Virtual Open House Master of Education in Special Education and Graduate Certificates Transcript

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George Mason Online Admissions: So I wanted to welcome everybody, you know. Good evening. We’re at the Virtual Open House for the online master of Education and special education program here at George Mason, super excited to get started. And just so glad to have you here.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I’m going to go over just a couple of housekeeping items. If that’s okay, we’ll go over the agenda tonight. Quick overview. We will be meeting our presenter, Dr. Jodi Duke. She’s going to share valuable information about the online program. You’ll get more of an understanding. The curriculum details.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Why you should choose George Mason. I might be a little partial there, but we’ll also learn about a recent alumni’s experience in the program, about the amazing faculty. And what does the online classroom look like? I know, I get a lot of questions about that.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I did forget to introduce myself. I am Tabitha, and I am one of the online enrollment coordinators on behalf of George Mason. So I’m here just facilitating the slides. We have our expert here with us.

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George Mason Online Admissions: So that’s where my part comes in. I’ll talk a little bit about the admissions process and the requirements there, and we’ll end with a question and answer. Session. Super, you know, super excited to have you here encourage participation questions. This is the time and place to do it. It’s a great environment

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George Mason Online Admissions: to get those questions answered, so just thankful to have you here.

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George Mason Online Admissions: and with that I will go ahead

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George Mason Online Admissions: and share with you how you can participate. You know Anna’s already learned. You can use the chat. So there’s chat features that’s probably easiest. Just

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George Mason Online Admissions: in my my experience. You’re welcome. I think the raise your hand feature should be enabled. Zoom sometimes changes things, but you’re welcome to raise your hand and then there is a Q&A as well where you can put your questions in there. But honestly, I think Chat might be the easiest. That’s just my my from my experience. But we’re so glad to have you here.

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George Mason Online Admissions: and with that I would like to introduce the amazing Dr. Jodi Duke. She is our presenter tonight, and she is going to be filling you in on all the details that you’re looking for. So thank you so much for being here with us, Dr. Duke, and I’m going to go ahead and hand it over to her.

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Jodi Duke: Thank you. I guess I should update that picture. It’s so funny. Hi, I’m I’m Jodi Duke, everyone. And I’m the academic program coordinator for the autism program here at Mason. I’ve been at Mason since 2,008, so it’s been a long time, and

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Jodi Duke: it’s it’s been wonderful to be a part of building this program and seeing it grow over the years. My research specialization is autism. I

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Jodi Duke: conduct research in transition for post-secondary students. So as autistic students are leaving high school, what are some of the supports and services for them? And specifically looking at mental health supports? So I love teaching in this program. I think one of the things I’ll talk about tonight that

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Jodi Duke: that is special about this program is that you’ll get full professors, full faculty teaching your courses. And we’re all really committed to the program. So thanks for being here.

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Jodi Duke: I do a lot of online teaching. So I can monitor the chat and and do this at the same time, so please just throw questions in as they come to you or as Tablas said, raise your hand and I’ll help. I’ll stop, and we can make sure all your questions get answered.

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Jodi Duke: Alright. So

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Jodi Duke: what makes our program special? So the special Ed program at Mason is a part-time format, and I think that’s really wonderful, because it allows us to

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Jodi Duke: engage students from all areas of life. So some folks are special Ed teachers who are trying to get a master’s or graduate certificate. If you’re on a provisional teaching license in the State of Virginia. You’ve got a set amount of time to do your master’s. So our program is perfect for you. Others are

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Jodi Duke: in other fields. So we have folks who are career changers. We have people who are in other fields, and they want to learn about autism. So that’s been really interesting. I have students. I had someone who was an FBI profiler. I have people who are

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Jodi Duke: adult service providers, early childhood providers, researchers, all kinds of different things, who just want to learn about autism. And then one of the types of students that we’ve we’ve had in this program that has been sort of a wonderful surprise is family members of autistic individuals. We get a lot of folks who just want to learn so they can

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Jodi Duke: support and advocate for their loved one better. So, no matter what lens is is your

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Jodi Duke: your experience. We we will work with you the part time. Option is great. I think it allows you to focus on one course at a time and move in a sequence through the program. At the same time, though, it’s really we’re very proud of the high quality of our program and the immersive experience. So I’ll talk more about our case studies later in this time. But we have really carefully designed each course in the program. And, as I said, they’re sequenced, and

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Jodi Duke: they flow from one to the next, and they they give you a really comprehensive understanding of autism.

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Jodi Duke: The certificate.

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Jodi Duke: It tries the sleep

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Jodi Duke: our program is ranked Number 5, in the online special Ed programs by us, news and world report, which we’re really proud of.

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Jodi Duke: And

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Jodi Duke: yeah, our goal is to make sure that we are providing inclusive education and and programming for autistic individuals. And really, you know, you might hear the term neurodiverse. So individuals with disabilities and neurodiversities, and we focus on

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Jodi Duke: and oh, you in the

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Jodi Duke: teaching or doing something else from birth all the way through aging in our program.

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Jodi Duke: All right, Tabitha. Next slide, please.

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Jodi Duke: Frozen.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Duke, I think you’re freezing a little bit so sorry. Do you mind starting? Can you see the curriculum slide.

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Jodi Duke: You.

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Jodi Duke: Those are smoother, could hear everything.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Can you hear us? Okay, we kind of lost you for a second.

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Jodi Duke: I’m gonna

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Jodi Duke: and so let me talk a little bit about the curriculum, and hopefully you can hear me. There we go.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, you’re back.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Okay?

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Jodi Duke: I’m gonna work off my cell phone Internet, so thumbs up hopefully that works. Okay. So here’s the curriculum that that we offer in our program, and you’ll see on the left. Here we have core courses.

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Jodi Duke: and these are the ones that we share with our applied behavior analysis program. And these are the ones that you take regardless. And then I’ll talk to you about the autism track specifically. And those courses. So we start with 5 Edse. 501, which is a general introduction to special education. This is important, because even if you’re not here to be a special education teacher, you need to know

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Jodi Duke: the history of special education and the history of people with disabilities. So we focus a lot on

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Jodi Duke: what has happened, what the laws are for people with disabilities, and you learn all of that in 501

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Jodi Duke: Edsc. 517 is a really cool class in which you learn about technology and computer applications for special populations. And so this is everything from what we call low tech, communication and other options where you might have things that are printed out that people use to make selections. All the way through. High tech voice output devices, apps on the ipad that you can use those kinds of things.

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Jodi Duke: Then we have added, Ed, 5, 24, which is universal design for learning.

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Jodi Duke: This is one of the pivotal concepts in our program. And that is that we design and we encourage you when you leave our program to design all of activity that you develop for either students or other professionals, or whoever you’re working with in in a udl framework, which means that

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Jodi Duke: someone with a disability and without a disability can access it equally. And so this class will teach you all about how to do different options, for how someone responds to you different formats for your presentation of information. It really it really is a nice overview of a lot of really inclusive practices that are great in business applications, education applications, and many others.

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Jodi Duke: Edsc, 590 is our special education research course. And it’s not scary. That sounds scary, but it’s not. We’ll teach you all about how to study and and analyze a problem essentially. And so you will develop a research question and be able to run an application activity where you

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Jodi Duke: you examine some research and and learn about a topic

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Jodi Duke: if you choose. You can substitute that with a capstone project which is an individualized project. And so we work with students to determine which one they prefer. But most students do the the research course.

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Jodi Duke: And then the part you’re you’re really probably the most interested in is the autism track. So we actually start with 6, 34, I’m going to skip to the second 1 first, st which is our characteristics class. And in that course. Thank you. Your purple pointer is perfect

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Jodi Duke: in that class. We teach you everything about the characteristics of autism, the history of autism, and in that we focus on communication, social and behavioral characteristics. Primarily, you then go into Edse 620, which is the one I teach most often which is supporting behavior and sensory needs. I want to also say that the autism program is

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Jodi Duke: is neuro affirming. And we really take a positive view of neurodiversity. And so in our behavior and sensory course. It is all about how to support and provide positive strategies. And I think that’s a really key part of our program as well.

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Jodi Duke: 635 is the interventions course, and that one is so cool we do a different domain each week, so like academics, language, social interaction. And then we study one evidence-based practice in depth each week. And so you leave that. I teach that one, too. I tell everyone at the beginning. We’re filling your toolbox with all these tools, so that when you’re out in the field, regardless of the application again, you have a lot of really specific.

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Jodi Duke: really sound, research-based strategies ready to use.

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Jodi Duke: Edsc. 636 is our communication and literacy course, and this covers everything from pragmatic language, which is very important for autistic individuals. Pragmatic language is our everyday conversation, conversational speech. And it everything from that through literacy tips and reading tips. And you’ll you’ll get some some cool application activities in there.

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Jodi Duke: 6, 37 is our autism across the lifespan with the collaboration course. And so you learn about how to collaborate. And you spend some time actually examining your own local resources so that you can help those in your own community. So we do national and local resources in that course, as well as a lot of different strategies for collaboration.

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Jodi Duke: And our newest course is Edse 638, which I co-built with my colleague, Dr. Francis. And this is a really cool course. We have it split into 2 topics. So each week you do a little bit learning about assessment and a little bit learning about intersectionality and intersectionality is

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Jodi Duke: the intersection of autism with other identities. So race ethnicity, gender, sexual identity all of those things that make us who we are and in the world of autism. Some of these intersections are really critical to

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Jodi Duke: to what makes each person unique who who has autism. And so we really want you to have a strong sense of how to engage and support all the different intersectionalities that you may, you may encounter.

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Jodi Duke: That was a lot of talking, but hopefully, hopefully, that was clear.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I love it now. Thank you for sharing about the new courses as well. I was taking some notes.

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Jodi Duke: Yes, yes, that one’s really fun.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yes.

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Jodi Duke: All right. So, as I said before, we are designed to prepare professionals to work with autistic individuals in a range of areas. This was really important to us. Although we’re housed in a special education program at George Mason, we know that not everyone wants to be a teacher. So this is not a teacher track. Specifically, you will not get your initial licensure through us.

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Jodi Duke: There is currently no licensure in the State of Virginia for autism. So this is great for people. Sometimes we have people who are educators, and they want to add this as an add on certificate, which is a wonderful option. Sometimes people are working in the adult services field. They are working in employment. We see a lot of neurodiversity employment initiatives right now, where

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Jodi Duke: companies want to hire autistic individuals. And so this is a great way to learn how to support those folks really well. So we see a range, and no matter what the purpose is for you to be interested in enrolling in our program. We’ll we’ll work it out with you and make sure that we’re tailoring the program to meet your needs.

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Jodi Duke: I think the statistic that follows is really critical. If you’ve been watching the news over the last decades, you’ve seen this number, this prevalence. Just go up and up and up. So we’re at one in 31 children are diagnosed with autism by age 8.

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Jodi Duke: This means we need a lot of professionals. And and it’s funny because I put in this with children. But then the next one is also important. They’re growing up. So we have a huge need for people to work with autistic adults as well. And I hope you hear my language. This is all what we’ll teach you in the program. This is identity. 1st language. When I say autistic children or autistic adults rather than

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Jodi Duke: children with autism. So we’ll teach you all these neuroaffirming practices. And we really will prepare you for just about any career that involves autistic individuals.

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Jodi Duke: Next slide, please.

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Jodi Duke: So I love this slide. So one of our alumni, Beth Felson is

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Jodi Duke: you can actually google this company and look her up. Spectrum transition coaching. After leaving our program, she opened her own transition, coaching and advocacy firm, and she is so successful. She works with families who have autistic, like really young adults from early high School age, middle school on, and she supports those those

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Jodi Duke: young adults as they decide what to do after high school. She works with a lot of young adults as they enter careers. She really she coaches in a wide range. But here’s what she said about the program. The faculty were very engaged with the students and clearly interested in our success.

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Jodi Duke: They were very knowledgeable in the subject area and clearly passionate about their field. They were incredibly responsive to questions as well.

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Jodi Duke: So we’re grateful for her feedback.

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Jodi Duke: Okay, the best part. Who would you work with? So you’ve met me up on the top left is my colleague and one of my best friends in the world, Dr. Grace Francis. She is a brilliant researcher and teacher. She is

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Jodi Duke: really prevalent in the field of family and professional partnership, and comes from a family with a sibling, with a disability, and which gives her a really unique perspective on things. She is brilliant, but probably one of the most down to Earth professors you’ll ever meet. So a lot of fun to work with.

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Jodi Duke: That’s who I developed Edse 638 with, and she teaches our collaboration course as well. Dr. Lynn Jorgensen is our other amazing full-time faculty that works with us. She is currently the director of our Mason life program as well. That is our post-secondary program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

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Jodi Duke: And so Dr. Jorgensen comes to class with all the stories and examples because she is supporting autistic students at the college level around Mason’s campus, and she also has a private advocacy business of her own, so knowledgeable, so lovely. You’ll learn a lot from her as well.

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Jodi Duke: The other faculty on this page Ted Hawk and Lisa Tullo and Christy Park, and then not on. Here is Dr. Christine Bartol. They teach in our applied behavior analysis program.

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Jodi Duke: They’re also wonderful. I just won’t tell you as much about them.

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George Mason Online Admissions: So I love. I love getting to hear about the faculty and.

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Jodi Duke: Yes.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, everybody’s so involved. And they’re out there doing. They’re not just telling you they’re doing it as well. So.

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Jodi Duke: We are. We’re all working in the field. And you know I have 2 kids who are college age. My son just graduated from college, and he has told me numerous times that he he was at a very large.

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Jodi Duke: prestigious university, and he never in his major, he never had a 1 on one meeting with a full time faculty member. He only saw teaching assistants gras. That will not be your experience here. You will meet with us on zoom or in person, whatever your preferences as many times as you need to. And you’ll get to know us really well. And I think that’s a feature we have to highlight, because I think it’s really unique.

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George Mason Online Admissions: It is I have. I actually. So just from this side, I have a lot of students that ask about that will, I actually see, it’s online. And actually the great segue to our next slide.

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Jodi Duke: Let’s move to the next slide.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I was, gonna say, a lot of students ask about this. So perfect.

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Jodi Duke: Yes.

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Jodi Duke: So the online learning, what does that look like? And you may be like, oh, I don’t know if this is going to work for me. So we have designed the learning to be asynchronous, which means that you log in. And each week we have a module set up for you. We’ve designed the module really carefully, and we’ve been running this for many years now. So we have fine tuned things, I think, to a degree where

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Jodi Duke: you’ll find it to be a reasonable course load. Given the fact that we know you are doing this part time, and likely working and have families and all the other obligations in the world. But you will log in. You will view video lectures that are us. It’s it’s Dr. Francis and Dr. Jorgensen and me talking to you just kind of like we are tonight. But in a recorded format

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Jodi Duke: you will have engaging activities with your peers where you talk with them in our online canvas platform. And then I jump in and talk with you guys and put notes in. So those are our discussions. You will have activities. The cyber rat.

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Jodi Duke: sadly, is not an autism assignment. You will not get to do cyber rat with me. That’s a behavior analysis activity. But we do have these really wonderful real world case studies that we are so proud of in our program. And what I love about this is that even though you’re learning online. It gives you this real life, practical application of everything you’re learning.

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Jodi Duke: And so our case studies. We followed 4 autistic individuals around for 3 days, each with a full video and camera crew, and recorded everything in their lives. Their families were amazing and gave us access to their schools. One of them is a student, Allie, who was at George Mason at the time we got to follow her. She was working at the Mason life program. We got to meet her family.

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Jodi Duke: There’s a young girl named Brooke. We go to school with Brooke. You get to meet her whole family as well. You get to meet their outside therapists literally just get a whole sense of their world.

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Jodi Duke: And then you have assignments throughout your program that are centered around those 4 individuals. So, Jake, William, Allie, and Brooke, you will know them so well by the end, and Jake is a close family friend of his family, is a close friend of mine, and he’s now a full adult, but he was

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Jodi Duke: he was 19 when we did this. He’s now, I think, 25, so I’ll provide you all with updates as we go. But it’s really nice, because you’ll get the sense that you’re actually developing assignments and and making plans for someone who is real and exists in the world instead of just, I think, a textbook scenario. So that’s a nice feature in our online learning. And then the other part is that we are always accessible. So

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Jodi Duke: Anytime you have a question you will just let us know, and we pop on zoom just like this and set up a meeting, and it can be 10 min if that’s all you need, or it can be an hour, whatever you need. I talk with students

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Jodi Duke: almost every day about things, whether it’s a question about a course or what do I do? I’m trying to decide between a couple of different jobs. One of my favorite things because I teach behavior is, I love helping people with family members who are autistic and helping problem solve.

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Jodi Duke: I’ve been helping one of my students. Her son has started bedwetting this summer, so we’re working on that. And I was helping another student with getting her son to go to a summer camp because it was totally new, and he was not excited about going

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Jodi Duke: so. We really we are. We are accessible to you, even though it is this asynchronous format, and I think the positive part of the asynchronous format is, it allows you to move through the content at the pace. That’s right for you, and at the day and time that’s right for you. So you have a week to complete things, and you can work around your your schedule, your family schedule, whatever’s going on for you.

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Jodi Duke: Alright.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Wonderful. Thank you. I get lots of questions about that. So thank you for for sharing.

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Jodi Duke: Absolutely.

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George Mason Online Admissions: So the next slides. Actually. So my show. Like, I said, I’m 1 of the online enrollment coordinators. And this is what my job is, I support students through the application process. Love, what I do love getting to help students.

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George Mason Online Admissions: And this is an amazing program. So I just get excited talking to students with it about it. So before we go into our Q&A portion, I’m going to go over just a little bit of the process here.

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George Mason Online Admissions: and if you have any questions, feel free, you know, to reach out to us. I’ll be sharing our contact information. You know, if you already have an admissions. You know, enrollment counselor, that you’re working with definitely feel free to reach out to them, or if you don’t know who you’re working with. I can help you out with that, and get you all connected, too. So but yeah, so you a lot of times, I honestly, I prefer that you do talk to us so we can share the program details.

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George Mason Online Admissions: And you know, help you through the process. We we all love what we do we have a great team? You know. But one of the things that you’re you’re gonna do is when you start the application. The portal is very, I feel like it’s user friendly. You know. You know, we’re here to help you through that process. I’ve sat on the phone with people gone step by step. So we’re here for that.

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George Mason Online Admissions: You’re going to want a copy of your transcript. Officials are needed in the long run, but for your application purposes. We can actually accept unofficial as long as they meet all the qualifications and have all of the information listed. We do prefer official, and we can help you with that process. I’ve helped people order those and things. So that is something you’re going to want.

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George Mason Online Admissions: An updated professional resume is also needed.

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George Mason Online Admissions: 2 letters of recommendation, and they’re actually sent through the portal. They’re very easy, I tell people make sure you’re connecting with your recommenders, and they’re looking for recommenders that know you, you know, professionally and able to, you know, recommend you on that end. They’re sent right out through your application portal through email. It usually doesn’t take any longer than 10 min or so.

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George Mason Online Admissions: and the last thing is your personal statement or your goal statement. You might hear us call it that as well. Why, I always tell people, why do you want to? Why do you want to do this? What’s your what’s your desire for the program? What’s your passion? I tell people this is this is helping them get to know you. What are your goals? And I say, make sure you include why, George Mason. There are different programs out there. George Mason is absolutely phenomenal and amazing. So tell tell them, why do you want to go to George Mason?

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George Mason Online Admissions: And then just as easy as that. You can submit your application. But and if you have any questions about that process, please feel free to let us know I’m going to be sharing our contact information actually, on the next slide. But yeah, I’d love to go ahead. I’m going to go ahead and open it up. Next to questions

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George Mason Online Admissions: and answers, you have the QR. Code there we have Dr. Duke here so kindly sharing her time, so feel free to ask any questions that you have. I was going to hop into the chat real quick, Dr. Duke, can you see any questions in there?

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Jodi Duke: I don’t see them yet, but I’m ready.

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George Mason Online Admissions: So definitely. If y’all are able to feel free to put those in the chat or you know, let us know if you have anything.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I have some questions. If they don’t, we have.

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Jodi Duke: Okay.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Shy individuals today.

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Jodi Duke: I I gave a lot of information really quickly, too, so it may take a minute for everyone to process, which is fine.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah.

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Jodi Duke: At the end I’ll give you everyone my email. And that way anything comes to you later, you can always reach out.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, thank you so much.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, we do have a question.

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Jodi Duke: Great question, Mary. Yes, I didn’t really talk about behavior, the Aba program at all, but I’m happy to do that. So I’m not the coordinator of that. That’s Dr. Bartol. But I can give you a little overview. And if you’ve been looking into Aba programs, you know that every program in the country is undergoing revision right now, because the Board put out new standards and is requiring it to be a

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Jodi Duke: full master’s program, and so at George Mason. Our team is doing the same thing. They are working really hard on updating and and creating new coursework to meet the requirements that the Board has set out. And

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Jodi Duke: right now the goal is that in spring of 26 we will be able to

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Jodi Duke: enroll our 1st group. So that means in the fall we should be able to start info sessions on that program. The name would be changing to just behavior analytic and not Aba. The A is going away. I’m not completely sure why Dr. Bartold knows that better than I do. But it’s just on a brief pause, Mary, so it’s a

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Jodi Duke: I did skip all of that, and usually Dr. Bartold is here with me. But we didn’t want to give you all information, and then tell you that there wasn’t anything anything quite ready yet. So if you’re interested, just hang in there and and it’s coming very quickly. The faculty are working all summer on

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Jodi Duke: on development.

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George Mason Online Admissions: That’s exciting news, too.

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Jodi Duke: It is. Yes, it’s a lot of work for them, but they’re doing great.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I can imagine. I can only.

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Jodi Duke: Not the relaxing summer they had planned. Probably.

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Jodi Duke: No, it’s okay.

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Jodi Duke: It’s gonna be great. Once it’s built.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, yes, definitely.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Great question, Mary. Does anybody else have any questions?

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George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, we do have another one. There.

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Jodi Duke: Oh, Tabitha, this might be something you know better than I know.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, let’s see, I have my bachelors from

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George Mason Online Admissions: from an international university. So for yes, so for international students, there are. There are a little bit additional guidelines. There’s some supplemental documentation that’s needed, and I’m happy to send you over that information after the session. You would need a degree evaluation. George Mason does prefer West World education services

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George Mason Online Admissions: because they are. They’re very comprehensive and complete. But it can be from any nasis member. I know that’s a lot, so I will send it over to you.

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George Mason Online Admissions: and depending on where your degree is from, there is an English language proficiency exam required for a good chunk. So

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George Mason Online Admissions: we can definitely go into more details about that. But it’s it’s just a little bit more extra, but not too bad at all. And that’s something that actually, my team helps with. I know I work on a daily basis with individuals helping out with that with that

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George Mason Online Admissions: portion. So yeah, great question

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George Mason Online Admissions: any other questions out there?

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George Mason Online Admissions: Alright.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Great question. Let’s see. Okay, I have an international degree. But with a Spartan evaluation done in 2023. I’m going to be honest. I’m not familiar with Spartan. I would have to check and see if that’s a nasis member or not, Antoinette. If you could send me over your contact information privately to make sure we have it. I would definitely like to send you my contact information, and you’re welcome to send that over to me, and I can check

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George Mason Online Admissions: check on that for you. Great question

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George Mason Online Admissions: any other questions out there.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I have one while we’re waiting, if you don’t mind.

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Jodi Duke: Okay, I’m ready. Tabitha.

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George Mason Online Admissions: A lot of times. I

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George Mason Online Admissions: I get asked, you know. Okay, like, especially with the certificate program. What are like some career fields that people can go into.

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Jodi Duke: Yeah.

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Jodi Duke: Yeah. So that’s I think that’s what’s exciting about this program is, there’s so many choices. So you can certainly work in an education setting, if you like. A lot of people work in schools, instructional assistants.

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Jodi Duke: even different behavior positions that school systems offer. We have a lot of folks who go into adult services working in community organizations working with employment field. We have folks who go into the employment field working with different organizations.

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Jodi Duke: either running neurodiversity initiatives or supporting those. We have a lot of folks who do work in different advocacy, coaching, sort of running their own business model, which is exciting kind of like Beth that I showcased.

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Jodi Duke: So yeah, some do early childhood as well, because we will cover that so you could work with little ones if you like that.

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Jodi Duke: it’s really a range.

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Jodi Duke: Good question, and then it looks like Antoinette has. I don’t know if I’m saying your name right, but another one. So yeah, great.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yes.

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Jodi Duke: We would be starting in the fall. So end of August. And yeah.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Great. Yeah, great question. I should have totally included that earlier.

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Jodi Duke: So.

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George Mason Online Admissions: And applications are due. By August 1st

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George Mason Online Admissions: I’ll be honest. I love them a little bit prior to that, so I can make sure everything is there, but they are technically due by August first, st I just tell people it’s never too early to apply. As long as that application is out there they are accepted on a rolling basis.

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George Mason Online Admissions: We have some students that are already just waiting for their spring start of spring of January of 26. So definitely. And yeah, the classes start August 25.th So and thank you for sharing about the career different career opportunities out there.

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Jodi Duke: Of course. Yeah, everyone has good questions.

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Jodi Duke: I’m gonna throw my email in here, too, for anyone. If something comes to you later, I’m around happy to talk about the program, meet with you all individually, email, whatever works.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah, I love these sessions always.

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George Mason Online Admissions: I love interacting, you know, with with prospective students. And I’m just finding out more. You always find out something new. It’s awesome.

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Jodi Duke: I know I’m learning about the international undergrad part. I didn’t know all that. So that’s cool.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yeah.

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Jodi Duke: Hopefully, it helps all of you who’ve attended. So that you see a real face, not just a program on the website, too. We’re real.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Yes, absolutely I yes, yes. Oh, great question, Mary. Yeah. I’ll I’ll let you.

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Jodi Duke: You talk about.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Dr. Duke, you’re the expert.

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Jodi Duke: Yeah, actually, we run 8 week courses. Your estimate was right. In the summer there’s 7 weeks. But during the academic year they’re 8 weeks. So what’s really nice about the program is you could we knock out 2 courses, a semester in terms of the traditional semester being

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Jodi Duke: for, like our on campus programs at George Mason. It’s a 15 week semester that runs from the end of August through December. But for our program we’re able to do 2 fit 2 courses in there. So like I said earlier, you just take one at a time and you move through the program really quickly. But in a manageable way. It’s all it’s all designed to be done in in those 8 week chunks.

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Jodi Duke: Karina. This does not give you the licensure that you would need for early childhood. But it’s a nice add on component. So if you did you would have to do the licensure program in early childhood or early childhood special Ed. And then you could do this as a certificate that you add on but unfortunately we don’t do the teacher licensure part

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Jodi Duke: because they don’t have that in autism.

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Jodi Duke: I hope they get it, though, and we get to do that someday soon.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Me, too. I second that I get that.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Not a lot.

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Jodi Duke: Me, yeah, me, too. Yep.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Great questions. Y’all any other questions out there.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Oh, we still have Dr. Duke with us.

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George Mason Online Admissions: But definitely, if you have any questions or anything comes up, please feel free to reach out our contact. Information is on there. Our to reach our department. The main number is (703) 348-5006.

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George Mason Online Admissions: And the email on there, it’s online [email protected] online. Gmuedu, it’s very long. You’re welcome to take a screen, snip, or take a picture.

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George Mason Online Admissions: but we’re here to support you. We’re very excited, and so thankful you joined us tonight and thank you, Dr. Duke, for your time, we so appreciate it. We love these sessions, and thank you all for joining us. Was there anything else that you wanted to add? Dr. Duke.

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Jodi Duke: No, I hope that. Oh, there’s a little floating part someone made that was so cute. I can do that, too. Hold on! Can I do that.

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Jodi Duke: There we go. Maybe I did it, and I didn’t know. But thank you all so much. I’m so excited to see people interested in this field. You will never want for a job in the field of autism, because there are just so many different applications of your your knowledge and expertise. So we look forward to having you join us. And I’m around via email. And we can set up a time to talk at any time.

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George Mason Online Admissions: Thank you so much, and thank you for joining us. Everybody.

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Jodi Duke: Thanks. Everyone have a wonderful night.