Degree Celebration

From Vietnam to Virginia: Duy Vu’s Remarkable Journey to the Commencement Stage

Andrew J Schappert — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:38:56 +0000

From Vietnam to Virginia: Duy Vu’s Remarkable Journey to the Commencement Stage Andrew J Schappert Mon, 04/28/2025 - 11:38

As the rows of soon-to-be graduates fill EagleBank Arena in a sea of green and gold at the May 15 Commencement ceremony, all eyes will turn to senior Duy Vu, who will take the podium as the student commencement speaker. For Duy, the honor to represent the graduating George Mason �鶹�� student body is the culmination of a seven-year journey that began half a world away.

Student Commencement speaker Duy Vu: ‘During my studies I learned about looking at things from different perspectives, how to think about decision-making, beliefs, and ideologies.’ Photo by Ron Aira/Office of �鶹�� Branding

His story—and his advice to his graduating classmates—is worth listening to.

Duy came to the United States as a 15-year-old high school student, following his father, a deputy defense attaché for the Vietnamese government, to Washington, D.C. The transition, Duy admitted, wasn’t easy and his command of English was rudimentary.

“My grammar was strong,” Duy said of his language training in Vietnam, “but I could barely communicate when I first got here.”

He resolved to come to George Mason with a new attitude and develop the confidence to make the most of his time as a college student.

“I told myself I would make college a worthwhile experience,” he said. “I’d try everything. I’d step out of my comfort zone.”

The start was slow—Duy and his undergraduate classmates are likely the last cohort to have endured the COVID-19 campus shutdown—and by his junior year, Duy realized time was running short.

“That’s when it hit me: I have two years left. If I don’t do something now, I might not get another chance,” he said.

Duy transformed his campus experience. He dove into extracurricular student life by joining campus organizations, including serving as treasurer of the Association of Latino Professionals for America (ALPFA) and vice president of finance for Beta Theta Pi, before starting his own Registered Student Organization (RSO), George Mason’s first-ever Pool Club. Pool, as in billiards.

“I just started enjoying the game,” he said. “There wasn’t a club, so I made one.”

The Pool Club quickly evolved into more than a casual hangout, with the team meeting at the tables at the Hub’s Corner Pocket game room, hosting tournaments, and traveling to other schools for competitions.

Joining organizations, besides being fun, expanded Duy’s world view. As treasurer for ALPFA, he learned the ropes of networking and professionalism. “It helped me understand the etiquette and skills needed in the business world,” he said. “And I got to learn from peers who were already finding success.”

Duy Vu majored in two bachelor of science programs, public administration and finance. Photo by Julia Conway/Schar School of Policy and Government

On top of his nonclassroom activities, Duy is a double major graduating from two bachelor of science degree programs: The Schar School of Policy and Government’s comprehensive public administration program and the Costello College of Business’s robust finance program.

He signed on to public administration thanks to his father’s suggestion.

“I wasn’t sure about it at first,” he said of the public administration major. “But during my studies I learned about looking at things from different perspectives, how to think about the way beliefs and ideologies play into a government’s decision-making.”

The Schar School professors also revealed to him a new-found fascination with “the financial and economic side of things,” he said, which is vital to creating successful public policy. “And that’s when I declared a second major in finance.”

Throughout his time at George Mason, Duy balanced a double-major’s-worth of classes—and all the reading, writing, and exams that go along with two majors—with organizational leadership activities with classmates and a part-time job at the Schar School’s Aquia headquarters on George Mason’s Fairfax Campus, where he supported students for nearly four years as an office assistant.

“I’ve worked with Ms. Colette since my sophomore year,” he said of K. Collette Lawson, the longtime Schar School administrative and technical coordinator. “It was my first ‘real’ experience outside of school. It’s going to be hard to leave.”

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Rear Admiral Pamela Miller, highly decorated U.S. Navy medical officer, announced as College Degree Celebration speaker

Taylor Thomas — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 14:20:13 +0000

Rear Admiral Pamela Miller, highly decorated U.S. Navy medical officer, announced as College Degree Celebration speaker Taylor Thomas Mon, 04/07/2025 - 10:20

Rear Admiral Pamela Miller

Rear Admiral Pamela Miller will be the keynote speaker at the College of Public Health’s Degree Celebration on May 17 at EagleBank Arena. RADM Miller is a highly decorated medical officer of the United States U.S. Navy, Director of Health Services at U.S. Marine Corps Headquarters and Vice Chief, BUMED, Reserve Policy and Integration for the United States Department of Navy.

Miller’s distinguished career includes a number of leadership positions in the military, both domestically and while deployed. She has served as senior medical officer, staff physician, officer in charge, deputy group surgeon, senior medical executive, force surgeon, reserve component operational medicine specialty leader, deputy chief of staff, reserve fleet surgeon, command surgeon, and medical officer.

Miller has been recognized for her dedication and service throughout her career. She is a Fleet Marine Force Warfare qualified officer and has earned many distinguished awards, including the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.

Miller began her military career in the Navy Nurse Corps following her graduation from the �鶹�� of Iowa where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing.

She went on to attend medical school at Des Moines �鶹�� as she served in the medical corps, where she earned both a doctorate in osteopathic medicine and a master’s degree in healthcare administration. She completed her residency in emergency medicine at Naval Medical Center in San Diego and has continued her education through the Naval War College and Joint Forces Staff College.

The College is honored to welcome Rear Admiral Miller to celebrate the accomplishments of the Class of 2025.

Learn more about Rear Admiral Pamela Miller, RADM, MC, USN here.

Learn more about the College of Public Health's Degree Celebration here.

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City of Fairfax Mayor, ’83 Alum Catherine S. Read to Deliver Degree Celebration Keynote

Andrew J Schappert — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 15:21:13 +0000

City of Fairfax Mayor, ’83 Alum Catherine S. Read to Deliver Degree Celebration Keynote Andrew J Schappert Thu, 04/03/2025 - 11:21

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In an ironic turn of events, the 2025 Schar School of Policy and Government Degree Celebration keynote speaker did not attend her own graduation from George Mason �鶹��.

Mayor Catherine S. Read: ‘The university mailed me my diploma which I didn’t have framed until I was elected mayor. It has a place of prominence in my office at City Hall now.’ Photo by Sarah Heaton (BA Film and Video Studies ’24)

“I finished in December 1983,” said City of Fairfax Mayor Catherine S. Read. “There were no December ceremonies back then. The university mailed me my diploma which I didn’t have framed until I was elected mayor. It has a place of prominence in my office at City Hall now.”

Read, who earned a bachelor of arts degree in government and politics (the degree was conferred with the Class of ’84), will address some 400 graduating Schar School students across all disciplines and degree programs on Wednesday, May 14, at 4:30 p.m. at EagleBank Arena on George Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

Read was elected as the first women and the first George Mason graduate to lead the university’s hometown of more than 24,000 residents in 2022. She won reelection last year.

Originally a theater major, she nurtured and expanded her interest in legislative advocacy work at George Mason, eventually finding leadership roles in nonprofit organizations at the local, state, and federal levels. She has worked for many years on public policies such as the Breastfeeding Bill (2015), the Virginia Values Act (2020), and the abolition of the death penalty in Virginia (2021). Her advocacy focuses on issues that impact the quality of life in Fairfax City and across the commonwealth.

Last year, Read was elected to serve on the Alumni Chapter Board of George Mason’s Schar School of Public Policy and Government for 2024-26.

She currently serves on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC), Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA), and Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC). Additionally, she serves on the Virginia Poverty Law Center Advisory Board and the Equality Virginia PAC Board.

A city resident since 2000 in the Daniels Run Woods, Providence Square, and Fairchester Woods neighborhoods, Read has most recently worked with local nonprofits on legislative advocacy and messaging and continues to occasionally host shows for Fairfax Public Access.

She is the mother of three adult children and resides with her husband, Tom Greeson, and their dog, Reggie.

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Schar School Welcomes Degree Celebration Keynote Speaker, PBS’s Judy Woodruff

Andrew J Schappert — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 14:26:15 +0000

Schar School Welcomes Degree Celebration Keynote Speaker, PBS’s Judy Woodruff Andrew J Schappert Tue, 03/29/2022 - 10:26

Judy Woodruff: ‘[O]ur country is strongest when it finds its way past political polarization, to a place where we can respect our many differences, and above all, value truth.’

PBS NewsHour is one of the longest-running and most influential news programs in the country. And since 2013, the anchor of that hour-long show has come to be regarded as a calming influence for the nation, someone who at the end of a frenzied day of chaos and calamity puts us at ease with her trademark even-handed tenor.

Thank goodness for Judy Woodruff.

Woodruff will deliver the keynote address during the Schar School of Policy and Government’s Degree Celebration at EagleBank Arena on the George Mason �鶹��’s Fairfax Campus on May 19 at 2 p.m.

Woodruff, a former public policy visiting professor at her alma mater, Duke �鶹��, is the anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour, the no-nonsense, comprehensive, national program that draws on her more than four decades of experience.

“I’m thrilled to be celebrating with the graduates of the Schar School, who’ll be called on to lead in an era when we need principled leadership more than ever,” she said. “In my remarks I hope to build on what I’ve learned as a journalist: that our country is strongest when it finds its way past political polarization, to a place where we can respect our many differences, and above all, value truth.”

Woodruff served as White House correspondent for NBC News from 1977 to 1982, followed by one year as chief Washington correspondent for NBC’s The Today Show. She joined PBS in 1983 as chief Washington correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and from 1984 to 1990 she anchored PBS’ award-winning documentary series, “Frontline with Judy Woodruff.”

After moving to CNN in 1993, she served for 12 years as an anchor and senior correspondent, anchoring the weekday program, Inside Politics, among other duties. She returned to the NewsHour in 2007, and in 2013, she and the late Gwen Ifill were named the first two women to co-anchor a national news broadcast. After Ifill’s death, Woodruff was named sole anchor in 2018. From 2006 to 2013, she anchored a monthly program for Bloomberg Television, “Conversations with Judy Woodruff.”

In 2006, she was a visiting professor at Duke �鶹��'s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy. In 2005, she was a visiting fellow at Harvard �鶹��'s Joan Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.

Woodruff is a founding co-chair of the International Women’s Media Foundation. She serves on the boards of trustee of the Freedom Forum, the Duke Endowment, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and is a director of Public Radio International and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

She is the recipient of more than 25 honorary degrees and numerous awards, most recently the 2020 Peabody Award for Journalistic Integrity, the Radcliffe Medal, the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, the Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award, and the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism. She is the author of This is Judy Woodruff at the White House, published in 1982. Woodruff is a graduate of Duke �鶹��, where she is a trustee emerita.

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From Vietnam to Virginia: Duy Vu’s Remarkable Journey to the Commencement Stage

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Rear Admiral Pamela Miller, highly decorated U.S. Navy medical officer, announced as College Degree Celebration speaker

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City of Fairfax Mayor, ’83 Alum Catherine S. Read to Deliver Degree Celebration Keynote

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