Outreach & Partnerships
WSP - Programs start this week! WYSE begins on Sunday, June 22. We are expecting 320 students and 55 staff. Highlights include a visit to the National Zoo, a keynote speech from a Nat Geo Explorer, and countless alumni returning to share their stories with new Delegates. WJMC is the weeks of July 7 and July 14. We are welcoming 620 students across both sessions. Highlights include the reporter who covered Taylor Swift, the TikTok host from the Washington Post, a new newsroom simulation, and too many alumni to count returning to speak and work. Thanks to all of you who are helping us on arrival days!
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K12 - The team is preparing for a new cycle of middle and high school visits as we gear up for fall recruitment. They are also actively working through the PIV grant to ensure funds are used responsibly while attracting top students to Mason. In addition, we’re pursuing a renewal of a SCHEV grant focused on serving middle school students. This summer, we’re excited to welcome hundreds of Envision Law and CSI students to campus—thank you to everyone who is helping support those visit days!
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Events - The event calendar for next cycle was released on June 1! Please make sure dates are on your calendar. We are currently analyzing data, writing event narratives, and meeting with stakeholders to make improvements for next year.
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Honors - Eva is back! We are working on hiring a new counselor to work on admissions for the Honors College. Enrollments are strong for the next cycle, and we are monitoring melt and staying in touch with the Honors College faculty.
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Military Services
Congratulations to all on a success recruitment cycle! I know the summer is a time to celebrate and reflect on the season, but the next cycle is just around the corner. I have asked Fernando, our new OMS professional staff addition, to highlight some of our programming which will be useful for everyone. Follow us on social media and share as you meet military connected families.
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Social Media as a Key Resource in Military Admissions and Recruiting
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My name is Fernando Aguila, and I serve as the Veteran and Dependent Benefits Coordinator for the Office of Military Services at George Mason University. As a Marine Corps veteran who transferred to Mason, I understand how overwhelming the transition into higher education can be for military-affiliated students. One of the most effective tools I've found to support these students is something many of us use daily - social media.
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At OMS, we've made a focused effort to expand our presence across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Mason360. These platforms have become key tools in admissions and recruiting, helping us share scholarship opportunities, campus resources, upcoming events, and student spotlights that highlight the achievements of our military-affiliated community.
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How Social Media Support Military Admissions:
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- Timely Updates - We regularly post information about admissions deadlines, federal and state benefits, financial aid opportunities, and transition support to help students stay on track.
- Showcasing Student Success - Sharing the journeys of our veterans and dependents helps prospective students see themselves succeeding at Mason.
- Instant Engagement - Our inboxes and comment sections are open - allowing students to ask questions and received real-time responses.
- Building Early Community - Through consistent engagement, we aim to create a welcoming and supportive environment even before students arrive on campus.
One of our first major social media initiatives was promoting the Toys for Tots campaign during the holiday season. Thanks to the incredible generosity of students, faculty, and community members, we collected our largest donation yet: three full boxes and four totes of toys. While OMS has participated in this campaign in previous years, our expanded outreach helped make this our most successful effort to date.
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Another standout moment featured Rylee, a military-affiliated student recognized for her work in environmental conservation through Mason's sustainability initiative. Her spotlight not only celebrated her efforts but also resonated with prospective students who saw their own values and ambitions reflected in her story. These are the kinds of connections that make our outreach meaningful.
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To date, we've collaborated with the Costello College of Business, Mason Veterans Alumni Chapter, Office of Contemporary Student Services, Gamma Mu Chapter of Lambda Theta Phi, University Career Services, Fairfax and Prince William Counties, and the Virgina Department of Veterans Services - sharing everything from scholarships and job fairs to workshops and wellness resources.
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I've always had a strong interest in marketing and communications, and this experience has shown me just how impactful social media can be - not just for sharing information, but for creating a sense of community. We'll continue growing our presence to make sure every military-affiliated student knows they're supported and connected here at Mason from day one.
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International
This will be a very interesting summer for international students.
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At the time of writing, there is still a pause on new US visa appointments. While we were initially told this would be temporary, the pause has now extended for nearly three weeks. We are hopeful appointments will resume soon, but no updates have been issued. The good news is that students who already had appointments scheduled have been able to attend them, and visas are still being granted. The concern is that typically around 75% of student visas are approved in June and July. Without access to new appointments, many students may run out of time to arrive in the U.S. by August. We are monitoring this situation closely. OIPS has sent out a message to students, and updated information is available on their website: https://oips.gmu.edu/current-immigration-information/.
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We are continuing to issue I-20s to all students who request them. It’s important for students to have their I-20 ready for when visa appointments reopen. We are also tracking visa approvals at both the undergraduate and graduate levels to assess who may still be able to enroll this fall.
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What are your job duties in the office?
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Managing Welcome Team, working with walk-in cases, reading applications, managing inventory.
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What do you like most about working at Mason?
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Working with students, and the lovely Admissions team!
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What 3 words would you use to describe Mason?
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Welcoming. Supportive. Challenging.
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High School English Teacher (10th Grade)
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Do you have any Pets?
Tell us about them!
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I have a grey cat named Plum
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What are your hobbies or
spare time activities?
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Reading, games, horseback riding
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
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I am the 2024 mechanical bull riding champion of the Arlington County Fair.
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Favorite Food and Beverage
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Ramen and lemonade (not necessarily together)
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Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
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Favorite Quote or Movie Line
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"You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means"
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Favorite Band or Musician
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What are your job duties in the office?
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Plan, coordinate and execute Recruitment Events for prospective and admitted students.
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What do you like most about working at Mason?
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I love working with my team to create spaces for students to find what is best for them!
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What are three words you would use to describe Mason?
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Welcoming. Inclusive. Open-minded.
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Tell us more about you!
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Blacksburg VA but then Burke, Va
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Summer Camp Counselor at
Reston Children's Center
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Do you have any Pets?
Tell us about them!
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My parents dog Maxx is my bestie!
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What are your hobbies or
spare time activities?
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I love to travel, watch cooking and baking shows, go to wineries, spend time with friends and family.
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Share a FUN FACT about you.
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I have an overactive toe
(after breaking my foot in 2020)
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Favorite Food and Beverage
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Iced coffee and/or diet coke
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Favorite TV Show, Movie, or Book
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Friends, Parks and Rec,
The West Wing, The Crown
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Thanksgiving or Christmas
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Anywhere new with good food!
But I do love any beach vac.
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