At Northeastern Arlington, graduates turn policy, security and tech ambitions into careers
Graduates of the Arlington campus say that the niche site offers a tight-knit community of students and faculty connected to professional networks that stretch across Washington’s policy, security and technology sectors.
When Ali Haider Lodhi was searching for graduate programs that suited his background in international development, Northeastern University Arlington caught his eye.
“The reason why I came to Arlington was, one, their project management degree had a concentration in analytics, which is very unique,” said Lodhi, who is graduating this week and delivering the graduate commencement address. “And then, two, the proximity to [Washington] D.C. gives me access to all these international organizations.”
Originally from Pakistan, Lodhi previously worked in the development sector, managing donor-funded projects tied to organizations like the World Bank Group, Asian Development Bank and USAID. Passionate about helping refugees and the poor, the 33-year-old said he wanted to “pivot more toward the data side.”
“I realized the amount of money that comes in from these donors to the country, and there are a lot of inefficiencies,” Lodhi said. “I wanted to understand how analytics and data can be integrated into traditional project management roles.”
Across his two years on the Arlington campus, Lodhi learned how to “manipulate data, build reports and communicate findings to nontechnical audiences,” as well as how to use a variety of software tools for “data modeling and data visualization.” His savvy also led to an opportunity with the World Bank, where he developed a management protocol that helped “managers better monitor projects and evaluate team performance,” he said.
Lodhi is one of 61 students graduating this year. Located in the Rosslyn neighborhood in northeastern Arlington County, Virginia, the campus brings together students, government agencies, private companies and local organizations through a network of partnerships and collaborations.
Another of those graduating is Jennalyn Speer, who earned a master’s degree in security and intelligence studies.
While a student, Speer was able to peer behind the curtain on many national security issues, including changes at the Department of Homeland Security, domestic violent extremism, cyberthreats posed by emerging quantum technology, U.S. withdrawal from Russian war crime tracking in Ukraine and the civil liberties implications of National Guard deployments in American cities.
Fresh off an internship with the U.S. Marshals Service Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force, Speer said she just accepted an opportunity as a program analyst contractor with Mayvin, a global technical and knowledge-based services firm that supports the Department of Defense. At Mayvin, she said she’ll continue to support the multi-agency task force, whose expressed mission is locating and arresting fugitives in and around the Washington, D.C., region.
“I have absolutely loved my time at Northeastern’s Arlington campus learning from accomplished professionals and leaders in the national security space,” Speer said.
For Allen Cai, a graduating software engineering systems student and budding entrepreneur, choosing Northeastern University Arlington was a way to “ground himself technically” before “betting my career on what came next.”
Having traveled more than a decade earlier from Shanghai to Los Angeles, California, where he completed his undergraduate degree, Cai arrived at Arlington Tower determined to channel his entrepreneurial ambitions into results. He realized his first business idea about a year into the program, which yielded PawClips AI, an AI-generated TikTok ad video tool designed for Shopify merchants.
“I founded it in summer 2025, and the lessons from running it directly shaped why I incorporated Thunder Matrix in April 2026,” Cai said.
Thunder Matrix, Inc., is Cai’s latest venture: an AI-native consumer apps company based in Arlington. He said the company is focused on quickly building and launching consumer apps using AI tools that allow small teams — or even a single person — to work faster and more efficiently.
Incorporated this past April, the company’s flagship product — Lumi Studio, an AI beauty app — will ship on May 9, on graduation weekend.
“I’ll be in Arlington at least through the end of 2026, focused on growing Lumi Studio,” Cai said.
A common refrain from graduates of the Arlington campus is that the niche site offers a tight-knit community of students and faculty connected to professional networks that stretch across Washington’s policy, security and technology sectors. A county of about 240,000 residents, Arlington offers students direct access to the professional and political ecosystem of the Washington region, with major federal agencies, think tanks, contractors and advocacy organizations just minutes away.
Cai said Arlington was a deliberate choice: “I wanted a smaller campus where you’d actually know the people in your program, and where you could build real relationships with faculty rather than just pass through their office hours,” he said.
“The newer campus, the better weather, and the program’s career-friendly co-op structure all pointed in the same direction,” he said. “But the deciding factor was the community size.”
For Lodhi, those close-knit connections helped define his experience at the Arlington campus.
“The speech is really about community,” Lodhi said. “Arlington is a small campus, so everyone knows each other, and that creates a strong sense of connection.”
Northeastern University Arlington’s 2026 commencement is scheduled for Friday, May 8, 2026, at 4 p.m. ET.
