Meghan Hogge is the director of academic events at Georgetown. This story is part of a Georgetown Faces, a storytelling series that celebrates the beloved figures, unsung heroes and dedicated Hoyas who make our campus special. One of Meghan Hogge’s main roles is planning Georgetown’s commencement. She ensures the water stations are ordered, the program book is printed, flowers are planted, sign language interpreters are in place, and that the 13 individual commencement ceremonies run smoothly. It’s a lot of work. But if you see her on commencement weekend, you’ll probably see her smiling ..read more

Getu Woldemariam, a senior operations manager, celebrated 35 years at Georgetown. Getu Woldemariam started his Georgetown career in a parking lot booth in 1988. He remembers greeting dignitaries, parents, students, faculty members, and even basketball legends like Patrick Ewing when they arrived at the university.   “It gave me an opportunity to get to know people and my network just kept growing and growing within a short period of time,” he said. Thirty-five years later, Woldemariam is a senior operations manager, overseeing Georgetown’s fleet of transportation services. On May 2 ..read more

This story is a part of our “Ask a Professor” series, in which Georgetown faculty members break down complex issues and use their research to inform trending conversations, from the latest pop culture hits to research breakthroughs and critical global events shaping our world. The cicada broods have arrived.  Martha Weiss is a biologist and professor in the College of Arts & Sciences who studies cicadas. This spring, trillions of cicadas belonging to Brood XIII and Brood XIX are crawling out from their underground burrows across the Midwest and South. While the cicadas won’t find t ..read more

In “Behind the CV,” we explore professors’ deepest passions, what makes them tick and how they got to where they are in academia. Lahra Smith grew up thinking she’d travel the world as a foreign correspondent for a major daily newspaper.  Lahra Smith is an associate professor with a joint appointment in the School of Foreign Service and College of Arts & Sciences. She’s also the director of the African Studies Program. Born and raised in rural New Hampshire, the closest Smith got to foreign travel was when she visited neighboring Canada. But travel was always on her mind, a dream s ..read more

Dear Faculty and Staff Colleagues, We are excited to gather thousands of graduating students, families and visitors to the Hilltop Campus to celebrate the Class of 2024 Commencement (May 16 – 19).  We encourage you to: Review the 2024 Commencement Schedule: Learn more about Commencement 2024 on the main website and view the full Commencement Schedule. Congratulate the Class of 2024: Offer your congratulations to our graduates and learn more about the accomplishments that you helped support on the Class of 2024 website. Prepare for commuting, parking and transportation impacts: We ask co ..read more

Earlier this year, news broke that bottled water contains more plastic than originally thought. The report was the latest from studies on microplastics, or miniscule fragments of plastic, that have been found all over the world: on Mt. Everest and in Antarctica, in coral reefs and the Great Lakes, in teabags, oysters, and our own bodies. Scientists know microplastics are pervasive. But they don’t have a universal standard in this emerging field to identify or measure these tiny particles, says YuYe J. Tong, a chemistry professor and director of the Environmental Metrology & Policy Program ..read more

Georgetown University joins the nation, the District and our student and faculty community in celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month this May. We invite community members to explore the “Celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Cultures and Heritage at Georgetown” landing page, where you can find upcoming events, insightful resources and inspiring stories. This month, in particular, we celebrate the many contributions of Georgetown’s AAPI community, including but not limited to: A range of academic programs and interdisciplinary efforts advance teaching ..read more

While a Fulbright Fellow in Cambodia, Alyssa Erin Kardos Loera (H'21) noted the waste coming from the country's fashion industry. Now she's working to make the industry more sustainable ..read more

As their last year at Georgetown wound down, Zidao Wang (C’24) and Kieran Lawless (SFS’24) had one important test to pass. The National Debate Tournament, the March Madness of college debate. Every year, around 150 of the most elite college debaters put their oratorical skills to the test for a chance at becoming the No. 1 team in the country. Since Georgetown’s debate team began in 1947, Hoyas have won the tournament four times and clinched the Top Speaker Award six times.   Wang and Lawless’ chances were promising. The debate partners ranked fourth in the country coming into the t ..read more

This story is a part of the Student Life Blog, a blog written by Georgetown students about their experiences and life at Georgetown. I started at Georgetown as a nervous eighteen-year-old, unsure how I fit in, let alone what I wanted to pursue as a career. I started studying computer science and quickly realized I had no interest in the subject. I explored different subjects at Georgetown, struggling to find a discipline I could be passionate about. By my sophomore year, I started studying economics and minoring in environmental studies, and I finally felt like I found my niche. I’ve always ..read more