Hopkins Interactive Guest Blog

Doggie Date Auction

Name: Anne Mumford

Year: Class of 2010

Hometown: Barnstable, MA

Major: Pyschology

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On any given day, you're likely to see tons of dogs running around the Hopkins. Families bring their children and puppies to frolic on the The Beach, older couples walk joyful golden retrievers along the brick pathways and a pair of adorable black and white Pomeranians are always chasing each other around the Decker Quad in front of the Admissions Office. However, despite the abundance of canine energy that tends to pervade the Homewood Campus, most students never actually get to hang out with a furry companion outside a perfunctory snuggle of someone's friendly beagle on the way to class. Hopkins PAWS, the university's first and only animal welfare group, is looking to change that. After all, everybody could use a big, wet, sloppy kiss... even if it isn't from another human.
 
This March Hopkins PAWS (or the Pet and Animal Welfare Society) put on their second annual Doggie Date Auction in the Glass Pav. The concept is simple: one Hopkins hottie and one adorable dog dress up as a themed couple (such as Nancy Drew and her Detective Doggie, or Obama and his Presidential Puggle - see attached picture) and a date with the duo is auctioned off to the highest bidder, along with a picnic basket full of goodies.
 
The auctioneers, popular campus improv comedy troupe The Buttered Niblets, kept the audience entertained by cracking jokes and taunting the bidders to go higher. The offbeat group also performed a brief "half-time show" complete with acoustic guitar and bubble-blowing, and even went as far as to auction off one of their in-characters MCs (sadly, the painfully awkward "Franklin" sold for less than two dollars). All the proceeds from the event were donated to BARCS, the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, a downtown shelter where the PAWS students volunteer several times per week.

In addition to the Buttered Niblets, a number of Hopkins student groups and sports teams contributed to the success of the event, mostly by providing the human halves of the date pairs! Many of my sisters from Kappa Kappa Gamma both attended and were auctioned off at the Doggie Date Auction, including Sarah Mae, who represented the softball team as the "Sweet Slugger" (see attached picture). Another sister, Lydia, was not only auctioned off but played a large role in organizing the entire event! "President Obama" is actually a brother of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. The true stars of the event, however, were the hard-working students of Hopkins PAWS, who raised over $1,500 for BARCS animal shelter through the evening's events including the silent auction, date auction and sale of event t-shirts emblazoned with "Bitches Love Me" and a picture of... a dog, of course! The dates were undoubtedly the most popular hot-ticket items: most pairs sold for around $60, and the most expensive date of the evening, the letter-clad Doggie Dominatrix (also known as Heather, the group's vice president) sold for over $200! 

Outside of the Doggie Date Auction, PAWS members help BARCS by promoting on-campus awareness about issues like the importance of spaying and neutering pets, as well as adopting instead of buying when looking for a new animal companion. During Spring Fair, members set up a booth on the Freshman Quad where adoptable shelter dogs greeted passersby and student volunteers collected donations. Students also help out at events around the city like the SPCA's Walk for Animals, the World of Pets Expo and BARCStoberfest. A small group even left Maryland this March to spend their Spring Break caring for homeless pets in Puerto Rico!
 
Though Hopkins PAWS was only founded a few years ago, they have been enormously successful in supporting and promoting their cause since 2005. The Doggie Date Auction is their biggest event of the year and was more successful than ever this Spring, bringing in more than twice the donations of last year's event. I guess it just shows that even in shaky financial times, everyone could still use a date!

'Coming Out' with DSAGA

Name: James DiCarlo

Year: Class of 2010

Hometown: Columbia, MD

Major: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

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‘Coming out’ is a different process for everyone. For many it is the hardest thing they have ever, or will ever have to do in their life. The biggest thing is getting past the fear. While still in the closet, it seems that once you ‘come out’ your life will never be the same, and in many ways it will not. However, ‘coming out’ and telling the world who you truly are, helps you become that very person… (It is kind of circular, I guess).

Like I said before everyone’s coming out story is different. For me the Diverse Sexuality and Gender Alliance (DSAGA) was a big part. The first person I ever came out as gay was actually my resident advisor’s boyfriend during the fifth day of orientation. He mentioned to me that a friend of mine was “totally into me”, to which I awkwardly stated, “I don’t roll that way…”. After repeating that cryptic phrase three or four times, he finally ‘caught my drift’. After that moment I knew that my life would never be the same.

The next day I called my best friend from high school and told her the news while teary eyed. That night my resident advisor (RA) took me to my first DSAGA meeting. I was terrified, while at the same time it was exhilarating feeling so free. Not hiding such a big part of myself anymore, I could finally speak freely and feel so many things I could not before. That first meeting will always be with me.

We did the traditional ice breaker type things, as it was the first general meeting, and then there was a discussion about ‘coming out’ oddly enough. I didn’t end up speaking and I didn’t even stay to chitchat long after the meeting was over, which is also traditional in the first, and most other, DSAGA meetings. I came back the next week, and I started meeting people. That same group of people has become my some of my closest friends, and best confidants at Hopkins. Infact I met my boyfriend at DSAGA that year and we have been together since. Over the next year DSAGA was my favorite weekly activity. The people and activities were always so fun and intriguing; from capture the big gay flag, to discussions on life experiences with homophobia.  The next year I knew I wanted to be a part of the DSAGA executive board, and I have been involved ever since.

Since becoming a member of the board I have been able to help plan and organize many events. DSAGA’s programming has truly become as diverse as its members.  One of the biggest events we organize is National Coming Out Day in October. To celebrate the iconic ‘coming out of the closet’ DSAGA members, last year, constructed and colorfully painted a shaky frame of 2x4’s to symbolize the closet. The closet is then set up on the Breezeway (an area of with a lot of traffic on the upper quad) and each passing person is asked to ‘come out’ as whatever they are in exchange for a piece of candy and/or a cookie. The event is a lot of fun, everyone that participates gets a treat, and people become generally more aware of the ‘coming out’ process. By far, however, the largest event that DSAGA organizes is the Awareness Days Symposium, which takes place annually in the spring (usually during the month of April).

The symposium is full of a multitude of events and guest speakers, many of whom are quite well known. Past speakers have included: Judy Sheppard (mother of Matthew Sheppard), George Takai, and Dan Savage. One of the most popular events during Awareness Days is the fabulous Drag Ball. The Ball is a Hopkins’ tradition and people from all backgrounds attend in their best of Drag attire. Overall Awareness Days is extremely popular, both within and outside of the Hopkins’ community.

Experiencing and helping organize so many DSAGA events has helped me, I feel, become a more well rounded person. The people I have met through DSAGA have greatly shaped me into the person I am today. In a way, I guess that relates to the importance of ‘coming out’. Since coming out as yourself, helps you become yourself, in my case ‘coming out’ helped expose me to people and experiences that helped form myself. While as corny as that sounds, for me, I believe it to be true. 

‘Coming out’ in college has taught me that being myself is the most important and life changing choice I could ever make. One of my favorite quotes is by Dr Seuss and I think it completely sums up the entire ‘coming out’ sentiment. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

Class-A-Holic

Name: Tabitha Moses

Year: Class of 2011

Hometown: Oxford, England

Major: Cognitive Science

Previous Blog Entries: What's up in Wolman 3 East, Fall Break

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Hi, my name is Tabitha, and I am class-a-holic. I have no control of this disease and end up attempting to take far too many credits every semester. Let me explain what I mean by describing my semester so far…

So, this semester began very stressfully for me, but in a good way if that’s possible! I started off the semester with a first week schedule of 28 credits, and not because I really needed any of those classes they just all sounded fun. This is my problem. My friends call me crazy, but I can’t help it, I have too many interests, and there are so many classes I want to take!

I am not sure if it is a good thing or not but Hopkins caters to my addiction very well. Every semester there is an add/drop period, which allows you two weeks from the beginning of the semester to change classes and add more, after this two weeks you can still drop classes, you just can’t add them.

So, at the beginning of this semester I made myself a "first week schedule" which contained most of the classes I wanted to take that didn’t clash in times by too much. My plan was to go to all of the classes, get syllabi, see what the work load was like, and if I was interested in the course material, and then drop down to a reasonable number of credits for the second week. But here’s my problem: I liked all the classes I showed up to. For most people this is a good thing, but for me it wasn’t because I could not cope with taking 28 credits (I’m not even sure it’s allowed if you’re not a engineer!) Well, okay, I am lying a little, there is one class I didn’t like—Statistics—but it’s the only pre-med class I’m taking this semester so I have to take it.

So, what do I do about the rest of the classes?! Well, if you’re me you whimper pathetically at your friends and ask them to decide for you, which sadly (and very meanly in my opinion) they don’t. Then I was stuck. This is a mean school with too many good classes, I can’t believe that I am turning into the sort of person who wants to take 28 credits…that is not me, I am lazy, and very proud of my laziness! Anyway, I finally came up with a plan, which was to go through each class and decide which had the most work required of it, and then drop that class, well, those two classes. It was terrible! (Yes, I know I am melodramatic, I think everyone around me does after they had to deal with me for those two weeks!)

Anyway, the two classes I dropped, I am very sad about, so would like to mention them, I also plan on taking them again, I just hope they are offered again.

* Theory of Knowledge – this class is with Professor Michael Williams who is a great professor, and the subject matter is really fascinating to me, you learn all about different theories of the mind and how we acquire knowledge. However, it is a 400 level class, with a lot of difficult reading, so I decided to drop this one.

* Sleep, Dreams, and Altered States of Consciousness – this class is so cool, I really loved the subject matter, and the professor is great, he teaches you how to read EEGs one weekend instead of a class. However, this class is normally taught every year, and had a lot of work associated with it: 2 quizzes, a midterm, a final, a paper, and a group research project with presentation, so I decided to drop it.

While I did drop these two I did continue going to altered states of consciousness for the second week just because I wanted to learn about it. I am definitely taking that course next year, and I can’t wait!

As I no longer have a copy of my "first week schedule" I thought I’d share my revised "sensible" schedule with you here.

Okay, so I need to stop focusing on what I dropped, and look at what I’m taking, so here are my classes for this semester.

Language and Mind

Well, I’m taking this class for two reasons, the first is the fact that it’s required for my major (Cognitive Science) and the second is the fact that it sounded really interesting. I actually didn’t know I had to take this class when I signed up for it, so that shows that I actually do want to take it. Now I have to be honest, the class is not the most interesting of classes right now, but that has nothing to do with the topics, I still find the topic to be fascinating, and I just hope this class picks up a bit over the semester.

Statistics 1

Okay, this isn’t exactly a class I was looking forward to. I have to take it at some point if I want to do anything in psychology or cognitive science research, and for pre-med, but I have done some stat before. It’s not too bad so far, and hopefully it’ll stay that way!

Introduction to Moral Philosophy

I have only one fault with this class…it’s a 9am. I am not a 9am person, and I am having a little bit of trouble getting up for this class, but JHU_Mandy is in it too, so we’re able to tell each other what we miss! This is a required course for a bioethics minor, which I might be doing, and it’s also an interesting course, especially because of my TA (teaching assistant). A lot of the big classes have TAs that you meet with in a smaller seminar form for one class a week, and they go over what you’ve been doing in class that week and we have discussions about the material. I have had this TA before for another philosophy class and he’s really good because he knows how to keep a fun discussion going while explaining the material.

Philosophical Implications of Clinical Neuroscience

I’m not sure whether this class has ever been offered before; it’s a 400 level class out of the philosophy department taught by a doctor at the hospital who was originally a philosophy PhD student. I really love this class. We essentially spend all of our time discussing different bioethical and philosophical issues in neuroscience and how people try to deal with them, as well as our thoughts on them. The course was really over-subscribed but the professor insisted on keeping the class small so discussions would be good, so I’m really lucky I got in as a sophomore as there are grad students in the class as well. I would really recommend this course to anyone interested in psychology, philosophy, cog sci or neuroscience: it is great.

Social History of Languages

I would say this is my second favorite class. We meet once a week on a Friday afternoon in a seminar style class and discuss various aspects of different languages and social issues surrounding language. What I really enjoy is that part of our home work is every other week we have to write a couple of questions and comments on the reading, which is basically a chance to ramble about our thoughts on the reading for a couple paragraphs, and I think it’s fun that doing that counts as work!

Organism and Machine

This is a kind of weird class that I almost didn’t take because it clashed with one of the many other classes I almost took! I ended up taking it because not only did the topic sound fascinating, but also one of my friends recommended it because she had the professor last year and really liked her. It’s a weird class, and meets once a week for 2 and a half hours, so it’s sometimes hard to focus but it is fun. There are 9 of us in the class and the class is based around looking at different people, mainly philosophers, and their views on humans and organisms, and how they relate to machines. Are we all really just complicated machines?!

Also, if you are wondering what the picture is, it is a mosquito-machine, I thought it was kind of cool!

Careers in Psychology

This course was added just before the add deadline. It is a one credit course from the psychology department which is going to meet once a week on a Thursday evening after spring break and bring in speakers from different areas in psychology to talk about their jobs, how they got there and what they do. It sounds fun!

And that’s it. That’s all the classes I’m taking this semester. There were a couple other classes I almost took (and turned up to the first class of) but I won’t bore you with those details, I am sure you have had enough of my class shopping by now.

As I am sure you can tell, I was not joking when I said I was a class-a-holic. I know, I know, it’s a very sad thing to admit to, but I really can’t help it…honestly! Last semester I tried to do more extracurriculars, research, and a job thinking it might force me to take less classes, but that didn’t work very well, so I had to cut down a bit!

I won’t bore you with any of the other things I do around campus now, but if you want to know more feel free to ask me on my personal thread on Hopkins interactive and I’m happy to talk to you.

I want to leave you with one last plug for my favorite little café near campus: Carma’s Café. It’s just off campus on 32nd between North Charles and St Paul, and a great little place to sit and eat and do some work. If any of you are visiting campus you should go there and get some great food and listen in on many of the undergrad and grad student conversations going on around you.

That’s it for me, good luck to you all in whatever you’re doing!

Epidemic Proportions

Name: Jae Kim 
Year: Class of 2011 
Hometown: Lewis Center, OH 
Major: Neuroscience   

Name: Natalie Draisin 
Year: Class of 2010 
Hometown: Closter, NJ 
Major: Public Health Studies    

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I can still remember my first impression of Epidemic Proportions.   

Impressive.   

The staff. The quality of the journal. The discussions.
  
I had come to Hopkins with spectacular hopes for public health and however clichéd this may sound, I wanted to make a difference in the world. The problem: I was terribly intimidated by EP and its commitment to excellence. As a freshman, I had minimal exposure to journalism and experience with the process. Did I mention I was a freshman? But my doubts and worries quickly melted. At the first staff meeting, I saw first-hand the high level of respect among fellow staff members and their passionate dedication to this journal. Over the year, I gained an appreciation for the journal and learned quite a few things along the way.  Now, as a sophomore and current co-editor-in-chief, EP continues to be a major part of my Hopkins experience.  (-Jae Kim, Class of 2011)

So, you’re probably thinking: what is EP exactly?       

Epidemic Proportions is the Johns Hopkins undergraduate public health research journal, and one of the oldest in the country. It provides students with an outlet to publish their work, learn how to edit, and contribute to layout. Epidemic Proportions combines journalism with public health, and is comprised of a team of devoted, intelligent, and talented individuals who represent a variety of majors. Our audience includes students, professors, and faculty from not only Homewood campus, but also the Bloomberg School of Public Health and other Hopkins-affiliated institutions. We are widely revered and this journal is the face of JHU's prestigious public health major.       

The goal of EP is to capture the breadth and depth of the Hopkins public health experience. By highlighting valuable and interesting public health work of Hopkins undergraduates, we hope to inspire others to contribute to the vast field of public health. Our journal is composed of four main sections: research, perspectives, features, and editorials.       

Research is a central component of our journal because we understand the importance of supporting our good intentions with solid evidence. We only publish Hopkins research because we are confident in the caliber of our undergraduates, who may very well solve tomorrow’s ailments.     

The perspectives section showcases professors and faculty within the Hopkins community, who have taken giant steps in the field of public health. Through personal accounts and Q-and-A interviews, we hope to engage and encourage our Homewood campus to pursue research and fieldwork in public health.       

The features section highlights the exciting experiences of our undergraduates, both locally and abroad in the form of research, volunteering, and internships. In previous years we have received features pieces from students who pursued tuberculosis research in Iran, interned at the World Health Organization (WHO), and volunteered at an eye clinic in the Philippines.       

Last, but certainly not least, is our brilliant editorials section, which is written by staff members with strong opinions on current public health issues and controversies. We also welcome contributing authors who wish to publish their op-eds and share their voice with the Hopkins community.       

At every meeting, we have food to fuel our staff members. Recently, we began having potluck dinners in the hopes of bringing  together our staff members and so far, the food has been amazing and it has become a new favorite tradition. At our first potluck, Dr. Goodyear (advisor for the public health major) and his wife, as well as Susan Vazakas (our editing advisor), joined us as we brainstormed for ideas. Our latest meeting, on Friday, February 27 was also a potluck dinner. We had a great time together and made a list of potential articles for the coming issue. Not only did we meet the quota we set for articles, but with the hard work of our devoted staff, we exceeded it! On April 23, we will have an EP family party to celebrate the completion of this issue. (-Natalie Draisin, Class of 2010)

There is an opportunity for everyone to be involved in Epidemic Proportions. Anyone, from any major and year, can join and there is no need to have seniority to be an editor. We have two editors-in-chief, a secretary, a treasurer, four section editors, about two to four assistant editors for each section, and a layout staff. However, we constantly revise the organization of the staff to streamline the production process. Elections will be held on April 23 for our next staff, who will begin working in the Fall of 2009 while the current staff finishes laying out our issue. Once the staff is established, interviews for new staff members will be advertised. If you are interested in joining, please e-mail us at ep@jhu.edu, and check us out at http://www.jhu.edu/~ep/. We hope to see YOUR FACE on our staff next year!

Interning For the Johns Hopkins Sustainability Initiative

Name: Katie Chekan

Year: Class of 2010

Hometown: Raleigh, NC

Major: International Studies

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This is my first shot at writing a blog entry, so I hope you guys find it entertaining and useful!

I've worked a lot of odd jobs in my life.  I’ve been a waitress, an intramurals referee, a telemarketer, and even a kennel cleaner at a veterinary hospital.  When I got to college, I became very interested in the environmental movement, so naturally when an internship involving sustainability and environmental advocacy became available right on campus with the Johns Hopkins Sustainability Initiative, I was excited to apply.  I had been working as an intern with Environment Maryland (a non-profit group just a block away from Hopkins) previously, but I decided that I wanted to get more involved with the environmental movement right on campus.   The JHSI, established in 2006, is an entire department at Hopkins devoted to making our campus more sustainable.  That’s what’s so great about the “green” scene here; not only do we have a wide variety of student environmental advocacy groups, but there’s also plenty of job and volunteer opportunities around campus that can contribute to the environment and to sustainability.

I started my internship here at the Sustainability Initiative in June of 2008, and it’s definitely one of my favorite jobs that I have held so far.  This is not your average “make-copies-and-seal-envelopes” type of internship (trust me; I’ve worked some of those!)  This is much more engaging; the staff here is very welcoming, and you are treated like an adult and given real responsibilities, as opposed to just being “the intern.” 

One of my favorite projects that I worked on was planning and coordinating our first annual “Green Week” here at Hopkins, which was a week of events and campaigns that encouraged students, faculty and staff to not only reduce their carbon footprint through everyday actions (such as taking the stairs more often than the elevator), but also to share their ideas about improving the infrastructure on campus and reducing the school’s greenhouse gas emissions as a whole, an event we like to call the “Green Idea Generator”.  This year, students came up with a number of great ideas, which included more water efficient showerheads in the dorms, motion-sensor lighting in hallways, and solar-powered trash compactors.  Their ideas were taken very seriously; we are currently in the process of working with the grounds and facilities crew to get a number of these ideas implemented.  Other events scheduled throughout the year range from informational tours of the campus’s power plant to a “sustainability at Hopkins poster contest,” where the winner received a new iHome! 

In addition to planning exciting events on campus, an internship with the Sustainability Initiative has also taught me a lot about what the Hopkins administration is doing to green our campus.  I have had the privilege of sitting in on a number of Climate Change Task Force meetings.  The President’s Climate Change Task Force, established by former President Brody in the summer of 2007, is made up of four separate working groups, who meet regularly to discuss steps that Hopkins can take in various areas to bring us closer to carbon neutrality.  These meetings cover a wide range of topics, from new approaches to energy and electricity use to forming coalitions with environmental groups in the Baltimore area to raise awareness both on the campus and in the community. 

While I am working more in the communications and event planning arena here, there are three more interns who are working on a type of “building audit.”  They are going around the entire campus, building by building, and looking for opportunities to decrease each building’s energy and water consumption (look for future guest blogs by the “Green Building Auditing Interns”!)

I can say for certain that my experience as an intern here has been eye-opening.  At Hopkins, students’ ideas are taken seriously when it comes to “greening the campus,” and it’s nice to know that kids my age are making this kind of an impact on the Hopkins administration.  If you choose to come to Hopkins in the fall and decide that saving the environment is your calling, don’t hesitate to get involved, we are always looking for more brainpower to help make Hopkins more carbon neutral!

Johns: Food for Thought

Name: Lauren Melissa McGrath

Year: Class of 2010 (junior)

Hometown: Rockville, MD

Major(s): Writing Seminars, Anthropology

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As a Maryland resident (I’ll say I’m from D.C., since the suburbs here are difficult to explain), I’ve visited Baltimore many times. Each of these visits (usually with the pretense of going to the aquarium) had one unifying element: my parents made fun of Johns Hopkins. Not the institution itself, but the name. Every Hopkins student has had the experience of correcting someone when they call the university “John” or some other variant of Johns (people can be pretty creative). I’ve had the pleasure of this experience for as long as I can remember. There was “Bob’s Hopkin,” which became “Jim-Bob’s Hop Skins,” which at some point became “Joe Hopkins.” Had I not been careful, I may have written a cover letter to Joe along with my admissions application, which thankfully, I did not. I feel as though after all of this verbal roughhousing, Johns and I are finally on a friendly first-name basis.

Aside from having an excellent time inventing new names for my university, I had no idea what to expect when I arrived in the fall of 2006. I had come from an all-girls college prep school, where I had spent 10 years in a plaid skirt. Imagine my surprise when there were boys living on my floor in Wolman (I hate to admit that on seeing them, I asked my parents if maybe we were in the wrong place). Eventually, I got used to the male presence on campus. I fell into my activities, my majors (Writing Seminars and Anthropology) sorted themselves out, and I began to finally have fun, to enjoy the thing I had been for which I had been “preparing” for a decade.

The Modern Dance Company became my release on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and as a member I formed some lasting friendships over late rehearsals, bad blisters, and last-minute costume mending. I continued my hobby of writing, which I channeled through the News Letter, and helped edit j.mag, one of Hopkins’ literary magazines. My weeks were full, and days were long, but I fell into a rhythm. The summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years, I took a JHU Art History course in London, which was an incredible experience. During the trip I met two wonderful friends, who convinced me to give their multicultural sorority, Delta Xi Phi, a try. The beginning of my Sophomore year I joined the sorority, and found some friends and sisters who have since become like family.

From experience, it is always the times when you’ve set a pace, when extracurriculars, classes and friendships are going well, that a tough situation comes barreling toward you. Inert, you’re thrown into something entirely unexpected. Sometimes, it’s just the jolt you need to realize the joys of the things you have. For me, this inertia-busting train came last summer, when I was diagnosed with a cyst in my brain. I emailed my sorority sisters, who sent me postcards, letters, and emails from places as far away as Germany, and as close as my own hometown. The dance company sent me a stuffed bear and words of encouragement, and my friends vouched to visit me at home and in the hospital. Their words and messages were healing, and I was headed for surgery.

Now comes the ironic twist (I’m a writing major, so there’s got to be an ironic twist somewhere): I had neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Now, when I came to college, I expected to experience new things, but neurosurgery was not on my List of Fun Things to Do in Baltimore. I should point out, however, that because the hospital is dangerously close to the Cheesecake Factory, an undergraduate should be careful not to wander there on a whim after reading this (and consuming large quantities of cake) and ask for the “College Nite Neurosurgery Special.” 

Unfortunately, cake did not factor into my decision to have surgery. The institution that exercised my brain (in sometimes-frustrating ways) was now working IN my brain, to save my balance and hearing, among other things. In essence, Johns saved my life. For this, I made a quiet promise to myself not to make fun of his name again, although I’m sure he’d grant me the occasional term-paper induced slip-up (“30 pages? Why me, Jim-Bob? Why me?”). I’m pretty lucky though, to have a brain that works well enough to write a term paper, drive a car, or type a blog.

I can’t help thinking it was a stroke of fate that brought Johns and I together. Regardless of its name, or its educational merits, a university exists primarily for its students. I have been lucky enough to find the university whose missions, research, and education have benefitted me intellectually and physically. To be a Johns Hopkins student is to be inquisitive, self-starting, and slightly eccentric. If you are passionately interested in what Johns has to offer, he will be passionately interested in you.

I have found a place here over the course of the past three years. I feel positive that my appetite for learning about fiction, cultural taboos, Latin American politics, 18th century literature, psychological schemas, John Updike, and many other things, will be fed. As I’ve said, Johns and I are on a first-name basis, and like any good old friend, he is more than willing to give me his last penny to buy me food for thought.

Intersession in India

Name: Neha Deshpande

 

Year: Class of 2011

 

Hometown: Monmouth Junction, NJ

 

Major(s): Biology and French

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A 2005 report released at the National Conference on Child Survival and Development in New Delhi, India, claims that of the 26 million children born in India each year, about 1.2 million die during the first four weeks. This represents 30% of the 3.9 million global neonatal deaths. The report also states that approximately 47% of children under the age of five are malnourished, and 30% of babies are born underweight. The prevalence of infections, lack of prenatal care, and nutritional deficiencies, predisposes mothers from underdeveloped urban and rural areas to poor pregnancy outcomes and low birth weight babies. (Right: A severely preterm baby born at 29 weeks gestation in the KEMH NICU)

Through the Johns Hopkins Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, I spent this past winter break assessing neonatal and maternal health in Pune, India. An ancient city home to over five million people, Pune is ranked the third city in India with the greatest slum population, right after Mumbai and Meerut. According to a December 2007 Times of India article, “Pune Growing into City of Slums”, the city’s slum population has grown 176% since 1991. Born in Maharashtra India myself, it was of personal significance and concern to me that the first and third rank cities were located in my birth state. (Left: View of KEM Hospital in Pune, India)

During my month in Pune, I had the privilege of working at King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH), a non-government organization (NGO) whose primary purpose is to serve the lowest income bracket (poverty-line population) of the urban and rural areas of Pune. Built during the British rule of India in 1912, KEMH was once a four-bedded maternity hospital that eventually expanded into a three-story, 550-bedded institute with a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) comparable to the NICU at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Over the course of the month I was there, I studied social, clinical, and economic aspects of about 75 babies born during December 2008. (Left: Mothers were encouraged to “kangaroo care” their infants to better their development)

Social aspects I researched included the demographics of the babies’ families, the education level of the parents, the family’s income, and whether or not it was an extended (joint) or nuclear family. A majority of the parents were poor farmers and laborers who had received only a 5th or 6th grade education, and earned an average of fifty dollars a month to support their entire household. A month’s salary for these families was spent for a day’s care at the NICU. Babies that needed three-four months of care could only stay for a few days because their families could simply not afford the treatments they needed, even though they were significantly subsidized. I remember one father whose eyes brimmed with tears as he imagined how many years it would take him to pay back his medical debt for his daughter’s treatments. (Left: Me with KEMH’s NICU Director)

In terms of clinical aspects, I looked at the birth weight of the babies to determine whether they were small, average, or large for their gestational age (SGA, AGA, LGA). What I found extremely interesting was that a baby born at KEMH who was considered “AGA” or “LGA” based on the Indian growth chart, fell under a significantly smaller percentile if plotted on an American growth chart. Other clinical factors I researched included the mother’s number of prenatal-care visits and maternal risk factors. At the NICU in Baltimore City, the most common maternal risk factors I see are drugs, smoking, and alcohol. Surprisingly, none of the 75 mothers used any of these substances. Rather, common maternal risk factors were toxemia, previous abortions, stillbirths, and neonatal deaths, and antepartum-- hemorrhages. Other clinical factors I researched included the mother’s past obstetric history (gravida, parity), her mode of delivery, as well as the Apgar, neuromuscular maturity, physical maturity, and overall maturity scores of the baby after birth. Economic aspects I researched included the medical, physician, and laboratory fees for each baby, and how the amount of money spent correlated to the final outcome of the infant. The outcome for a little less than half of the babies was death. (Right: A father with his two-year-old daughter diagnosed with a severe liver condition. Doctors say she will live for only  a few more years)

I remember the first day I walked inside the KEMH NICU – dozens upon dozens of extended families were cramped into one small waiting room. Some sat barefoot, others slept on the ground, while others crouched on the floors. In the pediatric ward I worked at in the afternoons, I saw children with incredible diseases – Cobra bites, meningitis, pneumonia, rubella, typhoid, leukemia, among many others. What was most memorable from my trip was speaking with these families and learning about their life’s struggles. I spoke Marathi with all the families, and despite their village dialect and my Americanized-pronunciations, we understood everything about each other. I could see their fear in the way they lowered their eyes or never smiled in the photographs I took, but also their hope in the way they gazed at the physicians or held my hand. Many of the families thanked me for being the only foreigner they would ever have the chance of meeting in their lifetime. My favorite was a young boy who asked me, “Do you see a moon from your home?”, and when I replied yes, he said we would tell it messages to deliver to each other. Another woman told me I would always have a home in her village if I ever needed to escape my stressful life. There were two other mothers I met in the nursery, one twenty and the other twenty-two years old, who spoke with me for over two hours one day. Both had seen a camera for the first time, and when I took photos of their babies, they became very emotional at the mere thought that an instrument could capture reality so beautifully. All it took was a photograph of their baby to make their day. Another unforgettable experience was working in the operation theater where I shadowed KEMH’s pediatric surgeon and assisted in numerous pediatric surgeries. With the sheer number of patients that need operations, young first or second-year surgery residents handled tedious and lengthy operations. You would find it hard to believe that having the lights go off several times in the middle of a surgery was a common ordeal. One surgeon turned to me in the pitch -black and said, “Neha, simply hold your place with your fingers and hope the lights turn on soon”. (Right: Me with a pediatric surgeon in the OR, operating on an infant)

My experience at KEMH was inexpressibly eye-opening and life-changing. The doctors I worked with were the most honorable and selfless individuals I have ever encountered. An average day for a physician was 9am-11pm, seven days a week, and a medical fellow who worked 60-70 hours per week was paid only thirty dollars a month. Though they receive low compensation for their work, it is their desire to help others and better humanity that fuels their persistence. At KEMH, I witnessed the spirit of a physician in the truest sense, and for their hard work and devotion to human health, the respect and admiration these physicians received was unparalleled. Perhaps what struck me most was the humbleness and sense of satisfaction the patients and physicians had with their way of life, despite its limitations.

I conclude with Robert Frost’s poem called A Road Less Traveled:  “And I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."