December 4, 2025

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Psychology Graduate-in-Residence Shares Formula for Statistical Success

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Melissa McTernan ’10, who majored in psychology at UMW, went on to earn a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology at University of California, Davis. As this year’s Psychology Graduate in Residence, she will share her expertise with students and present a public talk about statistics and data literacy.

Melissa McTernan ’10, who majored in psychology at UMW, went on to earn a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology at University of California, Davis.

When Melissa McTernan arrived at the University of Mary Washington, she was sure of one thing. She was not good at math.

She found herself drawn to psychology, but she hadn’t calculated that it would come with its own mathematical hurdle – a required course in statistics – and there was no way around it. Enter Professors of Psychological Science Christine McBride and Dave Kolar, with a knack for making the daunting subject accessible.

“It was at that point that I realized I wasn’t bad at all math, and that statistics can be an interesting and valuable tool,” said McTernan, who graduated from UMW in 2010 and went on to earn a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology at the University of California, Davis. Now, as a senior research statistician and manager of the research statistics consulting group at Boston College, she uses complex analytical tools to help other psychologists find the answers they seek through experimentation that’s valid, unbiased and rigorous.

McTernan will share her experience with current students when she returns to campus this week as UMW’s 2025 Psychology Graduate-in-Residence. She’ll present “Beyond the Classroom: The Everyday Impact of Statistics and Data Literacy” on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 4 p.m., in the Hurley Convergence Center Digital Auditorium. The public talk, she hopes, will be of interest to anyone involved in research. Read more.

Students and Staff Bring Sunshine to a Rainy Move-In Day

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Wednesday’s Move-In Day at the University of Mary Washington welcomed hundreds of first-year students. For families bringing their loved ones to their new UMW homes, it’s always a bittersweet occasion, but lots of move-in volunteers were on hand to lighten their load. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Move-In Day at the University of Mary Washington welcomed hundreds of first-year students and lots of move-in volunteers to lighten their load. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Water bubbling from fountains and a light mist of rain set the stage for hundreds of first-year students who moved into their new homes at the University of Mary Washington this week.

Upperclassmen clad in yellow T-shirts helped brighten the scene as Move-In Day volunteers, hauling room essentials into residence halls that buzzed with nervous excitement. Students unpacked, while their families helped situate, decorate and punctuate spaces inside Custis, Randolph, Virginia and Willard Halls.

Even UMW President Troy Paino got in on the act, popping from room to room with wife Kelly to greet the 600 or so new arrivals who moved in this week – and the parents and friends who’d come to help settle them in.

In all, UMW welcomes more than 1,000 new students – 700-plus first-years and 300-plus transfers – to campus for the 2025-26 academic year. They come from 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, and 18 countries. Seventy-three graduate students pursuing master’s degrees in education and business administration became new Eagles, too. Read more.

Fall Assembly Gets to the Heart of the Matter

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UMW President Troy Paino kicked off the new academic year at an assembly for faculty and staff in Dodd Auditorium

UMW President Troy Paino kicked off the new academic year at an assembly for faculty and staff in Dodd Auditorium

University of Mary Washington President Troy Paino kicked off the new academic year at an assembly for faculty and staff, where he welcomed a strong incoming class and cited ambitious plans for the future.

During the hourlong gathering, held in George Washington Hall’s Dodd Auditorium, he reflected on the strengths of the campus community, a flurry of facilities work throughout the summer and technological advances that present both challenges and opportunities. All of it, he said, combined with a unique time and place, puts UMW on a path to success.

“I believe if we take advantage of this moment, this is an opportunity for the revival of the enduring value of the liberal arts,” said Paino, who’s beginning his 10th year as Mary Washington’s president. “We are preparing our students to be lifelong learners, to adapt, to be curious. I look forward to the work that faculty and staff continue to do in this space.”

More than 1,000 first-year and transfer students – including 154 student-athletes and 73 grad students – join this year’s incoming class, which Paino described as selective and talented, a credit, he said, to UMW’s Admissions team. He also welcomed Mary Washington’s new Vice President for Student Affairs Mike Walsh and thanked Juliette Landphair, the former vice president for student affairs who now leads health and wellness at UMW. Read more.

High Schoolers Savor a Slice of College Life at UMW Summer Enrichment Program

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Livia Lee, a rising junior at Nottoway High School, plays Getting to Know You BINGO with classmates during UMW’s Summer Enrichment Program. The six-day experience for rising 10th- through 12th-graders gives high-schoolers – who take courses, join excursions and live on campus – a taste of college life. Photo by K Pearlman Photography.

Livia Lee, a rising junior at Nottoway High School, plays Getting to Know You BINGO with classmates during UMW’s Summer Enrichment Program. Photo by K Pearlman.

Bingo! Livia Lee waves her winning card to collect a prize. But rather than numbers, this card is covered in questions that reveal personal characteristics to help classmates get to know one another. What’s your favorite color? Do you recycle?

The specialized version of the traditional game gave students like Lee, a rising junior at Nottoway High School in south-central Virginia, an opportunity to explore the principles behind the ways in which we connect.

The exercise was part of University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of Communication Adria Goldman’s “COMM Play” session, one of more than 20 academic courses offered during this year’s Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) at UMW. Teens from Virginia, Georgia, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon and Pennsylvania – even as far away as Vienna, Austria – took part in the fourth annual event, a six-day slice of college coursework and campus life for rising 10th- through 12th- graders.

“SEP provides a truly unique opportunity for students to explore diverse academic topics, engage with faculty and experience a bit of college life,” said Senior Biology Lecturer Michael Stebar, who co-directs the program with Associate Professor of Communication Elizabeth Johnson-Young. Read more.

UMW Humanities Symposium Showcases Undergraduate Research on Eye-Tracking, Phonology, AI

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From left: Alanah Cleare ’25, who earned a degree in marketing from UMW in May; junior Owen Wheeler; and senior Chloe Adler review recently captured footage for a project aimed at assessing the usefulness of AI in filmmaking. The trio conducted research under the guidance of Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski. They were among four groups that participated in this year’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

From left: Alanah Cleare ’25, junior Owen Wheeler; and senior Chloe Adler review recently captured footage for a project in this year’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute(AHSSSI). Photo by Karen Pearlman.

The mini-movie she made with her teammates shows Alanah Cleare falling asleep while studying in the University of Mary Washington’s Hurley Convergence Center. In the AI-assisted dream sequence that follows, she awakens on Campus Walk surrounded by fantastical fruit – talking pineapples and combustible berries that swirl up to the sky and explode in a rainbow.

The ethereal composition was created by UMW junior Owen Wheeler and senior Chloe Adler, along with Cleare, who graduated from UMW in May but returned this summer to take part in a faculty-guided research opportunity. The group was led by Assistant Professor of Communication and Digital Studies J.D. Swerzenski.

Their two-minute Berry Blasters movie was part of a project called “Cameraman vs. Machine,” designed to assess the value of artificial intelligence for student filmmakers. It was one of four presentations delivered last month at Mary Washington’s Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute (AHSSSI) Symposium. The fourth annual event – which also explored AI’s potential in creative writing, the role of eye movements in memory, and the evolution of phonological features – was the culmination of five weeks of scholarly summertime work.

“When we’d run into issues, Dr. Fallon would remind us that we were undergraduate students doing graduate-level research,” senior Michael Boehmcke told symposium spectators who gathered inside Combs Hall to hear the groups’ trials and tribulations, along with their triumphs. Read more.

Read All About It! Spring 2025 Class Notes Reveal Exciting Alumni News

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Spring 2025 Class NotesRead all about the professional achievements, public service and personal milestones of generations of Mary Washington students in the Spring 2025 edition of Class Notes. More than 20 pages of text and photos reveal notable news from the fabulous Class of 1950 all the way up to the fresh new grads that make up the Class of 2024! See the full publication on issuu.

Brilliant Skies, Bright Future: UMW Celebrates Class of 2025

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Graduates walk through campus on their way to Ball Circle for this year’s commencement ceremony, including Martina Nicholson who’s wearing the “feet” of the school’s Sammy D. Eagle mascot. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

Graduates walk through campus on their way to Ball Circle for this year’s commencement ceremony, including Martina Nicholson who’s wearing the “feet” of the school’s Sammy D. Eagle mascot. Photo by Suzanne Carr Rossi.

A bird’s eye view of the University of Mary Washington’s Ball Circle revealed a sea of blue on Saturday morning. Mortarboards, decked out with photos and flowers, ribbons and paint, signified the personalities, experiences and aspirations of the members of the Class of 2025.

Campus filled with the excitement of more than 900 graduates, along with their family and friends, gathered in the thousands to watch the ceremony, which was also livestreamed. Not a single cloud dotted the sky, providing the perfect backdrop for the streamers and confetti that arced over the grads at the end of the ceremony.

Kayla Workman of Beaverdam, Virginia, described the day as bittersweet. A historic preservation major who works as an editorial assistant for the Marine Corps Association at Quantico, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in library information sciences at the University of Alabama. The Hobbit quote she’d added to her cap said it all: “I think I’m quite ready for the adventure.”

Business administration majors Cody Faust, whose family hails from Ukraine, and Ian O’Hare of Stafford helped adjust each other’s regalia before taking their places on Jefferson Square. “Time flew by really fast,” said O’Hare, who plans to enter the Air Force. “The next thing you know, I’m getting ready to cross the stage with all of my friends.” Read more.

Surprising Twists – and Paris – Put UMW Senior on a Path to Success

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UMW senior Brianna Kenealy, seen here in Paris, filled her four college years with the courses it took to find a meaningful career, along with plenty of travel abroad and soccer. She’ll graduate Saturday at the University of Mary Washington’s 114th Commencement.

UMW senior Brianna Kenealy, seen here in Paris, filled her four college years with the courses it took to find a meaningful career, along with plenty of travel abroad.

There’s a bit of a cosmopolitan thread that runs through University of Mary Washington senior Brianna Kenealy’s college career. It’s called “Paris.”

She first visited with her family the summer before sophomore year, returned on a faculty-led trip as a junior, then wrapped it all up with a stint at the American Business School of Paris this spring.

Back in Virginia – her plane landed just yesterday – she’s  set to walk the Ball Circle stage at Saturday’s 114th Commencement on UMW’s Fredericksburg Campus.

That’s where a series of revelations began to unfold four years ago, catching her off guard but charting her course. It’s where, as a student-athlete, she found herself competing – and winning – against teams she hadn’t expected to play. Where she discovered a knack for business administration and declared a new major, then moved by an energetic professor, tacked on a minor in economics. Where she poured herself into a capstone project that proved she could build a career that matters and see the world.

“I want to have a job that can help people, and if that means I travel and make a difference for local businesses, I think that’s really cool,” said Kenealy, an Honors student who’s set to start a master’s program in global commerce at UVA this fall. Read more.

Eagle Awards Recognize Out-of-this-World Dedication to Community and Excellence

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UMW seniors Martina Nicholson (left) and Kai Otero host the Eagle Awards ceremony. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

UMW seniors Martina Nicholson (left) and Kai Otero host the Eagle Awards ceremony. Photo by Karen Pearlman.

University of Mary Washington Vice President for Student Affairs Juliette Landphair summed up the spirit of this year’s Eagle Awards ceremony with a quote from the epic space saga Star Wars.

“Good intentions aren’t enough,” Landphair said, quoting Princess Leia during the April 17 event. “They’re not meaningless, but that’s where we have to start. Not where we end.”

The annual Eagle Awards honors stellar students, staff, programs and organizations for their commitment to community service, citizenship, philanthropy, academic excellence and more. Held in the Cedric Rucker University Center’s Chandler Ballroom just weeks before hundreds of seniors cross the Ball Circle stage for Commencement, this year’s ceremony recognized nearly two dozen winners culled from more than 140 nominations. It was presented by Student Activities and Engagement, the Center for Community Engagement and Campus Recreation.

With nearly 2,500 individuals attending at least one on-campus event this year, UMW is perhaps the most energetic she’s seen it, said Landphair, who recalled happening upon a crowd cheering on Lightsaber Duels in the Amphitheater. The group, which creates community through a shared love of Star Wars, is one of more than 150 Mary Washington student organizations. Read more.

UMW Devil-Goat Day Teems With School Spirit, Turns 99

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UMW mascot Sammy D. Eagle helped pump up school spirit at this year’s Devil-Goat Day event.

UMW mascot Sammy D. Eagle helped pump up school spirit at this year’s Devil-Goat Day event.

One afternoon each year a unique tradition brings a little good-natured sparring and a lot of school spirit to the University of Mary Washington.

Devil-Goat Day – which turned 99 last week – pits students who graduate in odd years (Devils, who wear red) against those set to finish in even years (Goats, who wear green) in a friendly competition that provides some much needed fun before final exams. The heart of campus – Ball Circle and this year also “The Beach” at Mason and Randolph halls – fills up with giant inflatables, fan-favorite lawn games, fair foods, free T-shirts and more. And seniors and sophomores race against juniors and first-years to capture points for participation and wins.

“It’s like a school field day but for big kids. It’s just that feeling of friendly competition,” said Caroline Rous of Newport News, who showed up for the Goats with fellow-first year student Abbey Napolitano of Radford. The two, who had just conquered the Kapow Obstacle Maze, met as high-schoolers at summer camp and developed a shared love for Mary Washington before becoming roommates in Willard Hall. Read more.