Top-Notch

The University of Mary Washington is included among the nation’s best-value colleges by both The Princeton Review and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. And UMW is recognized as one of the nation’s best public colleges overall by The Business Journals, placing in the top 75 four-year public institutions. The Princeton Review included UMW in its recently published Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Best Value Colleges and What It Takes to Get In – 2015. The ranking considers academics, affordability, and graduates’ career prospects. The Kiplinger’s Personal Finance ranking considers a university’s admission rate, percentage of students who return for sophomore year, student-faculty ratio, and four-year graduation rate. It also considers cost, availability of financial aid, and low average student debt at graduation. Kiplinger’s ranks UMW sixth among Virginia’s best values and 92nd out of 100 four-year public institutions nationwide. Mary Washington has consistently … [Read more...]

New for Freshmen

UMW is enhancing its first-year seminar program to give freshmen a richer introduction to academic life. For the first time, the program will offer residential clustering based on the seminar topics students choose. Freshmen will receive comprehensive advising, and they’ll all read, write about, and discuss Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. UMW will offer more than 60 first-year seminars on topics ranging from game theory to Jane Austen. In residential clustering, students live with classmates from their first-year seminars, creating a community that combines living and learning. Incoming students may choose a first-year seminar and housing assignments once they have made enrollment deposits. Every freshman must enroll in a seminar. Tim O’Donnell, associate provost for academic engagement and student success, said studies show that students who participate in a first-year seminar earn higher GPAs by the end of freshman year and are more likely to return … [Read more...]

Chamber Recognizes Hurley’s Leadership

The Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce recognized President Richard V. Hurley in January for his leadership and community service. The chamber presented him with the Prince B. Woodard Leadership Award, which it gives to someone who has provided a lifetime of service to the Fredericksburg region. “Since assuming UMW’s presidency in 2010, [Hurley] has overseen a period of robust growth that includes construction of the Anderson Center convocation and athletics arena, the opening of the Dahlgren campus, and development of the Eagle Village mixed-use” complex, the Chamber of Commerce said in a press release. In the community, the release noted, Hurley has served on the boards of the Rappahannock United Way, the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance, and the Chamber of Commerce. He also has worked to strengthen relations between UMW and the community. Before being named president, Hurley served Mary Washington for a decade in various positions including executive vice … [Read more...]

Rolls-Royce Taps Blakey

In February, Rolls-Royce North America named Marion C. Blakey ’70 the next president and chief executive officer of the jet engine manufacturer. Blakey plans to leave her post as president and CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) in May. In eight years there, she has represented aerospace and defense industry manufacturers and promoted civil and defense aviation products. Before joining AIA, Blakey was administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, administrator of the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and chair of the National Transportation Safety Board. The Alabama native earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies from Mary Washington and did graduate work at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Rolls-Royce North America employs more than 8,000 people in 26 U.S. states, six Canadian provinces, and three Mexican states. … [Read more...]

A Heritage in Clay

Business administration seemed sensible, and Hadrian Mendoza ’96 worked hard to fulfill major requirements in his first three years at Mary Washington. Then came senior year, with only electives left to take. Mendoza filled his schedule with drawing, painting, and poetry – and a ceramics class that would prove life-changing. Working with clay lit up Mendoza’s brain like nothing had before. “It’s so natural,” Mendoza thought. “You take dirt, you use fire, and then you have a permanent object. How awesome is that?” After two semesters, he asked Lorene Nickel, now a professor emerita of art, what it would take to make a living as a potter. Was it even possible? Her answer, he remembers, was something an earnest business major had to consider seriously: It was possible, and he could be good at it. But it might not ever be lucrative. Mendoza had gotten into culinary school, but he never even sent a deposit. A year at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., wasn’t … [Read more...]