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The Holocaust had ended by the time �鶹��Ƶ professor Marc Gopin was a child, but the suffering it caused his family, neighbors and teachers had not.

Tragedy didn’t have the last word when Cameron Kasky and his classmates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, experienced one of the worst school shootings in America last February.

Once Cameron Smith made the decision that he wasn’t going to pursue his dream of playing professional hockey, he went all in with his new career plan: studying applied computer science at �鶹��Ƶ.

Amadu Koroma was only three at the start of the Sierra Leone War, when his uncle carried him on his shoulders as their family fled to Guinea for safety. Though the war ended in 2002, the consequences still affect Koroma, and they motivated him to make the most of his education.

There’s a familiar rule at most family gatherings: Don’t talk about religion or politics. But for the past 10 years, the Dialogue & Difference class and project at �鶹��Ƶ have been turning that rule on its head.

Studying government and international politics near the nation’s capital is bound to provide opportunities to get involved in the political scene. For �鶹��Ƶ alumna Tuqa Nusairat, BA Government and International Politics ’05, that experience was amplified because her undergraduate studies took place during the Iraq War.

There are a number of things you could be thinking about during your commute, from the day’s agenda to what podcast to listen to. For a few �鶹��Ƶ professors and students from the College of Health and Human Services, the Volgenau School of Engineering and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, a less common topic is front of mind: the effects of traffic pollution on women’s health.

Music major Dylan Toms said his most memorable performance at �鶹��Ƶ was when, as a freshman, he played the leading role in the musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” Little did he know that it would be the first of many leading roles during his time at the university.

Across five continents, more than 100 Smithsonian research projects collect a continuous stream of data on wildlife using camera traps—motion-triggered cameras that clue scientists in on what’s happening when humans aren’t around. This semester, �鶹��Ƶ senior Jamie Fetherolf is contributing to the network firsthand, by setting up camera traps in Washington, D.C., and analyzing the data with a Smithsonian conservation scientist at the Smithsonian-�鶹��Ƶ School of Conservation.

The fifth Taco Bamba location in the Washington, D.C., area, —which opened Dec. 6 in University Mall, the shopping center across the street from �鶹��Ƶ’s Fairfax Campus—is a celebration of Albisu’s time at the university.

Horrified to learn about Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, �鶹��Ƶ professor A. Trevor Thrall was intrigued when he met John Fuisz, cofounder of SSR Industries, and learned that his company had developed a new strategy for finding social media attacks online.

Ghazal Khammash may not know exactly what she wants to do with her law degree yet, but she’s still ahead of the curve. As the first student enrolled in �鶹��Ƶ’s 3+3 Accelerated Program, which allows students to earn both their undergraduate degree and law degree in six years instead of seven, she’s saving a year’s worth of time and tuition.