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During the war in the South Caucasus, and particularly the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, closed borders and a shortage of resources became the norm for Armenians like Margarita Tadevosyan.

At first glance, Jamie Gergen and Jennifer Kasse-Wanzer have little in common. Gergen hasn’t been to a college campus in a couple of decades. Kasse-Wanzer works at one every day. What do they share? Both are pursuing bachelor’s degrees. And neither can attend college like a traditional student.

During his freshman year, Ali Kahil told his professor he’d be late to his 3 p.m. class, but he didn’t specify the reason. When he arrived 30 minutes later, he sent the professor a link: It was Kahil speaking on CNBC just an hour earlier, giving stock recommendations.

�鶹��Ƶ assistant professor Derek Horstmeyer has no problem trusting his finance students with a quarter-million dollars in the stock market. He’s been doing so since fall 2018 when the university’s first Student Managed Investment Fund began.

�鶹��Ƶ has a large student body—more than 37,000 people—but that doesn’t mean it’s hard to find community. And that’s especially true for the S-CAR Ambassadors.

Students poring over textbooks in the library may be one image that comes to mind when thinking of law school, but for students in �鶹��Ƶ’s Free Speech Clinic at the Antonin Scalia Law School, their experience is also highly interactive.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Denied from congressional internships, Joseph Fernando felt he was hitting a brick wall that would halt his dream of making a difference on the Hill. But when he transferred to �鶹��Ƶ from Virginia Tech, the opportunities he encountered and the skills he honed equipped him to be accepted to all three internships he applied for next—including two Senate internships and one at End Citizens United.

Just one year after earning his master’s degree from �鶹��Ƶ’s Schar School of Policy and Government, Chris Stockwell, MA Transportation Policy, Operations and Logistics ’17, is flying high as senior manager of partnerships at Bird—the shared scooter company that’s been making waves in headlines across the nation.