Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum – We Dig It!

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When I first arrived at Hopkins about six and a half years ago, one of the first “fun facts” I heard about was of an Egyptian mummy on campus, who had been given the nickname “Boris.” The mummy is in fact on long-term loan to the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum from Goucher College, and has been since the 1980s.  In 1988, Dr. Betsy Bryan, the museum’s director and an eminent Egyptologist, oversaw the CT-scanning of “Boris,” which resulted in the re-discovery that “he” was in fact a “she. “ For my first year, this was all I knew of our archaeological collection.

Then, I heard that there was more than an Egyptian mummy in our archaeological collection—we had thousands of objects. But where were they? Why had I never seen them? I had been to Gilman Hall where they were kept, but no one had ever pointed them out to me, nor did I notice any glass cases with these pieces. I soon learned that the reason I had never seen them was because they were not on display all the time. What a shame!

After my second year here, the news came that Gilman was to undergo a three-year, $73 million renovation which would include an archaeological museum! I saw mock drawings, building plans, and articles in the Gazette that talked about what was in store for the building.

A year and a half ago, it was time to reopen Gilman Hall. I couldn’t have been more excited to check out the new museum, and FINALLY meet the mysterious mummy that I had heard so much about. My first trip to the archaeological museum was fantastic! Sanchita Balachandran, Curator/Conservator of the museum and lecturer in Near Eastern Studies, took us on a tour and told us about the vast collection. She talked about hands-on work she had been doing with current students, and told us about Director Dr. Bryan’s work with specific artifacts.

With pieces from ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, the Near East, and the ancient Americas, the installation showcases almost 700 objects. These pieces, in addition to those still being sorted and cataloged, have come from a variety of different places—some have been purchased by the university, some gifted by prominent Baltimoreans, others donated by alumni, and others put on loan for us to identify, study, research, and display.  The museum also has an extraordinary loan of over 2,000 ancient Egyptian objects from Eton College in Windsor, England, as well as objects from the Baltimore Museum of Art, in addition to the Egyptian mummy from Goucher College.

The museum has not only done an excellent job of making the pieces in the museum accessible, but it has also done phenomenal work in conservation (just take a look at http://archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu/the-collection/conservation/ to see items restored or cleaned…it’s amazing!)

Here are a few highlights on what type of pieces are currently being studied:

• A Roman Lead Curse Tablet – We currently have a collection of lead tablets, all written by the same person, which curses five other individuals. One of the curses recently placed on view at the museum calls on the gods to destroy a man named Plotius with debilitating fevers, promising gifts in return if the curse is successful.
• Attic Red-Figure Vases – In the spring of 2011, Hopkins professor Alan Shapiro of the Classics Department conducted a course on these vases. It gave students the opportunity to examine the pieces, dive into their history, and create informational texts to be displayed along with them, allowing the public to more fully understand their purpose.
• An Unpublished Magic Spell from Late Antiquity – One of our Johns Hopkins professors, Theodore Lewis who teaches Aramaic at Johns Hopkins, and his graduate students were able to translate the text from a piece of an incantation bowl. They found that it was asking to ward off evil spirits from a person’s home!
• Archaeology of Daily Life - Hérica Valladares, a professor in the Classics Department at Johns Hopkins, created an undergraduate research seminar to “stimulate innovative research through the close study of objects.” In this seminar, students studied pieces that were used in the daily lives of people, as well as those that depict what daily life was like.

When Daniel Coit Gilman created Johns Hopkins University, his main goal was advancing knowledge through research and scholarship, so that this knowledge could then be spread to the world. (Click here to learn more about his vision.) As you can see, the new archaeological museum on campus has done just this! It has provided great opportunities for students at both the graduated and undergraduate level to learn through hands on experiences and share their findings.

When you visit campus next, be sure to stop by our archaeological museum (http://archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu/)— it is open Monday-Friday from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and the outside cases can be viewed anytime the building is open. There’s no excuse not to visit!

The Homewood House

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If you have ever taken a tour of the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus, you may have noticed a house situated between the library and the freshman quad. At first, your reaction might be to think that it seems somewhat out of place. Why would there be a house in the middle of college campus? However, if you did a bit of research, you would soon find that this place has played an important role in the development of the property where our undergraduate institution currently lies.

Welcome to the Homewood House

Admissions_Shannon visits the Homewood House

In 1800, Charles Carroll, Jr., a prominent figure in the development of the B&O Railroad just like our founder Johns Hopkins, built his summer retreat on the Homewood Estate. This 130-acre property was given to him and his wife upon their marriage. For many years, his family was involved in tobacco production. They owned many slaves who worked the fields, and then they shipped the products to Europe to be sold.

Homewood Stable

This house and property, known to many as the old Carroll House—and now called the Homewood Museum—transferred hands in the 1830s. Carroll sold it all to William Wyman, a Baltimore merchant (yes, this is where the name of the lower engineering quad, Wyman Quad, comes from) in 1838. The Wyman family had a new home and gatehouse (which is still standing and now the headquarters for the Johns Hopkins campus newspaper, the News-Letter!) to live in, keeping the Carroll home as a guesthouse on their property.

Old Outhouse that still exists on campus

In the meantime, Daniel Coit Gilman, Johns Hopkins University’s first president, recognized that there was not enough space for the institution in its original location on Howard Street downtown. So, he began conversations with William Keyser of the Baltimore Copper Company to find a new home for the university. Keyser turned to his cousin Wyman, and the two worked in secret to secure a property—they were afraid if they announced their plan, prices of land would have been driven up! By 1902, everything was settled and Homewood was announced as the new campus.

Further construction began on the property, with the Greenhouse being built first, followed by Gilman Hall. Classes were then able to commence for undergraduates on the new campus. In the meantime, the Homewood House served as home to Gilman School (before it moved further up North Charles Street), The Hopkins Club, administrative offices, and even bed spaces.  Robert Merrick, who Merrick Barn is now named after (another original building which is home to the theatre department), lived there for some time, and eventually endowed the museum in 1973.

To this day, the Homewood House plays an integral role in the university. While it is open daily to visitors to come in and see its architecture and furnishings, it continues to serve students, faculty members, and the community in many other ways. Here are just a few examples:

• Museum Buddies: This organization, started by a current Hopkins student, is a mentoring program for students from nearby Barclay Elementary School. Students in this program get to learn about the history of Baltimore, have tours of the museum, and play old games like marbles, hoop rolling, and lawn bowling.

Barclay Hoops

• JHU Arts Festival: During the JHU Arts Festival, the Homewood House conducted a weaving program that had over 60 attendees!

Arts Festival Events

• Intersession Classes: Last intersession, Dancing Like Jane Austin was taught in the Homewood Museum. They turned their main lobby area (which some time ago was probably used for entertaining) into a dance room. Cultural education was also included in the January class.

Dancing Like Jane Austen Intersession Class

• Jobs and Internships: The Homewood Museum offers work study positions, as well as regular jobs and internships to undergraduate students. This might be something you’d want to get involved with as an art history major or museums and society minor!
• Inspiration for On-Campus Construction:  If you look closely, you will see architecture throughout campus that has been inspired by the museum. For example, the front pillars of the museum can be seen in front of Gilman Hall and the black and white marble flooring on the portico can be seen in front of Mason Hall.
• Learning Lab: The museum puts on exhibitions and programming throughout the year ranging from art showings to musical concerts.

Learning Lab: M&S Tea Event

As you can see, the Homewood House really is a great asset to our campus, and not just a random building sitting between the library and the freshman quad. It not only contributes to the vibrant campus life, but also to the local community. Be sure to take time and stop by next time you are visiting Johns Hopkins!

Would you like $10K to do your own research?

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As I write the title of this blog I realize that it is eerily similar to the subject line of emails that typically end up in my SPAM folder. Trust me, this is not SPAM, and in fact if you are a current undergraduate applicant to Johns Hopkins University or planning to apply in the future this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss out on. The $10,000 for conducting your own research that I am referring to is the Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship that freshmen applicants to Johns Hopkins University are eligible to apply for. Details on applying can be found here: http://apply.jhu.edu/wilson/wilson_form_2011.html.

The Woodrow Wilson fellowship is one of the unique opportunities at Johns Hopkins University that I always enjoy speaking to prospective students and families about for a number of reasons. First, people often have never heard of it. Second, the idea of funding research, especially for first-year students, represents the vision of the university so well. And third, the various Wilson projects are some of the best stories to tell about Hopkins students and their achievements. Just in the past few years, Wilson research fellows have:

• Written, produced and directed a full-length play that enjoyed a successful run in Chicago.
• Investigated female circumcision and obstetric fistula in Africa
• Researched the potential uses of adult neural stem cells
• Traced the iconography of an unclassified tile from the Archaeological Museum
• Explored the viability of high speed rail systems in the U.S.
• Studied gene expression in Down syndrome
• Filmed a documentary about the Jewish community of Malta
• Analyzed the rise of megachurches in the U.S. and the U.K.
• Investigated the causes of childhood blindness
• Explored the history of Baroque music and original Baroque instruments
• Studied the best practices of organ donation around the world
• Compared maternal and neonatal health in the U.S. and India

What might you have in mind? The specifics: the fellowship is a $10,000 stipend over four years to spend on research costs, which may include travel, equipment, and use of archives or laboratories. Students are assigned a faculty mentor to help as they select a topic, create an action plan, and pursue their research project. Fellows may choose to work within one field or undertake projects in diverse areas of study. In their senior year, Fellows publicly present their work to the Johns Hopkins community.

The Woodrow Wilson Fellowship website has extensive information about the program and the accomplishments of past fellows: http://krieger.jhu.edu/woodrowwilson/. I encourage checking out the following pages:

• Woodrow Wilson Fellows in the News: http://krieger.jhu.edu/woodrowwilson/news/
• A selection of completed projects over the past few years: http://krieger.jhu.edu/woodrowwilson/completed/
• Completed posters from the Class of 2011 Fellows: http://krieger.jhu.edu/woodrowwilson/completedposters/

This is truly a unique opportunity and one not replicated at other colleges and universities. Don’t take my word for it though. I asked a few current Fellows I know well to speak on what the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship means to them and their connection to Johns Hopkins University:

Tess Thomas – Sophomore (Class of 2014) – History major
I think I would have ended up at Hopkins even if I hadn’t been offered the Woodrow Wilson Research Fellowship, but it certainly made my decision an easy one. Who could pass up the allure of $10,000 to be spent on any project of your choosing? Additionally, the fact that this fellowship is not limited to student studying the natural sciences confirmed for me the university’s commitment to the humanities.  I couldn’t believe that as an intended history major I had been offered this amazing opportunity. I am planning to use my funding to study the effects of the 2012 Olympics on British nationalism. My research is taking me to London this upcoming summer—a trip that is completely covered by the Wilson Fellowship. The WWP has allowed me to combine two life-long dreams of mine: studying abroad and attending an Olympic Games.

Noah Guiberson – Sophomore (Class of 2014) – Biology, Neuroscience majors
For my Wilson, I am currently working with a post-doc at the School of Medicine, doing research in neuroprotection and studying the mechanism and consequences of a particular microRNA’s over-expression and knockout. What we’ve found thus far is that when the gene is over-expressed, excitotoxic cell death in a hippocampal stroke model is diminished by as much as half compared to the control. Another interest that I intend to pursue as a Wilson Fellow is the use of optogenetic techniques in the treatment of cancer, and the development of tumor-specific delivery mechanisms. The Wilson Fellowship provides me with the funding I need to conduct my research, as well as the mentorship and administrative support I need in order to conduct it most effectively.

Ruthie Chen – Freshman (Class of 2015) – English, Spanish majors
The Woodrow Wilson Fellowship definitely played a significant role in my decision to attend Hopkins. After meeting some senior Fellows at SOHOP in April and hearing about their current research endeavors, I realized that this fellowship was truly unique in the breadth and variety of opportunities that are so readily available to us. I was particularly struck by the passion and sense of academic and personal fulfillment that each Fellow shared. From tracking an archaeological tile to Tunisia to studying the international reception of The Great Gatsby in various European countries, the research projects are so intensely varied and intriguing that, as a freshman, I’m still a little overwhelmed by how many different avenues I can pursue in my next four years as a Wilson Fellow.

If you want even more information about the Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, here are additional links:

• JHU Gazette article from this past spring about 2011 Woodrow Wilson fellows presenting their findings: http://gazette.jhu.edu/2011/04/25/at-journey%E2%80%99s-end/
• Former Hopkins Interactive student blogger JHU_MichelleB and 2008 graduate details the finale of her Woodrow Wilson fellowship: http://hopkins.typepad.com/michelleb/2008/04/woodrow-wilson.html
• A 2010 graduate of the Krieger School of Arts & Sciences and current student at the School of Advanced International Studies, Nicole Overley discusses her Wilson project researching “the comparative impacts of monopolistic versus competitive religious ‘economies’ in the US and the UK:” http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/guest/2011/04/my-five-years-at-hopkins-from-homewood-to-sais/
• Class of 2011 Biology graduate Neha Deshpande discusses her Wilson research and Intersession experiences in India: http://blogs.hopkins-interactive.com/guest/2010/04/best-of-the-guest-blog-vi-intersession-in-india/

Don’t miss out on your chance to get a lot of money to establish yourself as a bona fide researcher.

Homewood Expansion

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Today (Monday, August 29, 2011) is the start of the fall 2011 semester at Johns Hopkins University and the official start of the 2011-2012 academic year. This is now my ninth “first day of school” working for Johns Hopkins and it is always exciting to see the seniors begin their last year, the sophomores and juniors experience their own milestones, and the freshmen acting all wide-eyed and curious. This year’s freshman class, the Class of 2015, arrived at Hopkins with two unwelcomed guests. First, at the onset of move-in week last Tuesday, Baltimore and the entire East Coast were hit with a surprising magnitude 5.8 earthquake. Then, over the weekend during the most active time of Orientation, category 1 Hurricane Irene struck. Thankfully, the Homewood campus and Baltimore weathered both acts of Mother Nature, but it is clear that the start of their collective college experience has been unique for our new freshmen.

Mason Hall Earthquake damage: 1 lacrosse frame

Hurricane Irene aftermath: One huge tree knocks out sculpture garden fencing.

Hurricane Irene aftermath: Check out those roots.

With the return of students the Homewood campus is once again bustling with activity, much different than during the summer when the campus remains pretty quiet. The one main activity this summer at Homewood has been new construction, and as the students returned they were greeted by a number of structural advancements to their campus. As I seemingly do each year, since Homewood is constantly expanding, I thought I would provide a brief overview of what’s new around campus. Though many of the projects are still in progress, Homewood continues to transform for each incoming class. What will this place be like for the Classes of 2016, 2017, 2018, and beyond?

Brody Learning Commons
On Sunday, June 6, 2010, more than 200 guests assembled on the south patio of Homewood’s MSE Library to celebrate the groundbreaking for the Brody Learning Commons. In honor of the university’s 13^th president, William R. Brody, the Commons is an addition to the MSE Library. It will be a four-story building connected to all levels of the current library and will feature flexible group and individual study areas, interactive media rooms, a 100-seat quiet reading room, and a new 75-seat café. Completely wireless-enabled, the Commons will increase the library’s seating capacity by a third, adding more than 500 new seats. The building is set to open in the summer of 2012, and progress has been quite impressive. The Sheridan Libraries has set up an impressive website documenting the entire project including a live construction web cam and regularly updated blog with construction photos. Check it out: Brody Learning Commons.

Brody Learning Commons: Opening next summer.

Brody Learning Commons: Expansion of the MSE Library

Brody Learning Commons: A Massive Undertaking

Cordish Lacrosse Center
On April 23, 2011, during halftime of the Johns Hopkins-Navy men’s lacrosse game at Homewood Field, a ceremonial groundbreaking took place for the $10 million 14,000-square-foot Cordish Lacrosse Center. Being built at the east end of Homewood Field (the most legendary stadium for college lacrosse), the center will be the new home for the women’s and 44-time national championship men’s lacrosse programs. The first facility of its kind, built solely for a university’s lacrosse program, the Cordish Center will house locker rooms and coaching staff offices, a 50-person theater, a conference room, and academic center and a training room. A reception area on the second floor will lead to a patio overlooking the field for game day spectators. The teams will occupy the center following the 2012 season. Additional details can be found here: Baltimore Sun article.

Cordish Lacrosse Center: Breaking ground soon.

New Homewood Field scoreboard; ready for the 45th national lacrosse championship in Spring 2012.

Undergraduate Teaching Lab and Biology Research
Kicking off in June 2011, the new Undergraduate Teaching Lab and Biology center will be a 105,000-square-foot facility connecting the courtyard that currently houses Mudd Hall. A glazed façade of the new facility will be incorporated to provide ample daylight and a wonderful view of the Bufano Sculpture Garden. A new student gathering place and coffee bar will be created on the rooftop of Mudd Hall, acting as a community space for students and faculty focusing on the natural sciences. The focal point will be undergraduate teaching labs for biology, chemisty, neuroscience, and biophysics. Target date for occupancy is Summer 2013.

Expansion of Mudd Hall for undergraduate teaching labs.

ve undertaking, this one to expand labs and research centers for natural sciences.

And that’s not all. In the coming months the university will break ground on the south end of campus: Malone Hall  will be a 56,000-square-foot, four-story building adjacent to Mason and Hackerman halls and designed for interdisciplinary work in emerging engineering fields. And by the new year, Baltimore City will begin a massive three-year Charles Street reconstruction project which will redefine the eastern border of the Homewood campus. Check out this recent JHU Gazette article that details all the construction going on around Homewood: A Summer Growth Spurt.

Malone Hall footprint: space for interdisciplinary engineering research coming soon.

If you are a prospective student, what better time to come visit the Johns Hopkins but this fall to check out these construction projects and the majesty that is our Homewood campus? Here are our various on-campus visit programs: http://apply.jhu.edu/visit/visit.html?main.

Are You Ready For Some Updates?

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Posted by Admissions_Daniel

With more than half of January already gone, I thought I’d take a short break from reviewing applications and update the blog. I am going to quickly touch on a few frequently asked questions this time of year and also provide a road map for future Hopkins Insider blog posts over the next two months. But before that, the priority for this update entry is to provide some details on this year’s freshman applicant pool. Once again our communication specialist, Shelly Placek, worked with Dean of Admissions John Latting to produce the following official press release:

Press Release
Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Johns Hopkins University
January 20, 2011
—————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Thursday, January 20, 2011—For the ninth consecutive year, the Johns Hopkins University Office of Undergraduate Admissions has received a record number of applications for undergraduate admission.

As of January 18, 2011, 19,201 applications for the Class of 2015 had been received, representing an increase of 742 applications, or 4 percent, from last year’s pool.

A snapshot of this year’s applicants:

• Increased percentage of applications from the South (up 14 percent), New England (up 11 percent), and the West (up 11 percent)
• Areas of academic interest of applicants
  • Social sciences are up 6 percent
  • Engineering is up 4 percent
  • Natural sciences are up 4 percent
  • Top five countries (other than US) represented: China, Republic of Korea, Canada, India, Singapore

The Admissions Committee is currently in the process of reading applicant files and decisions will be mailed by April 1. Earlier in December, 518 students were offered admission under the Early Decision Plan.

With 19,000-plus applications to review, my colleagues and I will have very little free time between now and the end of March. Before I get back to my applications for the day, I wanted to remind our Regular Decision applicants of the answers to the two most frequently asked questions post-admissions deadline:

Batches of mailed application files to be scanned.

Over 13,000 batches have already been scanned.

Is my application complete? Do you have all my stuff? Can I check my status online?
We understand that you all are anxious to make sure every last piece of your application has been received and processed correctly, but we must request that you be patient. Our Operations staff is working diligently every day (with a lot of overtime as well) to process the volume of application materials we receive around the deadline day. If you e-mail or call us at this time of year, we are not able to confirm whether application files are complete or to identity which individual items have been received.

The process is as follows: once your application is downloaded and processed, you will be sent an e-mail acknowledgment. This indicates that your application file has been started (not necessarily that it is complete). Please remember, with thousands of applications to process, this e-mail acknowledgment is not automatic and may take a few weeks to be sent. In early February, once we have processed all received application materials, we will e-mail students whose applications remain incomplete. Those students will be given an opportunity to provide us with any missing items before we complete the evaluation of their applications. Rest assured that application files are checked carefully, multiple times, for completeness.

Do note, unlike many schools, Johns Hopkins does not have an online system for checking application status. We do things the old-fashioned way. You will not receive a log-in and password where you can track your application materials. We do confirm applications and have an extensive process for making sure missing materials are collected.

And the mail keeps streaming in.

Can I add items to my application even though the deadline has passed? How can I correct a mistake in my application?
Yes, we will still accept application updates and we do have a process for error corrections. It is simple. To provide an update or error correction, you must compose a cover letter and submit these materials by fax (410-516-6025) or mail to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. In the cover letter, you should include your full name, birth date, and school name so that we can merge this new information with your application folder. Also, all updates should be sent in by February 1. Finally, DO NOT SEND UPDATES VIA E-MAIL, as we do not process application materials received through e-mail.

The Remnants I

The Remnants II

And let me answer one last question before I return to looking over transcripts, essays, recommendations, etc.: What can we expect from the Hopkins Insider blog over the next couple of months?

I hope by the end of the week to post a blog I have been working on for the past few months. I have been asked often why I stopped posting responses on College Confidential and if I will ever return. At the end of the week I plan to answer those questions and post my entry “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of College Confidential.”

Starting next week, we will continue an annual winter tradition for the Hopkins Insider blog. Over the last few years during the waiting phase (post RD deadline, pre-RD decision release) we have posted a series of blog entries that introduce the members of the Johns Hopkins Undergraduate Admissions Committee. (If you click on the Admissions Staff Profiles category on the left-side menu you see these entries.) This winter we will be taking a bit of a different approach. Shannon and I with the help of the amazing Shelly Placek again, compiled a list of 10 questions and had each of the members of the Admissions Counseling team respond. We hope that the collective responses to these questions will provide applicants a chance find out a little bit more about the people who actually are reading the applications.

Stay tuned.

Home

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Editor’s Note: For this guest author entry we asked Senior Assistant Director Zak Harris to return and let you all know about another area of his position; coordinating one of our signature outreach programs.  Still in the midst of a hectic fall travel season, here is Zak discussing the unique Baltimore Scholars program.

So, it’s been a few weeks since you last heard from me—but I’m back! In the meantime, I have traveled through the great state of Maryland and met the great people (and ate the great food) of southern Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. By the time you read this, I will be in Portland, OR, trying to stay dry from all of this rain!

Traveling across the country, while exciting, has definitely made me appreciate the idea of “home” a bit more. I put home in quotations because “home” can be anything. It can be your athletic team or band or it could be your tangible house or where your family resides. In any case, my blog this time around is going to be about “home” and Hopkins’ relationship with its home: Baltimore City. One of the many things that I love about Johns Hopkins, and the entire Johns Hopkins Institute, is our relationship with the city. Today, I want to introduce you to the special relationship that the Hopkins undergraduate campus has with the high school students of Baltimore City.

Baltimore: Home to amazing Scholars

We are not unique in being an urban institution that has wonderful students right in its backyard;  however, our commitment to the students and the work that we do with them, I think, is unparalleled. Under my role as Coordinator of Multicultural Recruitment, I manage the Baltimore City area and the Baltimore Scholars program (our commitment to “home” and Baltimore City students.) The Baltimore Scholars program was started in 2005 as a way to reward Baltimore City public high school students for their dedication to academics, service, and leadership. The focal point of the program is a full tuition scholarship (renewable every year) for these students that apply and are accepted to Hopkins. These students are often considered the best and the brightest of their high school and go through the same exact application process that the rest of our applicants go through. They bring with them the ability to succeed academically, thrive socially, and all the while keeping their focus on giving back to their home. While they are at Hopkins they are expected to be leaders in the classroom and in the community. They will attend meetings together, learn more about each other, and teach the larger Hopkins community about the city of Baltimore. During our orientation week, the Baltimore Scholars organize a fair called “Welcome to My City.” This event, which regularly attracts hundreds of students, gives vendors from around the city an ability to talk directly with the freshman class. Also, during our intersession period (the time between first and second semesters) some of our Baltimore Scholars will help to teach a class about the History of Baltimore. This is a group of nearly 60 students that are extremely proud of their “home.”

Meet Baltimore Scholar Sheyna

I wanted to highlight one particular Baltimore Scholar to give you all a sense of how proud we are of this entire group of students. Sheyna Mikeal graduated from Johns Hopkins this past spring and is a great example of how giving back to one’s “home” is so important. Sheyna went to Dunbar High School in Baltimore City and, believe it or not, she did not see Hopkins as one of her first choices for college. However, after learning more about the Baltimore Scholars program, she understood that she had a tremendous opportunity to stay close to home and give back to her community. She used that motivation throughout her entire time at Hopkins and continues to use that motivation today. While she was at Hopkins she was president of the Multicultural Student Volunteers (MSV) and president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Mu Psi Citywide Chapter. She had internships in the Admissions Office at Hopkins and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Currently, she is a graduate student at the Hopkins School of Education and recently found out that she will be interning at the counseling center at her alma mater, Dunbar High School!

So, whether are you from the area or not, we certainly hope that Hopkins can be a place that you can eventually call “home” as well.

Until next time…

Check out these resources to learn even more about the Baltimore Scholars program:

PDF – Program description: http://www.jhu.edu/admis/pdf/2006/baltimore_scholars_qanda.pdf
PDF – Program brochure: http://www.jhu.edu/admis/pdf/baltimore_scholars.pdf 
Spring 2009 artcile about the first Baltimore Scholars graduates: http://krieger.jhu.edu/magazine/sp09/f2.html 

Welcome Back Gilman: The Heart of Homewood

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I bought my first Hopkins lacrosse t-shirt at the bookstore in Gilman Hall. I mailed my first electric bill in the basement of the building, where the university post office was located. I directed lost families through its eight stairwells during our Open Houses. And, I heard about its archaeological collection, but never got to see it, because it was hidden away in storage.

A Gorgeous Shot of Gilman by JHU_Greco

However, everything now has changed!

Named after the university’s founding president Daniel Coit Gilman, Gilman Hall was first opened in 1915. With seminar style teaching being invented at Johns Hopkins University, the building was created to foster this type of environment – one where students and faculty could work closely together and continue their discussions outside of the classroom. As time passed on, though, it became clear that upgrades to the building were necessary.

After an 85 million dollar renovation, Gilman Hall has reopened its doors as the first LEED certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and green building on campus. (LEED certified = high performance in five areas: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality).

Now, for the first time in many years, Gilman is home to ALL humanities departments: Classics, English, German and Romance Languages, History, History of Art, History of Science and Technology, Humanities Center, Near Eastern Studies, Philosophy, and Writing Seminars. Museums and Society, Film and Media Studies, and the Expository Writing program have all moved back under the Gilman roof. Each of these departments has its own seminar room, including ceiling-mounted digital projectors and screens, DVD players, document cameras, speakers, and dimmable lighting. With nearly 11,000 additional square feet of space, the number of seminar style classrooms has increased from 15 to 29!

In addition to the increase in space and reuniting of the humanities, Gilman opens with many other exciting changes:

- If you would have visited the old Gilman, you probably would’ve gotten lost! With eight stairwell — all of which led to different floors – confusing corridors, and hallways that came to dead ends, it was extremely difficult to navigate the building. In the new Gilman, three stairwells have united all floors of the building, a new corridor from the north to south end has been created to allow you to pass through the center, and two elevators have been added to create a handicapped accessible facility. If you take the stairs, you will find a department office when you arrive to each floor. The space has been laid out as such so that visitors to the university can pop in and ask questions if needed!

- In the entranceway of the building, know as Memorial Hall, you will find four restored class windows. These windows represent the four institutions where President Gilman worked during his career: Hopkins, Yale, University of California, and the Carnegie Institute of Washington.

Vessel Field

-  With the renovation, a new space has been opened up in the center of the building, creating a three story atrium area which is absolutely gorgeous! The atrium is now a useful group gathering and study space for students to use. Hanging from its glass roof (made up of 154 glass panels, each one weighing about 500 pounds) is Vessel Field, a nine piece sculpture created by Virginia artist Kendall Buster.

- In the past, our archaeological collection was hidden in storage. Now, you can find it just below the atrium. Over 8,550 objects will not only be displayed in glass cases, but also be used by students and faculty for classes and research. The collection includes thousands of Greco-Roman and Near Eastern objects dating from pre-dynastic Egypt to the Byzantine and Islamic periods.

- The Hutzler Reading Room, know by our students as “the Hut,” is located in the back of the building and was formerly a darker study space with worn tables and rugs. Revamped and ready to go for students this fall, this 24 hour study space is now bright (the walls are green!) and has two interior glass walls to define three distinct study spaces.  One of these spaces contains the Writing Center, where office hours will be held for students throughout the year. The highlight of this space is the newly restored 19 stained glass windows. These windows were dedicated in 1930 to a former trustee, Francis T. King, and display the marks and logos used by European printers from the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

- Formerly, the Nolan Room was designated as the film and media studies screening room. With tall glass windows along the back wall, this space was not ideal. During the reconstruction, the Nolan Room was restored to a classroom space with a view of the Wyman woods, and the Fisher Lecture Hall was created as a new screening space. Fisher Lecture Hall, located on the ground floor, is a 1,500-square foot auditorium which can seat up to 145 people. Enclosed in wood and metal acoustic panels, the room has a full projection booth, motorized projection screen, whiteboard, and “smart” podium.

The Hut

All in all, the newly renovated Gilman Hall is beautiful. As students arrive on campus, some are ready to see all of the changes, while others can’t wait to see the building for the first time! Professors have returned to their offices, classrooms have been decorated, and seminar tables eagerly await their new students and faculty. We are all excited that the home of the humanities and heart of campus has returned!

So, if you decide to visit campus, you can buy your Hopkins lacrosse t-shirt in the Barnes and Noble Bookstore located in Charles Commons on St. Paul Street. You can mail your bills at the post office in Wolman Hall. You can easily navigate the stairwells of Gilman to visit the various humanities departments during our Open Houses. And, you can view the archaeological collection right underneath Gilman’s atrium.

Stop by soon, and experience Gilman for yourself! (Visit for an Open House for a chance to see Gilman and the rest of the Homewood campus.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw3rQ_bb5hMv

Farewell Thee “S”

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April 1, 2010

After quite a long day yesterday, I arrived at the office and was surprised to hear some amazing breaking news from the University that I have passionately worked for over the past six years. As frequent readers of this blog know, one of the greatest pet peeves of the student, alumni, faculty, and staff of Johns Hopkins University is how often people forget the “S” at the end of Johns. Well as of today the University has corrected this situation. Here is the press release posted on the main JHU Web site this morning:

The “S” is out: We’re “John Hopkins” Now

(Baltimore, April 1, 2010)

Editors began work immediately on campus signage.

The Johns Hopkins University announced today that it is bowing to the inevitable and officially changing its name to “John Hopkins.”

“We give up,” university President Ronald J. Daniel said. “We’re fighting a losing battle here. And we strongly suspect the extra ‘s’ was a typo in the first place.”

Since its establishment in 1876 as America’s first research university, Daniel said, anyone and everyone has stumbled over “Johns Hopkins,” omitting the seemingly superfluous “s” altogether or dropping it randomly into the name anywhere but where it belonged.

“It’s not just ‘John Hopkins,’” Daniel said. “We’ve heard ‘John Hopskins.’ We’ve heard ‘John Shopskins.’ One flustered high school kid in an admissions interview the other day actually called us ‘Bob Hoskins.’”

“We’ve had an entire team of psychiatrists doing nothing but treating our undergraduates for advanced identity crisis,” Daniel said. “It just had to stop.”

Squads of staff members fanned out early today over the university’s campuses throughout the Baltimore-Washington area; in Bologna, Italy; and in Nanjing, China. They employed screwdrivers, chisels, spackle, spray paint – whatever it took to remove the annoying surplus sibilant from residence halls, lab buildings, buses and trucks.

“Thank heavens,” a history of art/flute double major said as she joined a grounds crew trying to pry a particularly recalcitrant consonant from the East Gate at the Homewood campus. “It’s bad enough trying to convince everyone that we’re not all pre-meds. But correcting people’s pronunciation 41 times a day? It’s just exhausting.”

No landfill: All removed letters will be recycled.

The confusion began in 1873 when wealthy Maryland merchant Johns Hopkins died and left a then-record $7 million bequest to create the university and hospital that have – until now – borne his name. The long-told legend has been that the curmudgeonly Quaker – and wouldn’t you get a little surly if people were calling you “Johns?” – was given his great-grandmother’s maiden name as his first name.

Recently unearthed evidence suggests, however, that one of the most epic misspellings in the history of birth certificates really resulted from nothing more than a slip of the quill by a myopic, and perhaps slightly tipsy, hospital registrar.

“This was,” Daniel noted, “long before The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Darn. I mean, John Hopkins Hospital.”

It is unclear exactly how long it will take for the university to change all its signage, but campus bookstores are distributing huge vats of Wite-Out™ to allow faculty members to immediately amend their business cards and stationery.

The bulk of the switchover should be complete within 41 days, university spokesman Dennis O’Hea said. “This is April 1st,” he said. “You do the math.”

APRIL FOOLS!!!!

A Hopkins Interactive Face-lift (version 5.0)

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A note of introduction from Admissions_Daniel:
The Hopkins Insider blog welcomes another guest author and diverts from the main topic of discussion over the last few weeks — the release of regular decision notifications. Don’t worry if you are looking for that information then go read my RD Notification Release Explained entry from last week, and check back on Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday. However, now I turn the blog over to a freshman member of the Student Admissions Advisory Board who is going to detail you all about a wonderful new development in the history of Hopkins Interactive. Enjoy and we hope you love the new site as much as we do.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Hey everyone! For those of you who don’t know me I am Joe N. and I am one of the 8 freshmen bloggers. When I joined the Student Admissions Advisory Board (the students behind the Hopkins Interactive Web site) one of the biggest things that I was pushing for was a re-design of Hopkins Interactive, not because the site wasn’t amazing but just because it looked out-of-date. I couldn’t be happier to tell you that today we have gone live with the new face of Hopkins Interactive, a completely new homepage that has everything the old homepage did and much more. I have been working on this project for just about 5 months, and now everything is complete. This is the second major web project that we’ve released recently, the first was our new blogging system. If you haven’t already, I’d suggest you check out my post about the new system. In this post I am going to describe all the changes that we have made in detail, but don’t worry  I’m not going to get too technical.

The very first thing I moved to change when I started to make my modifications was the color scheme. While I love the color scheme from the old site, in my opinion the colors seemed too faded. I wanted to brighten up the color scheme without making it so bright that you had to strain your eyes when you’re looking at it. I worked with Lauren C. another one of the SAAB Members/Bloggers to make a new color scheme that used the same primary colors that the old site had, but brighter and more saturated. Once we finished with it we took it to the rest of the re-design committee and they approved of it! I couldn’t be happier with how everything came out, it looks amazing and its surprising what you can do by moving around color dials. This was a big deal for me because I’m not usually good with colors and I just changed things around until I saw what I liked.

I was lucky to have a target look for the homepage when I came into SAAB. Over the summer Admissions_Daniel made a drawing of what he wanted the new homepage to look like based upon what a previous orientation site looked like. Daniel was nice enough to get me into contact with the student who designed that site, and he explained everything that he did so I could get an idea of how I was going to make our new homepage work. I took that drawing Daniel gave me and over the next few months I did everything I possibly could. It involved me learning a LOT more about web design/programming than I did, just so I could make this page look like what he gave me. I actually spent about 20 hours over winter break making a large portion of the code that generates the page you see now. The site that you now see is almost exactly the same as the drawing that Daniel gave me nearly 7 months ago. I improvised with a bunch of things but I made sure that the entire time the whole layout and organization of information was preserved.

For now here's a picture of what the new homepage looks like, if I can on Monday when I'm in the office I'm going to try and scan the document that Daniel gave me and line it up right after this so you can see how hard we worked to make them agree with each other.

Here it is - the original drawing that Daniel gave me in the beginning of the year which was essentially what he wanted to see as the new homepage. What you may notice is that for this to work we had to change blogging systems, we didn't do that just because we wanted to! It was necessary for this to happen!

One of the things that I absolutely love about the new site is the interactivity (if that’s a real word) of it. Hopkins Interactive is all about interacting with students, but I felt the need to make the actual site more interactive. Now when you go to our new homepage you see a scrolling photo album giving you images and an excerpt of the 10 most recent posts, and just in case you don’t want to try and follow those you can see the 6 most recent posts below it. We preserved some of the things that were on the old Hopkins Interactive homepage such as the featured student section and the “did you know” section. We all believe that these were a vital part of the site and we couldn’t just get rid of them. We also wanted to make sure that we kept some major aspects of the old homepage so everything doesn’t look entirely different yet. Aside from the scrolling photo album that you can go through yourself any time I added animated drop down menus for the student profiles, blogs, and forum sections. This allows our visitors to access certain parts of the site without having to look as hard, and it just looks really really awesome!

Here's what the dropdown menus look like when you expand them and what the image box looks like as it shuffles through the images.

One of my biggest goals when I set out to redesign our homepage was to make an all-in-one search bar, that is one that is completely comprehensive. So in my mind it would search the forums, the blogs, and all of the Hopkins Interactive pages. This is currently a work in progress but right now you can search through all of the Hopkins Interactive content, hopefully the blogs within the next few days, and eventually the forums. This would make it infinitely easier for our visitors to find information, as they would only have to use 1 search bar instead of trying to figure out which search on which site to use. Another thing that we added to our new homepage is a link to our academics blog, since its one of the biggest projects we’ve ever done and its something that prospective/admitted students need to know about.

For those of you who like numbers this site was the product of about 50-60 hours of me doing web design stuff, and most of the time I was working on things that you can’t actually see, for example the script that gets the 10 most recent blog posts and displays them properly. Lauren also put in a good 20-30 hours helping me with all of the changes, and Admissions_Daniel, Admissions IT Team Leader Chris, and Admissions Marketing Editor Shelly helped us all along the way with pretty much everything. Without every single one of them this outstanding new homepage wouldn’t be possible.

When I took on this project I knew that it would be one of the largest projects I’ve ever worked one, and it most definitely was. Combined with the release of our new blogging system I believe that in my first year here at Hopkins I’ve definitely done more than I ever thought, and I think I’ve done more than all of my previous web design projects combined. But this was also more fun than I ever imagined it being, and I’ve learned more than I ever could have imagined. Thank you so much for reading my rant about the new release, and thank you for being the most important part of Hopkins Interactive – the visitor(s). Without you none of what we do would be possible.

Please don’t hesitate to contact use, if you have any questions, comments, or if you’ve found issues with something @ webmaster@hopkins-interactive.com. While we spent hours making sure that our site was compatible in many different browsers and operating systems, we couldn’t check them all. Thanks again for reading, and I hope you all enjoy the new homepage!

Snow Day

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As most of you probably already know, the Baltimore-D.C. metro area was hit with a major blizzard over this past weekend. Nearly 30 inches of snow fell between Friday and Saturday, crippling the city yet providing an amazing opportunity for Hopkins students to become children again and enjoy a fun-filled snow weekend. The weekend has been extended as the University is closed this Monday, a rare occurrence in the history of Johns Hopkins University.

While the students enjoy this day off and another opportunity to play in the snow, I on the other hand am beginning to go a bit stir crazy. For four straight days I have been in my apartment basically reading applications non-stop. I need to get out. Unfortunately though there are piles of snow that needed to be removed from my car first. I have made three separate shoveling trips for a total of three hours, and still probably have another hour to go. I will get out soon … hopefully.

To commemorate this momentous blizzard of 2010, I asked a number of the students I know to share their pictures from the weekend with me. So here is a slideshow of those pictures, as well as some of mine, to help put into perspective the snOMG / Snowpocalypse / B’morizzard of 2010:

Thanks to Miranda, Steph, Brian, Keith, Mandy, Lauren, Saznin and Tyler for sharing pictures. Special thanks to Tabitha and her housemate Shanna who provided some of the best shots in the whole slideshow.

Current reports say that another storm is ready to hit Baltimore tomorrow evening and drop anywhere from 6-16 more inches of snow. Whatever does fall this week, it will just add to the highest total of snow in this history of Baltimore for one winter season. I guess I finally know what it feels like to live in Buffalo.

Whether there are more snow days ahead, I know where I will be for foreseeable future … in my office (home or Mason) reading applications. No snow days for Admissions_Daniel … oh well.