Newlyweds to graduate from JMU

A little less than a year ago, Robert and Cassie Frysinger wed in an amphitheater on the JMU campus. Tonight, Cassie Frysinger will graduate with a master’s degree in integrated science and technology. Her husband, Robert Frysinger, will be awarded his bachelor’s degree in ISAT on Saturday morning.

Among the proud guests will be Robert’s parents, both teachers in the ISAT program. Steve Frysinger is a professor of both ISAT and computer science while Carollyn Oglesby is a scholar in residence who teaches study abroad courses in Germany during summers.

Steve Frysinger and Oglesby, who have been teaching in the ISAT program since the mid-1990s, said Robert and Cassie picked ISAT on their own volition.

“We’ve never given any indication of what we wanted our children to be,” Oglesby said. “It’s entirely up to them. Maybe they saw how much fun we were having.”

“They need to find their own way,” added Steve Frysinger.

Robert Frysinger began his JMU career as a physics major but switched to ISAT because he felt the program offered more opportunities to apply what he learned. Robert works at Rosetta Stone in Harrisonburg as a software quality assurance analyst.

Cassie earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Virginia before enrolling in the ISAT graduate program.

“I was really interested in alternative energy and sustainability and I felt like I wanted more of that after my undergraduate degree, so the program was a good fit,” she said. Cassie works as an engineer at Kawneer in Harrisonburg.

Robert and Cassie, who met while he was attending Spotswood High School and she was attending Harrisonburg High School, will celebrate their first anniversary on June 4.