In simplest terms, George Mason University student Dillon Berger’s aspiration is to discover and fully understand the world around him. To do this, he looks at the physical and analytical elements—majoring in both philosophy and physics with a minor in mathematics.
“When I tell people my majors, I get two responses. One is, ‘How do those possibly relate?’ and the other is, ‘Oh that makes sense,’” he said. “I mean, physics started as a natural philosophy and it is a philosophy. It just kept growing into its own philosophical camp now. That’s the way I like to look at it, at least.”
Prior to Mason, Berger said his focus lay mainly on sports and that academics were not a priority. But the confidence instilled by a professor at Northern Virginia Community College inspired Berger to focus on his studies, which has led him to an impressive academic record and an internship at Cornell University.
“I wasn’t always a thinker, I wasn’t even close to it. But my entire worldview shifted in the last five years and now I just see a world that I was completely blind to before,” he said.
This past summer, Berger held an internship with the Research Experience for Undergraduates, a National Science Foundation funded program at Cornell University. There, he worked with the physics department on research projects that taught him about computers, coding, accelerator physics and more; subjects that, according to Berger, he would not have otherwise had the opportunity to experience as an undergraduate. Berger’s immediate goal after earning his degrees from Mason is to attend graduate school for physics. He hopes to eventually become a professor—encouraging students and helping them see their potential, the way a professor did for him.
Currently, Berger works with students as a tutor within the Math Tutoring Center at Mason. “When somebody I see is having a problem getting their head around something, being a tutor has helped me learn to see where people’s sticking points are. I lead them, not by telling them, but by this Socratic method of making them think and get to something they thought they couldn’t arrive at on their own.”
In 2016, Berger won the Dean’s Challenge Scholarship, which recognizes exceptional undergraduate students who have excelled while making academically-challenging choices. In the 2013-14 academic year, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages recognized his talent for language with the “Outstanding Dedication and Perseverance in upper Level Latin” award. He also received the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Mason Annual Scholarship Award in Spring 2016.
“I never let people call me smart, because it’s really about hard work and falling in love with something. I would say it’s more important to fall in love with something because when you do that, the hard work just comes out in the wash. You’re going to do it because you enjoy it. And then it doesn’t feel like hard work. It doesn’t feel like studying.”