For this graduate, Mason was an experience for a lifetime

If not for a dislocated ankle, who knows what trajectory Sean Diment’s future would have taken?

That’s probably overstating things a bit.

But Diment, a biology major at George Mason University who is graduating this month, said he decided as a freshman, while in the hospital because of the injury he sustained playing basketball, to change his major and study to become a health care provider.

“Attending Mason was a great experience that prepared me so much for medical school,” said Diment, who will attend Ohio University on a Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) scholarship.

His Honors College research project directly impacted his future goals. “I started off researching the mental health care barriers in the VHA, and am now on a pathway to be a physician who actively wants to reduce them,” he said.

“One of my recommendations was that we need more diverse providers to help the population they are going to serve,” Diment said. “When I was in the hospital going to my appointments, the thought came to mind: ‘Why don’t I be the one who is doing that? If I’m going to make those recommendations, why don’t I do it?’ ”

Diment, who is from Virginia Beach and wants to practice family medicine, has done much while at Mason.

He was in Student Government for two years, was the health chair for Mason’s NAACP chapter, was part of the Filipino Cultural Association, was a member of Green Patriots and a Patriot Leader, was an resident assistant for three years, and is the chaplain for the Virginia Lambda Chapter of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Diment also has been a volunteer crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line, a job he took early in the pandemic and after the police shootings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

“There was so much hurt,” Diment said. “I wanted to contribute something positive to the world at that moment in time.”

“He just exudes humble confidence in everything he does,” said Tahmina Rahman, an Honors College academic advisor. “He is always available to assist his peers and share his insights and experiences to help others succeed.”

The campus also had its impact on Diment.

As a freshman in a class on Middle Eastern literature, he found the respectful discourse between students of different religious backgrounds enlightening. He said those type of interactions continued in all his classes, an example to him of the diversity of Mason’s campus.

“Our world is so complex that each of us have a responsibility to make the effort to hear different perspectives,” Diment said. “If people would just take the time to talk to someone who is not like them, we’d all be better off. Be a co-conspirator in their justice. I think that’s essential.”

Essential for Diment is walking across the stage at graduation.

“I feel like I accomplished a lot here at Mason,” he said. “I have so much appreciation for all the opportunities given to me and the relationships I was able to make.”