TPOL Grad Receives Alumni Service Award

The School of Public Policy Alumni Association recently awarded an Alumni Service award to Dione Sharmin, a founding member and the first president of the organization.

A 2002 TPOL graduate, Sharmin spearheaded efforts to build the alumni chapter and increase its visibility. But she credits its successes to a team of hard-working graduates. “We had a great bunch of people contributing to making this a success,” she says about her co-alumni who helped launch the chapter in November 2002.

Sharmin, a Navy logistics consultant for Booz Allen Hamilton, is reluctant to take too much of the credit for her own role in creating SPP’s first alumni association. She says that she felt obligated to participate. “It’s a positive outlet, and as a young school, we need an alumni organization. I guess I also felt a little bit of obligation to participate because I graduated from Mason twice -- once with an undergraduate degree and once with a Master’s degree.”

As a founding member, Sharmin initially took on the role of interim vice president and led the alumni team to create bylaws and apply for official recognition from GMU. Through her hard work and dedication, she earned the respect of her peers who elected her president once the chapter was officially recognized.

In her role as president, Sharmin faced the challenge of growing the fledgling organization. “A lot of people didn’t realize the chapter existed so we had to get the word out and let people know,” she explains. “During the first year, we also started to plan heavily for our first signature event, ‘Children at Risk,’ which was very successful.”

Since handing over the leadership reigns to current president, Nurten Helvaci, last June, Sharmin is able to reflect proudly on the chapter’s continued growth since its early days. “There continues to be more opportunities to network and to be involved with a community,” she says, adding that alumni, students and professors frequently mingle at the chapter’s socials.

The chapter has benefited current SPP students, Sharmin adds. “We host a lot of events with current students as well. By interacting with successful graduates, they are able to discover how others are utilizing their degrees.”

Sharmin also has benefited from the chapter. She considers it an avenue through which she can continue to encounter the wide range of public policy perspectives she learned about while in graduate school. “[The chapter] gives me a broader network of people that I know who I can talk to and interact with. By learning from others, I’m able to go beyond my focus area of public policy and am able to see all of public policy. The chapter doesn’t focus on one area of public policy. We focus on the whole spectrum of public policy.”

Sharmin, still an active member of the chapter, hopes that more alumni will recognize the opportunity to broaden their perspectives by joining. “We want other people to become more involved,” she says, adding. “There are all kinds of positive benefits in being part of the chapter.”