Early Identification Program (EIP)

After coming to the United States from El Salvador to join her mother late in 2010, she enrolled in Mason's Early Identification Program and was an academic star at Freedom High School in Woodbridge, Virginia.

About one in three Mason students are in the first generation of their families to attend college. First-generation college students find a welcoming environment at Mason, with a multi-layered support network to help ensure success and provide help through any challenge.

Of the 108 Northern Virginia graduating seniors who participated in the university's Early Identification Program, 48 have chosen to attend Mason. Twenty-eight of those students have been awarded partial or full scholarships.

Accounting major Isabella Bah began her Mason journey as a student in the Early Identification Program.

During the pandemic shutdown, EIP, just like all programming at Mason, was forced to pivot to online platforms.

Kristen Alleyne and Elene Lipartiani, incoming freshmen at George Mason University, have been honored with I-Achieve scholarships for academic excellence. The awards are being given for the first time this year, as part of a grant Mason received from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation last fall.

The STEM Fusion program is part of Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP), an extensive outreach effort to more than 650 first-generation college-bound students in the Northern Virginia area.

Chilin, whose family came from El Salvador in 2000, when she was 9 years old, has temporary protected status (TPS), an immigration status provided by the U.S. government to nationals of countries destabilized by war or catastrophe.

This George Mason University junior is majoring in finance and accounting. She is a member of five student organizations (at least—that’s what she could recall off the top of her head) and works two part-time jobs, including one as a mentor in Mason’s Early Identification Program (EIP).