With a final pre-tassel-turning lesson about leadership, kindness, and resilience, more than 5,200 George Mason University students graduated or earned certificates Thursday at Winter Commencement in EagleBank Arena on the Fairfax Campus.

Livestreamed on George Mason’s YouTube channel, the ceremony honored graduates from 89 countries and 45 states. About 1 in 4 was a first-generation graduate.

George Mason President Gregory Washington told the graduates that whether they realized it or not, while pursuing a degree, they also were being prepared to serve as leaders. Echoing a New York Times op-ed by Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, Washington urged each graduate to embrace leadership, not escape it to avoid risk or as an act of self-preservation.

“Generating light brings a certain amount of heat with it,” Washington added. “But bringing light is worth enduring that heat. If we have done our job right here at George Mason University, we have prepared you to bring the light and endure the heat.”  

The guest speaker, former CGI president and chief executive officer George D. Schindler, was awarded an honorary degree by Board of Visitors member Horace Blackman, BA American Studies and English '93, the university’s former rector and also a CGI executive.

Schindler encouraged students to carry out a “life of learning” so they can adapt and thrive in an era of excessively rapid change. “In today’s world, current knowledge is just table stakes,” Schindler said. “While continuous learning is often the differentiator in career and life. It will be important to be agile and adaptable in your ways of thinking and acting.”

Schindler also emphasized that, contrary to what many may believe, success and kindness are not mutually exclusive.

Board of Visitors Rector Charles “Cully” Stimson, JD ’92, presented an honorary degree to Maureen McCarthy Scalia for “her passionate dedication to learning and for her decades of volunteer work in the Washington, D.C., region.” Scalia is the widow of former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom George Mason named its law school in 2016, the year the justice died. Stimson is a graduate of what is now the Scalia Law School.

Provost James Antony, taking part in his first George Mason Commencement since joining the university, introduced the student speaker, psychology major Caroline Little. Little detailed how faculty and staff supported and encouraged her, first as an unsure transfer from community college, then through several relocations and two pregnancies. She and her husband, former George Mason basketball standout Josh Oduro, have a 10-month-old son, and she is eight months pregnant with their second child.

“George Mason isn’t just meant for the cookie-cutter student,” Little said. “It’s meant for people like me, for people like you, and people like anybody that has the determination to finish their degree and succeed, no matter what their life looks like outside of the classroom. This university has given me a new sense of strength and self-confidence that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”

Scott Hine, BS Decision Science ’85, president of the George Mason University Alumni Association, welcomed the graduates to a network of 240,000 members worldwide and called on them to engage with the association and each other.

“Now you have the power and resources of a new family that has walked in your shoes and blazed a path forward,” Hine said. “There is likely an alum in any industry in which you are joining, and likely an alum in any location in which you are settling. This is an incredible network, which you should leverage.”