George Mason The Pulse

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REMEMBERING MARI TISERA WITH A RARE POSTHUMOUS DEGREE F or just the 32nd time in the 52-year history of the school and the third time in Schar School history, George Mason conferred a posthumous degree. The parents of Mari Tisera , a student in the Schar School’s government and international politics undergraduate program, accepted a commemorative framed diploma in her honor at the Schar School’s Degree Celebration held in May. Tisera passed away June 6, 2023, of melanoma. She was 20 years old. It was her close friend and George Mason alumna McKenna Beauchamp, a 2022 integrative studies graduate, who, with the assistance of Schar School Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs Ann M. Ludwick, who made the degree a reality. “She never let her cancer define her or hold her back in any way,” said Beauchamp, who was relentless in advocating for her friend. “She lit up every room. She had no enemies, and her laughter is unlike anything I’ve ever heard. It just really brings joy to everybody.” In addition to studying government, she was also a Spanish language minor and organized campus marches for women’s, LGBTQ, and Black rights, and continually fought for the rights of the unhoused. She was proud to be a “sweetheart” for the fraternity Zeta Psi, a symbolic position for women that afforded her opportunities to contribute to the fraternity’s activities. In July, U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) delivered a eulogy from the House floor honoring her. Tisera was an intern for the congresswoman. “I’ve turned something positive out of all this,” Beauchamp said. “It’s really a good thing to celebrate. It’s helping me with closure so I’m sure it’s helping other people as well.” — Buzz McClain

SCHAR SCHOOL TRAILBLAZER MOLLY IZER TAKES EARLY LEAP TO GEORGETOWN LAW O regon native Molly Izer graduated in the spring with a Schar School degree in government and international politics a year early, after acceptance to Georgetown University Law Center. It’s hard enough to get into Georgetown Law, but “it is doubly difficult to get in through early admission,” said Phillip Mink, director of the Patriot Pre-Law Advising Program and an assistant professor in the Schar School. “Molly is such an exceptional student that she didn’t have to wait.” Izer, also an Honors College student, finished her senior year of high school while working in an industrial factory. At George Mason she was the captain of the university’s Forensics Team— 2024 second place in the country and herself a triple national champion. That would be accomplishment enough for any student, but Izer didn’t stop there. A cursory look at her resumé includes: an active member of the university’s Democrats club; director of policy for the Mason chapter of the Roosevelt Institute; director of outreach for the Patriots for Accessible Voting; a Schar School student liaison assisting other students; a research assistant who published one paper on her own and coauthored two others; delivered her research findings at major political science conventions in Chicago and Canada; and taught classes as an undergraduate government course instructor. In her first year, Izer landed a position as a U.S. Senate intern on Capitol Hill, serving in the office of U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D OR). That was followed by a stint as a legislative affairs intern at no less than the White House, followed by a full-time position as a policy intern at the National Association for the Deaf, where she put her minor in American Sign Language to use.

“I view every opportunity that came to me as a gift,” she said. “My time at Mason was beyond my wildest dreams.” “I wasn’t sure if Mason was the place for me, or if anywhere was the place for me coming from so far away,” she said. “But after visiting the campus, I was hooked on it, and it felt more like a home than other places. I think a lot of the successes in my life came because this is the setting that I chose to pursue them in.” —Buzz McClain

MOLLY IZER

MARI TISERA

“ “She lit up every room. She had no enemies, and her laughter is unlike anything I’ve ever heard. It just really brings joy to everybody.”

10 | The Pulse Winter 2024

The Pulse Winter 2024 | 11