Class of 2013: Freshman Blog

STUDENT ADMISSIONS ADVISORY BOARD (SAAB)

Posted by Greco S.

 

If you are reading this then it is safe to assume you are aware of Hopkins Interactive and the blogs, videos, forums, and other related projects. So who’s in charge of all these?

WE ARE -- the Student Admissions Advisory Board, SAAB in short (pronounced just like the car) and we are in many was the student marketing branch for the Admissions Office. We are the faces of Johns Hopkins University and we try our best to show the real life at Hopkins, should it be academic or personal. Our goals are to make the school admissions more approachable and accessible to all the prospective and admitted students and to help those students make their best college decisions.

To do so, some of us post blogs. Most bloggers post entries every week, but we can also share blogs (like all the freshmen SAABers) and post entries every other week. You can write about your classes, research experience, or something personal like what you did on Halloween! Through blogging, we are hoping to provide something beyond our formal admission website and talk about Hopkins in current students’ point of view. We also use twitter as well. Right now, JHU_Saznin, JHU_Brian, and JHU_Keith are posting daily tweets about their college lives. It’s all about making our school more approachable and relatable to our prospective and admitted students.

Another role is to answer the questions posted on our Hopkins Forums (Message Boards). Our Hopkins Interactive Forum is the place where prospective/admitted students post questions about academics, student life, and admissions process. In addition, we have a “Parents’ Corner” for all the parents to ask questions as well. Students can directly interact with us and get information from the real insiders!

This is not all! We also participate in Open Houses as well. Some of you might have visited our Fall Open House 2009 programs. I was there mingling with you all during lunch and answered questions. We will also be doing similar thing during the Spring Open Houses for admitted students as well. Some of us are designing an awesome booklet named the Insider’s Guide, which will provide a variety of information from choosing the right dorm to finding good restaurants around the campus. All of us also interact face-to-face with the students during the Open Houses and answer questions. It’s all about being the friendly faces of Hopkins.

We meet once every week and the meeting is usually an hour and a half, sometimes shorter but never longer. Most of the time we talk about upcoming events like Open Houses and brainstorm ideas for ongoing projects. Every SAABers, no matter what year he/she is in, has an equal voice during the meetings.

Aside from all the work we do, ALL the SAAB people here (SAABers) are amazing and unique individuals. It’s just so interesting how diverse we are in terms of where we are from, ethnicity, majors, and even interests. It’s a group in which you can be who you are and truly feel like you are contributing. I did have some difficulties adjusting to this new college environment, but not for long; many of the upperclassmen SAABers helped me a lot with the transition from choosing classes and finding resources. It feels great to know that I belong here.

Hopkins is different. And it is our role to show this to the prospective students. In order to do so, we need people with creativity. We need people who can think outside the box and give Hopkins a distinct appeal to the prospective students. Commitment is also very important as well. Commitment is what makes us active on forums, blogs, and other projects we are working on. Personally, I would love to have people with diverse background to join us since we would very much like to be accessible to students with diverse interests and talents.

To be part of SAAB, you need to fill out the application provided during summer. SAAB members and Admissions_Daniel read all the applications and pick the applicants we would like to interview during the Hopkins orientation period. After the interview, SAABers and Daniel meet once again for the final deliberation.

SAAB is always evolving. We started with only a few people helping out during open houses, but now we are utilizing not only our own Hopkins Interactive website, but also blogs, Twitter, and even Youtube. We also connect through Facebook, creating Facebook groups for specific class years. The result is tremendous, almost every admitted students joining our groups and actively posting discussions and even planning meet-ups before actually coming to Hopkins! With our effort, Hopkins is more and more opening its arms to the prospective/admitted students and I feel honored to be part of this amazing, innovative group of people.

If you are interested, get your application next summer! We are so eager to meet you!

What It's Like To Be a ChemBE

When I was applying to colleges I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to major in.  I was sort of torn between chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, or mechanical engineering.  I just sort of blindly picked chemical engineering for my applications and stuck with it.  After my first semester in college, I know I made the right choice in majoring in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.  You can also read about my experience as a female engineering student here. ChemBE is a mixture of aspects from all disciplines including chemistry, physics, biology, math, and engineering.  

In oversimplified terms chemical engineering is the process of creating more valuable chemical compositions from less valuable raw chemicals.  In actuality, the discipline is much broader than that, and it ranges from fields of biomedical research to petroleum science!

 

What drew me to Hopkins’ engineering program is its unbeatable reputation of available undergraduate research.  If you haven't check it out the department website and current research here is the link: http://www.jhu.edu/chembe/. Read up about what some of the faculty are researching and what they've discovered! David Gracias’ work is particularly interesting, and I know a couple of undergraduates in his lab. http://www.jhu.edu/chembe/faculty-template/DavidGracias.html I'd check out the lab page, it’s pretty awesome! Also, Hopkins’ ChemBE department actually just got a $15 million grant for a lab on the physics of cancer! 

 

ChemBE is a really special major in that you can pretty much do any job with it. Your freshman year you can take a course if you're interested, and it is required for the major, that is called Chemical Engineering Today. In the course every week a different speaker comes in and talks about what they do with their degree in ChemBE. Everyone from a patent lawyer to a guy from a company that makes hydrogen fuel cells and a senior researcher at the center of oncology at the Hopkins Hospital comes in to talk. I would highly recommend taking the course. In fact all intended ChemBE's take it fall of freshman year.

Chemical Engineering is a hard program no doubt.  You will take some of hardest courses at Hopkins, and kids will widen your eyes when you say that it is your major. I really believe that if you want something and you motivate yourself, you can do anything. So if you want to be ChemBE of course it is possible! Don't be intimidated by what others say! 

You pretty much take a lot of everything for the major, including a good amount of physics, chemistry, and three semesters of calc and one semester of differential equations. After you have completed these intro level courses, you take mostly upper level chemical engineering that focus on various subjects such as reaction kinetics, mass transfer, and seperation processes.  Most students begin to take courses within the department starting their sophomore year, but if you enter with enough credits you can start as early as first semester freshmen year.  So if you're interested in that good stuff, great! If you know what it means, even better!  Check out the major requirements here:http://www.jhu.edu/chembe/undergraduate-programs/. A lot of the upper level courses are very oriented in preparing students for life after Hopkins, whether you are entering industry, research and development, medical school, or graduate work. 
Hopkins also has great relationships with chemical engineering firms such as Merck and Genetech(creators of tamiflu!).  There are always oppurtunities for summer internships with many, many firms.  Internships are a great way to see if you are more interested in the industry side of the field or the research, and they can also help you decide what to persue after graduation. 

 

There are 3 concentrations: molecular and cellular bioengineering, nanotechnology, and none. They really overlap a lot, and for the most part are pretty much identical. The usually differ based on one or two courses, such as cell biology.  The “easiest” of the 3 is no concentration, and this is more like your "classical chemical engineering." 

I am a molecular and cellular bioengineering major, but who knows I may flip-flop as the years pass.  I am not really sure what I’ll be doing after graduation, but I am really interested in doing research, so I am leaning towards graduate school.  Ultimately, I entered an engineering program to become an engineer!  After all that is why you get a degree in engineering, right?  

One thing about ChemBe is, unlike some other majors but similar to other engineering disciplines, it is pretty difficult to double major. It is possible of course, depending on how many advanced placement credits you come in with and how many credits you want to take at a time.  I am currently looking into either double majoring or minoring in mathematics, but Chemical Engineering always comes first! 

JHU has a very active AICHE chapter and chemical engineering car club. Check it out here:http://jhuaiche.org/. We are hosting the national conference this year, which is a huge deal!
I am really happy with my choice in major. The department is like my little home away from home. The professors are very friendly as well as other undergraduates. I am very excited to take my first course within the department next semester, Chemical and Biological Process Analysis!

 - Cate Watkins

The Triplet State: Feminine, Female, and an Engineer

I think a lot can be said about a person from a first impression.  However, I think a lot more is left unsaid.

I have always been a little ashamed, and to a point still am today, of admitting exactly what I am and what I do.  I get a large range of reactions, especially outside of Hopkins, when I actually tell people what I am majoring in.  The line “I am actually studying chemical and biomolecular engineering with a concentration in cellular and molecular bioengineering…” elicits responses ranging from laughter to shock.  A part of me wants to laugh it off; another part is embarrassed and never wants to endure another introduction again. 

 

 

I’ve been told that I’m not really a stereotypical engineering type.  But what is a stereotypical engineering type?  Is it the male with big glasses, sloppily dressed, coffee-chugging, croc-wearing, socially awkward type?  I don’t know many people who fit into that stereotype anyways.  Maybe it’s a shock that there is something in my skull, not just empty space.  Maybe it is a bummer that dumb blond jokes won’t apply. 

It’s almost as if society views being feminine, female, and an engineer as a forbidden quantum triplet state.  Even though quantum mechanics claims that a triplet state is impossible, it occurs.  In life there are always people to prove our preconceived notions wrong.  So maybe I am some sort of living dichotomy, a natural Frankenstein, of abstract-minded romantic and a systematic logician.  I am a Barbie-blonde cookie-cutter creation of femininity and a rebel fighting to fit in a male-dominant world.  So if I could chose two words to stereotype myself, I would chose female engineer. 

 

These two words imply strength and courage, characteristics I feel I lack some days.  Sometimes, it is difficult looking around in my courses just to realize that there is no one else that looks like me.  Sometimes you look around and realize you’re the only girl in the room, or maybe one of few and you get this sense of solidarity.  Sometimes I think maybe I am alone in this dichotomy and in these ambitions, but then again I believe no one is alone. 

Throughout high school my dreams changed.  I wanted to be a freelance writer, I wanted to be a hair stylist, and I wanted to be a jazz musician.  Honestly, I think I could have followed any of those dreams.  In the end, when I was really serious about looking at schools, I started to think about what I am capable of.  I had always been interested in science.  My dad, who is literally the real life Doc Brown (from back to the future), always had a good array of chemicals for me to play with when I was little.  From spilling bottles of mercury on my kitchen floor just to watch the scattering of tiny metallic orbs, to throwing pure sodium in water in my backyard, to my clever use of platinum wire in my freshman sludge project, chemistry and I always had a dynamic relationship. 

Not many people get the opportunity to do what I do.  Some people are just not programmed to be engineers, some people just can’t do math, and some things just don’t click.  I am really fortunate to be one of the people, where things aligned just right, and I do have the opportunity to pursue something like Chemical Engineering.  I think, well gosh darn it; if I am capable of this I should do it.  This is not to say I’m perfect by any means.  I’ll never be the girl with the 4.0 and extraordinary extracurriculars.   In the end, it doesn’t matter if my name shows up in the local paper on the Dean’s List, I’ll I care about is learning.  It’s what I love, and what I am here for.  Maybe other students have different plans; whether it is a lucrative job post graduation or acceptance into a fancy medical school, but for me the more challenging the material the better and I am here for the next challenge.  Maybe this makes me some sort of masochistic super nerd, but it’s who I am. 

There are so many statistics and figures that try to prove that maybe women will never be as academically capable at men.  No matter what you read, you can’t shape yourself to fit into what others will claim.  Nobody wants to be another point on the curve, you have to push yourself to be an outlier to this data set; you have to give yourself a chance.  It may feel like you’re an outsider in the good ol’ boys clubs.  It may feel like you don’t belong.  Ultimately, it is up to you to convince yourself that you do.  I honestly believe that there is no intellectual difference between men and women.  In fact, I bet I can do anything a man can do just as well, maybe even better. 

 

I feel that girls spend so much time cutting each other down.  From a “she’s too fat comment” to a snide “that dress is hideous” muttered blurb.  It’s unfortunate the sometimes girls spend so much time and energy cutting each other down instead of using that effort to come together as a gender.  Some people think that the women’s rights movement ended decades ago, but I can feel that it is still very alive today.  Maybe in all the laws and legislature men and women are equal, but in everyday life exists discrimination and generalizations that prevent true equitable treatment.  This inequality exists not only in the field of science, or higher education, or the work place.  It is in everyday living we have to endure the ignorance of others, have to contest the stereotypes, and fight not to perpetuate them. 

   

When I look back at all the adults in my life that pushed me further into academia, I am really truly grateful for all that they have done, despite my ignorance at moments.  I remember one day in physical science lab in my freshman year of high school, a group of friends and I were joking around laughing about how women couldn’t be engineers.  Our teacher overheard us and lectured us about how women are just as capable as men and they should pursue engineering.  This teacher pushed me individually into pursuing science, telling me that I could go anywhere I wanted, be anything I wanted, and not to let anyone hold me back. 

I also think back to an interview I had my senior year with an alumni of my high school.  She told me about nearly fifty years ago, when she attended my high school, how she was one of the first girls to ever take physics at the school.  The teacher would lecture the few girls in the course how women were intellectually incapable of studying physics, and he would unfairly grade their work. 

These two instances both haunt my memory and inspire me to never give up in my ambitions.  I think about these two memories all the time. 

I am so fortunate to exist at this point in time.  I am granted so many opportunities that never existed for women before.  I am the first female in my family to pursue a degree in natural sciences, and I am the first person in my family to pursue a degree in engineering.  I want to be the first person in my family to get a PhD, so that would make me the first Dr. Watkins. 

 

I realize that sometimes the factors that are small and seemingly insignificant truly can affect the path we choose in life.  It’s the little things and places that we submerse ourselves that shape us into the adults we will become.  From a Merck Index on my bookshelf since before I could read and a particle accelerator in my basement from before I knew what an atom was, I can see now that I am in so many ways just a product of the environment I was raised in.  Maybe we are just like elementary particles and where we go with our lives is just a product of probability and pure chance.  I never chose my parents, or my eye color, or my hometown.  I never chose to be female.

So we can take what chance has given us, but we can also make cognizant decisions about how exactly we can play the hand that we’ve been dealt.  We have to think about what we are capable of, what we can change, what we can do to make the world we live in a better place. 

I am pursuing a degree in chemical engineering not just to follow my own dream.  I do it for all the women in the decades before me that couldn’t pursue this dream.  For the girls at my high school fifty years ago that were told they weren’t capable of learning physics.  For the housewives decades ago who wanted to build bridges and buildings, not just stare at them through a kitchen window.  For the adolescent girls who think playing unintelligent garners the affection of the opposite sex.  For my potential future daughters, granddaughters, and nieces. 

To me engineering is so much more than a list of courses, a set of skills, or a degree.  It’s a symbol for something broader and much more meaningful.    It’s a way for me to make society a better a place, to protest the discrimination I have endured, to further the hard work of women before me, and to give girls in future generations, who dream of being anything, a better, more accepting world to follow their aspirations. 

Intersession

Posted by: Daniel R.

Hey, Everyone!

It’s been awhile, so I thought I may as well give y’all an update on life at Hopkins.  As you may know, at Hopkins we have an intersession, a three-week period when a few one or two hour (funfunfunfun) classes are offered pass/fail for everyone.  Because classes are so relaxed, intersession’s a lot of fun, and there’s so much less stress than during the regular semester.  Also, because it’s a short amount of time, we also have a lot of freedom to choose classes, in that we can go for a class we otherwise wouldn’t have gone for – think like a BME kid taking a poetry class, for instance.  There’s a lot of experimentation in that regard, and it’s pretty fun.

I’m taking a one-credit course entitled “The Ethnic Gangster in American Cinema.”  Basically, we look at gangster films with protagonists of different ethnicities.  We’re watching three for the course: “The Godfather” (1972 version), “Scarface” (Brian DePalma, 70’s version), and “American Gangster.”  I enjoyed all three of these films, and the class discussions have been really chilled out and fun.  Most of all, it’s sort of awesome to have to watch like “The Godfather” for homework.  There are worse assignments – trust me.  Our grade rests on one 4-6 page paper, which I really should start thinking about. 

Besides that class, which meets at night, I’m working full time in the Undergraduate Admissions mailroom, where I open and sort and open and sort and open and sort (what seems like all of your) application components.  When you (or your high school) mail any application materials, they initially get sorted before being read by the Admissions committee.  I’m one of the like ten student workers who open and sort the mail along with some part-time and full-time Admissions Operations staff. Our role is to sort all the mail so the documents can be scanned and indexed, and ultimately make complete online files for the Admissions staff to review.  We’re also starting to get the Candidate Reply Forms from the ED admits, which spices things up (transcripts and teacher recs do get dull).  I feel sort of obliged to tell everyone who’s worrying about their application to chill if they haven’t heard back if we got everything – we get a ton of mail, and it takes some time to open and sort everything =].

 

[don’t believe me on the amount of mail? believe me now]

 

Besides that, though, not much is going on during intersession.  Not quite everyone’s back – including my roommate – so it’s a little quiet, but this is counterbalanced by the fact that nobody really has any homework.  I’m getting good at enough at Wii Tennis to give Federer a scare, and when I’m not doing that, a lot of SAABers are back, so I’ve been chilling with JHU_Cate and JHU_Sarah pretty often. 

 

Have fun!

 

 

JHU Model U.N.

Posted by: Tyler D. 

Student Organization Name: JHU Model U.N.  

Category of Group: Special Interest

Your Name: Tyler Dougherty  

Your Year: 2013

Your Hometown: Ocean City, NJ

Your Position: Member/ Moderator

It all started while watching a Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen movie. The 2001 cinematic masterpiece, “Winning London,” showcases the two young women attending a Model U.N. conference in London, England. You know, just a weekend getaway.

While I forget the details, Mary Kate & Ashley are faced with some adversity and fabulously overcome it all the while staying cute in painfully coordinated outfits. So, obviously I wanted to attend one of these “conferences” where I met a group of multi-cultural students and was able to save the day, steal the show, and somehow find a cute boy with an English accent.

 

As I left my tween years, however, I learned that my high school did not offer a Model U.N. club! I could not handle the jealousy I had of the students from other schools who had the ability to travel to various cities and colleges and strut their stuff to the Security Council. But after attending the student activities fair during my first week here at JHU, I was happily surprised by the lovely Model U.N. club.

Actually, there are two Model U.N. clubs. One club is focused on attending other colleges’ events and competing in them while the other Model U.N. club at Hopkins hosts its own conference for high-schoolers. I am a member of the latter and loving it.

 There are mixed levels of experience among the members. Some are like me and have never uttered one syllable of Model U.N. speak while others are seasoned pros from their high school years. In September, the selection process begins with a written application.  Prospective Model U.N.-ers select their preferences for committee (standing vs. specialized) and answer a few short answer questions. Following the initial review of application, there is an interview so the chairmen and chairwomen of the committees can help you choose a committee most suited towards your interests. This year, I am on the UNDP (or United Nations Development Program).

There are three committee members assigned to each committee and you are generally given an assignment based on you experience. I, being a novice, am a moderator.  The next level up is a director, followed by a chair. Each person is responsible for providing the high school students with background guides involving their issue. Learning all of this information is actually incredibly interesting. I am now well versed about the worldwide food price crisis. Who would have thought?!

For the winter months, involvement in JHUMUN is pretty lax. Meetings have committee members practicing proper MUN language. You have to be prepared to deal with those formidable high school students!  But really!

But the big event of the year sees the actual Model UN conference. For a three days weekend, the entire MUN staff travels down to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore and is able to stay at a hotel where the conference is being held. The staff does not leave Inner Harbor at all. But why would you? How else will one get the jollies of waking high school students up at midnight in order for an emergency security council meeting? Where else will you appropriately wear really fancy Western business wear?

Overall, MUN is a dream come true. At least for nerdy kids like me who grew up wanting to live the adventures of Mary Kate & Ashley. The hours are reasonable and the only mandatory affair happens for a luxurious weekend downtown. Okay, so the term luxurious is used loosely and a lot of the time must be spent chaperoning hormonal teenagers. Still, the conference gives all participants the opportunity to practice public speaking skills. That is something seriously invaluable!

Mock Trial

Student Organization Name: Mock Trial        

Category of Group: Special Interest

Your Name: Miranda Baxendale        

Your Year: 2013

Your Hometown: Culver City, CA

Your Position: Member

 

What is Mock Trial?

Every year, we’re given a case, and have to prepare arguments for both the prosecution and the defense. Students play the role of witnesses and attorneys, and have to write all questions and statements. Every fall, we get the case on paper, but we have to bring it to life. Everyone is expected to get in the role – witnesses are typically good actors/actresses and attorneys learn to argue evidentiary issues and present cases – all wearing the same black suits!

How do teams work?

Mock Trial is a very competitive activity. At Hopkins, we have three teams. In the fall, the teams have different levels of talent distributed among them, and in the spring, the teams are stacked (meaning the strongest people are on A team, etc). Anyone can join as long as they’re willing to commit and put in the effort.

What is fall like?

In September, the case is released and there’s an introductory meeting. The officers then make teams with distributed talent. The fall is designed to see what levels people are at and let them learn about mock trial. There are many possible competitions during the fall. Many schools hold invitationals for teams to try out different case theories and gain competitive experience. This year, our first invitational was the Spider Classic at the University of Richmond. We used that tournament to see what college mock trial was like (about half the people had never done mock trial/only done it at the high school level). We also attended the Quaker Classic at the University of Pennsylvania. This was later in the season, so we used this to test out various cases and witness choices, as well as a sort of audition for spring semester.

What is spring like?

We are part of AMTA (American Mock Trial Association). The beginning of spring still has invitationals, but the main focus is on the AMTA competitions. There are three levels of competition – regionals, opening round championships, and final championships. All teams who register in time are guaranteed a spot in regionals. Each regional tournament has about 24 teams competing, and the top 8 teams proceed to the opening round championships. Only two teams from a school can attend the same regional, so two of our teams are going to Baltimore, and the other team’s going to Princeton, New Jersey. That also means we have two possible ORC locations – Ohio and New York!

Constitution Day

In case you didn’t know, September 17^th is Constitution Day (the constitution was signed on September 17^th, 1787). At Hopkins, Mock Trial helps to organize the Constitution Day celebration. This year, Adam Liptak (the Supreme Court correspondent for the New York Times) came and spoke. In 2008, Hopkins hosted Jeffrey Toobin (a legal journalist for The New Yorker and CNN).

This Case: The current case is a murder case. There are three partners in a production studio when they receive a buyout offer. Two partners want to take the deal, but the majority share-holding partner does not. Soon he shows up dead, and the two other partners fall under suspicion. Ultimately, both are charged in his murder – one as an accomplice, and one as the actual murderer.

Why I’m part of Mock Trial: Mock Trial was something that I really enjoyed in high school. I wasn’t sure whether or not I wanted to continue at the college level, but I’m really glad that I did. I’ve learned so much at this level, and has definitely made me more interested in becoming a lawyer/going to law school. If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, mock trial is a really rewarding and fun activity!

 

Links:

American Mock Trial Association

College Mock Trial Forums

JHU Mock Trial 

 

Art Brigade

Posted By: Becca K.

Bonjour(no)! I’m currently blogging from the fabulous city of Paris, and I just arrived yesterday night from Florence, Italy. My friend and I are here in Paris for a three-day weekend. It’s back to Florence on Monday, where we are taking an intersession course through Hopkins on Renaissance art history. It’s been a fascinating class, and it’s been so neat to be learning about art in its original setting (Think museums and piazzas for classrooms…perfecto!)

So besides feeling the need to dispel those rumor about a lack of a social scene at Hopkins, cutthroat competition between students, etc., etc., I wanted to address another huge myth. Some people assume that Hopkins students aren’t well rounded and are generally under involved in nonacademic activities. This is far from the truth, and if anyone indicates otherwise, it is likely because they have not yet taken advantage of what Hopkins has to offer in the extracurricular realm.

I personally became involved in a community service organization last semester called Art Brigade—you may have read about this in some of my previous blogs. The “club,” which is too new of a project to be officially considered a club by the university’s Center for Social Concern (CSC), was founded by junior Andrea Nelson. Andrea noticed that while we had numerous community service clubs on campus, none of them focused on the visual arts in particular. She consequently took it upon herself to gather a few of her friends and those who were interested and begin a weekly program of JHU students supervising creative arts projects for the students at Tench Tilghman Elementary School (located near the Johns Hopkins medical school campus). 

It’s been wonderful having the opportunity to be involved in Art Brigade. When I found out about the club through a friend, I was thrilled that something was being done in the community to foster a love for creativity and artistic expression. As a child, I grew up loving art, and I was fortunate enough to be immersed in an environment that supported this. I was also fortunate enough to have all the tools I needed to create art. In retrospect, I can’t imagine having had a childhood without drawing, creating, thinking innovatively, and expressing myself freely. And I certainly can’t imagine any other child growing up without such means of self-expression.

That being said, Andrea couldn’t have chosen a better name for her club. The word “brigade” connotes a sense of urgency and has successfully underscored the fact that it is the community’s duty (our duty) to promote youth awareness for the visual arts. Every Tuesday at Tilghman with the rest of the Art Brigade girls has proved to be such a rewarding experience. A new art project is planned for each day we visit the school, and a circulating schedule of after school students was created to provide a sense of consistency and allow Art Brigaders to get to know the students well. The children are adorable, and the most rewarding part of being involved in Art Brigade is watching their enthusiasm for art blossom and seeing their creative minds develop. 

Getting back to the point…I guess that was kind of a failed attempt at dispelling the rumor, since I only provided one example of an extracurricular student activity at Hopkins. But the bottom line is that Art Brigade is one of many—there is a wealth of similar types of organizations at Hopkins (and not so similar types). The list is endless, and it’s nice to be a student at a university where students take such initiative—not only in terms of their academics.

Thanks for reading! Ciao! -BK

Me and the History Major...

My name is Daniel Roettger, and I am a freshman from Little Rock, Arkansas, where my family moved last summer.  I attended high school in Batesville, Arkansas, a town of about 10,000 that is about 100 miles northeast of Little Rock.  My high school’s size and semi-rural locale meant a traditional and somewhat limited curriculum – quite a contrast to the curricular variety that I’ve found at Hopkins.  I came to Hopkins intending to enter the International Studies Department but soon gravitated toward history, which seems a better fit for my interests and aspirations.  History has always attracted me, and it promises to prepare me well for law school and a career in international law or in public service.

Several factors contributed to my decision to pursue a history major.  Foremost among these were my experience with the faculty and teaching assistants (yes, there are teaching assistants – TAs – and they’ve been terrific teachers and advisors) and the structure of the major.  

If you have read my blog on my first semester coursework (to which I will here link), you will know that I took two history courses in the Fall 2010 semester – “Making America: Mastery and Freedom” and “Occidental Civilization: Modern Europe (1789-Present).”  I appreciated and liked both of these classes for different reasons, though the classes were entirely different on the whole.  Professor Ditz, who taught Making America, gave very formal lectures that were concise, cogent and stimulating.  She did not hesitate to offer her opinion  (“The American Revolution was not a radical revolution” she asserted, presenting us with arguments for and against this position, for instance).  On the other hand, Professor Shepard, who taught Occ Civ, as it came to be known, gave his lectures in far more chronological framework, concentrating on showing the class trends over time.  As is clear, these classes varied drastically in their general framework – with one being far more direct in its message/intent than the other.  That said, however, both classes were issue oriented rather than recitations of facts and date.  I appreciated them both and learned from both.  

Making America and Occ Civ were both survey classes, meaning that they were rather large: Making America had about 60 students, and Occ Civ had about 120, give or take.  The size of the lecture classes meant that there was little in-class discussions, a circumstance that was offset by the weekly meetings of small sections that discussed the readings and lectures under the direction of teaching assistants.  (You’ve probably heard about teaching assistants or TA’s:  they are common at universities such as Hopkins, though they are typically found in introductory rather than advanced classes.)

Keep an open mind about TAs.  Adam Bisno was my Occ Civ TA, and Sarah Daminao was my Making America TA.   Both were outstanding.  They had or were pursuing doctoral degrees from some of leading institutions and knew how to run a class and lead discussion.  Most important, though, both Adam and Sarah were always accessible to meet to discuss something that was unclear, etc.  If they were unavailable, they were willing to clear up a question via email.  Their willingness to help a student – and their welcoming demeanor on this front – was a pleasant surprise -- something that I didn’t expect in a large research University, where I feared that I might be lost among the student body.

At present, I am in the throes of preparing a research proposal for a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, and my project is rooted in history, though it also addresses a few legal questions, too (my project, if approved, will deal with a mid 1950s public school integration).  Knowing that I would have to find a faculty sponsor, I approached Professor Ditz during her office hours about my project idea and explained to her that I needed to find a sponsor.  Though prior engagements made her sponsorship impossible, she championed my cause, emailing other professors on my behalf and eventually connecting me to two professors whose fields of study are relevant to my project.  Both have been extremely helpful thus far, even though neither of them knew me before offering their aid.  That impressed me – that senior history faculty were so willing to help a first year student.     

Basically, I have given you a chronology of my experiences with the history department thus far, starting from late August/early September and stretching to late December.  All of these experiences – interesting courses, varied courses, able and interested faculty – played major roles in my decision to declare as a history major.  But there’s more, and it has to do with the flexibility of the history curriculum and with the opportunities for guided research.

Flexibility is evident in most aspects of intellectual life at Hopkins.  Required courses are limited; instead, students (with lots of consultation from advisers) are encouraged to make their own way through an intellectually rich collection of learning opportunities that connect personal interests and experiences with the key concepts and schools of history.  This appeals to me -- as does the prospect of independent research.

In high school, I undertook a rather ambitious project for National History Day, requiring a lot more research than I had expected.  I learned a good deal about my topic, but I learned even more about me.  I liked the research, the learning that it fostered, and the way that it engaged me in the process. So I was delighted to find that the History Department requires its majors to conduct a major research project during their sophomore year.  I find that exciting and attractive in the long term.  I also like the prospect of preparing a senior thesis which, if accepted, leads to “honors” in the major.  Additionally, the history department has an option for students to earn a Master's in four years by taking graduate-level coursework and a dissertation.  These research and writing projects offer several distinct advantages, though, primarily, I like the idea of being challenged to write and think on my own and to produce a portfolio of research that I can reference when applying for summer jobs, internships, and, ultimately, graduate or law schools.  This amount of writing is unique as well, setting the history major apart from other majors at Hopkins and from other programs around the country.

Spanish Major

Posted by Sarah S.

Taking Spanish at Hopkins has become much more than just learning a new language.  Spanish has become a way of balancing my life, of connecting with new people, and of becoming more culturally aware.  It has in so many ways had a tremendous impact on not just my course of study, but on my way of thinking. 

In order to determine which level of Spanish is most appropriate, all students who wish to take Spanish must first take the Hopkins online language placement test.  This test is fairly short and painless, and it places students into the correct grammar course based on their scores.  This way, even if you didn’t take the AP Spanish exam, you can still earn credit for Spanish courses based on your exam score!  On the other hand, if you had no prior Spanish instruction in high school, you can absolutely still major in Spanish!  By starting with Spanish Elements 1 and 2, proceeding to Intermediate Spanish 1 and 2, and finally reaching the two levels of Advanced Spanish, students who have never taken Spanish can expect to get plenty of grammar preparation and be speaking at near-fluency by their junior or senior year.

The design of the Spanish major makes it incredibly manageable to balance with a double major, minor, or with plenty of room for elective courses in other areas.  There is no concrete set of classes required for the Spanish major; instead, students get to choose from a wide variety of grammatical, literary, and cultural classes.   Because of this, it’s easy to fulfill the major requirements by pursuing your specific interests by taking classes specific to a certain type of literature, a certain period of history, or a certain country.  Trust me, there is no shortage of options when it comes to choosing a Spanish class.

Having just completed my first semester at Hopkins, the only Spanish class I’ve taken so far is Advanced Spanish II.   For most of class, we discussed readings, which included narratives about immigration, historical texts about Latin America, fictional short stories, and recent accounts of problems that are occurring in Latin America and Spain.  These discussions were a huge help because we constantly discussed topics that took a lot of thought to formulate an opinion about in English, let alone in Spanish.  In addition, the class was only fifteen people with only two other freshmen, so discussing with a small group of upperclassmen with more speaking experience immensely helped my speaking.  The required papers for this class were very similar to the topics that we discussed in class, and it was very evident that our professor wanted to see us become better writers.  The great amount of attention that she put into reading our papers really helped my writing skills and prepared me for future upper-level classes. 

Looking ahead at what’s to come, I'm taking a course next semester called Don Quijote.  Despite my expectations that reading and discussing this classic novel in Spanish will be incredibly difficult, having the extra grammar, speaking, and writing review in Advanced Spanish 2 is going to help tremendously, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.  Other courses that I’m interested in taking include Reliving the Past in Contemporary Spain: Memories of al-Andalus; Borges, Cortazar, Bioy Casares and Their Time; Medical Spanish; Che Guevara and Magical Realism; and Curso de Perfeccionamiento.  The course about al-Andalus studies novels that partain to the multi-ethnic al-Andalus society.  In contrast, the courses about Che Guevara and Borges, Cortazar, and Bioy Casares are focused on Argentine literature, so there is definitely a wide variety of courses available that focus on many different countries.  Courses with a professional relevance such as Medical and Legal Spanish are also offered and are often popular choices for pre-med or pre-law students. 

On a separate note, the study abroad program that Hopkins offers in Madrid also looks incredibly cool.  Judging by the Johns Hopkins in Spain blog, this sounds like an incredible opportunity to see an amazing country, study at a Spanish university, and experience life in a Spanish-speaking household. 

Studying Spain and Latin America last semester through both writing and discussion really increased my understanding of these cultures, and more importantly, made me realize that I still have a lot to learn.  Being culturally competent and aware is a fundamentally  important trait for working in practically any professional field and for living in a diversifying society.  Our country is rapidly becoming more multi-cultural, and because of this I think that each of us has a certain responsibility to learn about cultures other than our own.  Pursuing the Spanish major is not only an effective way of learning Spanish, but it’s also a great opportunity to increase one’s understanding of other cultures and ability to communicate with a wide array of people.

Pictures: 1) http://www.guide-madrid.info/  2)  http://www.babelnation.com/
3) http://www.avenidadedonquijote.com/  4)  http://www.guide-madrid.info/

My Minor in Psychological and Brain Sciences

Posted by Joe N.

So this week I'm going to talk about my choice to minor in Psychological in Brain Sciences in conjunction with my major in Neuroscience. Ever since I was in middle school I've always been interested in basically all kinds of science. Once I took Biology in 7th grade I realized that I would end up being towards that end of the scientific spectrum when I got to college. In high school even though many of my courses were focused on engineering I found myself leaning towards science over math, and that made me think that maybe I wouldn't want to major or minor in a type of engineering. After my senior year of high school I found that I loved anything relating to the mind and brain through the mentorship program I had during my senior year. Through this program I was able to work at Monmouth Medical Center for about 6 months, and I got to see just about everything the medical students at the hospital did.

Out of the many cases I saw I was always fascinated by anything relating to the nervous system or an underlying psychological issue. There was a point between the time I was accepted at Hopkins and the time I moved in that I was contemplating whether or not to double major in Neuroscience and Psychological and Brain Sciences but when I read the Neuroscience Major checklist I found that you can't double major in both of these departments. I chose Neuroscience because it’s more hands on, more of a natural science whereas Psychology is more theoretical in nature. I knew that no matter what I ended up majoring in I was going to try to minor in the other subject because through these two programs I would gain a near complete understanding of both the mind and the brain.

One of the reasons I chose to minor in Psychology was because the psych program is considered to be a Social Sciences program while Neuroscience is considered to be a Natural Sciences program. This means that I could use the courses required for my psych minor to satisfy the distribution requirements for my Neuroscience major and vice-versa. This means that throughout my 4 years at Hopkins I'll be taking mostly Neuroscience and Psychology courses excluding the general science courses required for my major (e.g. Physics, Bio). The requirements for a minor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences are actually pretty simple. You're required to take 3 introductory level courses from the department that have to be part of the following classes:

- Introduction to Psychology
- Introduction to Cognitive Psychology or Cognition
- Introduction to Developmental Psychology
- Introduction to Social Psychology
- Introduction to Physiological Psychology

Once you've satisfied those requirements you simply need to take 3 other upper-level courses in the department, two of them must be at the 300 or 600 level, and the other one can be at any level. So to graduate with a minor in Psychology, I plan to satisfy the checklist in the following way. I've already taken Intro to Psych, and I’m taking Intro to Cognitive Psych and Intro to Social Psych next semester. So after my first year at Hopkins I'll have all of the introductory requirements fulfilled and I'll be able to start taking upper-level psychology classes if I want. Since a lot of the Psych and Neuroscience courses overlap I'll be able to use some courses to help me get my Neuroscience major and my Psychology minor.

There are a lot of different activities that you can take up if you're a psych major or minor. One of the things that I love about the psych department is that in almost all of their courses you have the ability to earn extra credit. The way that you learn extra credit CAN be the traditional way (you write a review of a 10-12 page long article from a psych journal) or you can do it in a way that requires even less work and to me is more fun. The way you do this is by participating in psych experiments that are run by the graduate students of the department. All you had to do to increase your average by 1/3 of a grade (e.g. A to A+) was participate in psych experiments for 4 hours. It may seem like a lot but it’s really not and some of the experiments can be really fun and don't usually involve a lot of work or thinking. I chose to do it this way because I hear about all of these different experiments in my Intro Psych class and their results only this time I get to participate in them and find out how my performance can affect their results. You could also participate in general research in the psych department which can also be really awesome. The group that I'm trying to do research with focuses on the functional organization of the human memory system, which is one of the biggest mysteries in psychology right now and is one of the many links between the Psych and Neuroscience departments involving research.

I absolutely love the psychology department because of the wide variety of topics that they cover. Through my Intro Psych class I was able to find out about all the different divisions of the department and from this knowledge I was able to determine the areas of psych that I wish to continue studying. As I said before I'm taking Social and Cognitive Psych classes next semester because I determined from my Intro Psych course that these are the two divisions of psychology that I love the most. I prefer to minor in Psych instead of majoring in it because there are fewer requirements for the minor. For example I only want to take Statistical Analysis I but to major in Psych you have to take both I and II as well as some other courses that to me seem quite boring. By minoring in Psych I get the same experience as some of the psych majors with a little bit less work, and I can still take whatever classes in the department I want if I satisfy the pre-reqs.

With the experience I'll earn from the Psychological and Brain Sciences department I'll be able to better understand how people's minds develop and how their personalities develop from the experiences they have. With this information I'll be more prepared for medical school and it will also help me out a LOT if I want to focus on Psychiatry or Neurology/Neurosurgery. Since I know right now that I'm going to want to specialize in one of these three fields hopefully by the time I graduate from Hopkins I'll know exactly which area I want to focus on. But that's really far in the future, right now I'm just worried about taking the classes that interest me most so I can learn all about the human mind and brain.

For more information about the major and minor checklists that I mentioned, check out academic advising's website: http://jhu.edu/~advising/majors.htm. So I've got a few videos for you guys this week. The first is a youtube video of a cat that I really want cause its so awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Bmhjf0rKe8. The second is a bunch of bears at a zoo that I also want: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1885110. The last is of a baby which is really hardcore, and I hope when I have kids that my son does something like this: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1927447. That's all I've got for this week, thanks for reading and I'll see you guys in about two weeks!