This post is really really late and really overdue, because I usually like to talk about my semester classes at the beginning of the semester. But oh well, better late than never right? Here goes…my 6th semester of classes! I really can’t believe it. Yesterday I registered for my last Fall semester of classes and I was so sad because I know my time here is indeed coming to an end. But here we go:
Physics 2: This is my last science class! My last natural science class at Hopkins. We just had our last exam (before the final) this morning, and while I was reallllly happy for it to be over, I was a little sad because this marks the end of my natural science career at Hopkins…the end of being able to relate to my pre med friends with studying and agonizing and cramming…and the end of being part of the pre med culture of Hopkins. It’s not the only culture here of course, but I’d be lying to you if I said that it wasn’t strong. Weird, right? I’m definitely happy about it because my science courses here have been the ones that have made me the most miserable because of my inability to handle test anxiety and stuff– but I’m really happy I will be able to take classes next year that will show my strengths and that will be more specific to my interests. (If you are confused…I’m taking the pre med courses for my own “enlightenment, but I am *not* going to medical school.)
spring fair fireworks! this is how i feel about physics...jk!
Anyway, the material in this class is electricity and magnetism , optics, nuclear and quantum physics (not sure what part of AP physics that corresponds to but just so you know). It’s way more conceptual than last semester’s Newton’s laws and our exams never have numbers on them–so some students who are really into math and numbers hate the conceptual thinking our professor’s exams require. I haven’t been doing too well in this class because of my text anxiety issues, but the professor has been really understanding and helpful and has a schedule where he moves things around be available with his students. I love this professor!!!!!!
Physics 2 Lab: Continuation of physics 1 lab. It’s pretty hard to do, I won’t lie…I can’t even describe the things we do because I don’t half understand then when I’m doing them, haha. But yea, we just do experiments like the ones you may read in your physics textbook.
Fundamentals of Epidemiology: This is one of the required Public Health courses at Hopkins (JHU_Saznin and JHU_Lauren B. are in it with me now). I actually like it a lot and it’s prob my favorite core Public health course (out of Biostatistics, Health Policy, and the Environment and Your Health). Epidemiology is a science that looks at the patterns of disease and death in a population, and through observation and data collection, it determines the causes of these diseases and death outcomes. It’s a really useful science and it’s probably the class that is the most “public healthy” to me when you think about it. We learn about study designs, math techniques to calculate ratios and rates and proportions, causes of disease…I could go on and on. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, look into this major! ;)
Intermediate Spanish 2: Just a continuation of Spanish. This is my 4th consecutive semester of Spanish here, and it gets harder each time of course but not too bad. I wish the Spanish classes here (at least the grammar learning ones..I’m sure once you get into the literature and culture ones it gets better) were structure differently, I won’t lie. I am definitely learning a lot and my grammar is strong, but we’re lacking in the whole speaking and listening and culture department. Even in the lower level courses (we call it “Elements” ) we learned about the cultures of different countries but now we don’t. I always suggest that they should bring in Spanish speakers from different places so that we can be exposed to culture but no go so far. But, you never know!
interesting image in our spanish book--unit on drugs
The Sociology of Disability: I loveeeeeeeeeeee this class. I took it because it counts for a Public Health upper level and my adviser said that I’d like it–and she was right! The class is taught by a graduate student with spina bifida who realized that there weren’t really any classes on disability studies being taught, at least not at the undergraduate level. So, he created this class to teach students about how disability is seen in society, and how where you are affects the severity of your disability. We learned about disability and family formation, in the media, in schools, social constructions of it, the history of it, medical models vs social models, and more. We watch a movie every week and we just finished a hige group independent research project in which we had to investigate how disability friendly different aspects of the Hopkins campus was. We had a big presentation at which deans from the school were present….I think will write a separate blog on the class and these projects because it’s too much to put here.
All in all, this is one of my more favorite semesters. I am sad to see junior year go, but I can’t do anything but roll with it, right?
I recently realized that though the semester is half over now, I have failed to ever mention which classes I’ve been spending so much time on. I’ve had a busy semester, and though I’ve been working really hard, it’s been one of the most interesting course-loads I’ve had thus far at Hopkins.
troubles
They’re all really exciting and interesting! One of the great things about being an upperclassman is finally knowing what you want to study, and then being able to pursue upper level, really focused classes in that field. To that end, I was able to find some great classes on the real world applications of public health, as well as international and development health.
My schedule this semester is as follows….
Global Environmental Politics
American Literature, 1865 to Today
Clinical and Public Health Behavior Change
Fundamentals of Epidemiology
Health, Development and Inequalities, A View from Latin America
and Lectures on Public Health and Wellbeing in Baltimore
my lovely ikea desk slash study nook
I’m not sure if I have a favorite yet, they’ve all been really different, but I’ll talk a bit about each one.
Epi is a PHS [Public Health Studies] requirement, and despite being forced to take it, I’ve found it to be really interesting. Epidemiology is the study of the patterns of health and disease in a given population, so we’ve looked at everything from attack rates of food poisoning at hypothetical church picnics to the national mortality rate from accidental injury.
Fun Fact: If you’re in a state with a Graduated Driver’s License [GDL] program, you can thank School of Public Health epidemiology professors for your inability to drive at night. Though I found this incredibly annoying as a high schooler in the very strict driving state of NJ, it’s awesome to learn now that a Hopkins professor was the one to research and present to Senate his findings on teenage drivers. Plus these laws have saved a ton of lives and have now been implemented in over 40 states!
HDAI:AVFLA [killer acronym, no? It's is how I write it in my planner]. I love this class! The teacher is an amazing visiting professor from the University of Bogotá, in Colombia. He’s so interesting and has such a different perspective on the role of public health and international development. He’s amazingly smart and was a practicing physician before becoming a doctor, so he has such a unique viewpoint. The class is tiny and always ends up as a really passionate discussion. Might be my favorite.
American Lit is a class I took sort of on a whim, knowing that one of my best friends would be taking it as well. It’s a lower level English survey course, which covers a book a week in a mixture of small seminar classes and lectures. I really enjoy it, and I haven’t read much 20th century literature, so it’s totally new to me. Added bonus is it’s a class of mostly freshman, so I feel like I’m finally getting to know a good sized group of kids in this class [I was abroad first semester, and felt really out of touch when I first arrived back in Baltimore].
Fun Fact: We read Portnoy’s Complaint, by Philip Roth. Roth is one of my favorite authors to read, for a very selfish reason. Some of his best work is set in the neighborhoods I grew up in! Any Northern NJ residents should pick up American Pastoral [Newark, Morristown] or Goodbye Columbus [Millburn, Newark]. He’s a wonderful writer, and it’s interesting to read about the history of a place you think you know so well.
job prep, public health, english, and some regular books
hard at work
Behavior Changemust be one of my favorites, because it’s at 8:30 in the morning and I haven’t missed it yet…quite a feat for a college student. This class is a really different way to look at Public Health problems, particularly in the US. Most PH classes focus on disease and how we can prevent people from becoming sick. However, in America, and to a lesser extent in other first-world countries, the biggest health problems result from our own actions, which throws a wrench in the traditional disease prevention model. We’ve been learning about how you can motivate individuals and entire populations to change their unhealthy behavior–smoking, drinking, sedentary lifestyle, and overeating are a few of the big issues we’ve looked at. Our current challenge is to change one of our own behaviors and track our progress. This class is also taught by a professor/physician; Dr Cheskin runs the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center.
Global Environmental Politics has been really interesting. My family has always been [by American standards, at least] very “green.” We recycle everything, switch off lights all the time, compost, drive a Prius, and use those crazy lightbulbs that last forever but make your room look like a spaceship. I currently just came back from a run to Char Mar to rid my apartment of the bags of recycling Laura and I have been storing up [our building doesn't recycle, but we both think it's important, so we haul it up to campus]. It’s interesting to learn about environmental protection, policy, and structures, rather just focus on what we can all do as individuals. The curriculum is a combination of economics, politics and sociology, and the students are a cool group, all really interested in the environment for different reasons.
Though I’ve whined a bit about the amount of work I’ve had, this has been one of my favorite semesters since I arrived at Hopkins. I don’t have a “bad” class, and I really feel like I’m learning something new every day, as cliche as that sounds. We only have six weeks left in the semester and I have to say I’m pretty disappointed….and deathly afraid of senior year.
I’ve been absent lately, so there’ll be a couple of blogs posted in short succession in the next week.
Coming soon: I’m officially employed! and a tour of my apartment “Club 900/The Bat Cave.”
Let’s try this microblogging thing again. Today is going to be a crazy packed day with hardly any time to breathe so may as well document it! :P
Monday, March 7th:
4:30 am. 4:30 am?? Why am I up? Dang it…I fell asleep in the library…ew…and now it’s 4:30 in the morning. My Spanish essay and my internship application are still not finished and I really feel like a huge loser for falling asleep here…guess I better get started on these things…
7:31 am. Ok finished! The Spanish essay took me way longer than I would have liked it to, but the application wasn’t too bad because I had some drafts already written. Ok time to blow this popsicle joint! I can’t believe I fell asleep in the libs for so long, it’s really embarrassing. I promise I never do this so don’t judge me!!! lol.
8:45 am. I am back at my sunny apartment eating oatmeal, as I get ready to dash to my 9am physics class. I haven’t been there in a long time…like a reallllly long time…so what better day to turn over a new leaf than a Monday? Ok gotta go!
10:11 am. I’m out of physics and I must say I am impressed with myself. After a 2 week hiatus, (that is SO shameful!! I never do that but somehow for the past two weeks, except for one day, I have had some kind of homework or grading that kept me from making it to class. :( ) I was able to sit in the front row, pay attention and take legible and detailed notes! Go me! Now I am motivated to go to every single class for the remainder of the semester. IT’S HAPPENING.
10:20 am. I am waiting in the AMR II housing office to have a meeting with Andrea, who is the supervisor for Buildings A/B and the AMRs. I’ll be an RA in one of those lovely dorms next year (YEA!!!) so she wants to meet with the new RAs to get a taste of who we are and stuff. Excited!
10:52 am. It was a nice short but sweet meeting…I saw her weekend liquor confiscation from residents in those dorms…so looking forward to that! lol. But the meeting just made me more excited and grateful to be able to have this opportunity for next yr. Who knows, maybe one of you will be a resident of mine! ;) Now, off to Spanish!
1:44 pm.Ok. So a lot happened since the RA meeting. I had Spanish class and this unit is about crime and gangs… el profesor se rio mucho cuando dije que siempre llevo “pepper spray” en mi mochila…jaja…anyway it was an interesting class and there were more laughs than usual! That’s always nice. After than I rushed to my fav class, Sociology of Disability, and we watched a film about a woman who adopted 13 children, ALL with special needs. One had cystic fibrosis and mental issues, many had missing limbs, one was a burn victim…it was both heartbreaking and inspiring to see how this woman took it upon herself to adopt children that most other people wouldn’t want. We’re gonna discuss on Wednesday so I’m looking forward to that!
Then after that class I had to rush to my academic adviser’s office to pic up a rec letter for an internship…in the process of doing that, I missed the shuttle to my volunteer position with Yo! Baltimore! >.<
So I am now waiting for the 2 pm shuttle. YO! Baltimore is an organization that helps youth aged 16-22 get their GED…and I love it! I convinced my friend to start doing it with me at the beginning of the semester because it was ridiculous for me to be a 2nd sem junior with no steady volunteer position…so I just joined this on a whim and I loveeeeeee it!
4:47pm. Just got back from tutoring. Today we
me as a teacher? remember when you could yearbook a fy yourself..someone did this of me and i thought it was hilarious so i thought i'd share.
actually taught instead of doing one on one tutoring…yep taught as in white board and handouts and stuff. I actually like that A LOT and it’s really making me think about becoming a teacher, either for a couple of years or as a career–not sure yet. I’ve always thought about it but I’ve never really thought about it, lol. It’s different because students in this program are a bit more focused than students in regular school because they’ve made an active decision to come back to learn to get their GED–no one forced them to. So there aren’t really any discipline issues (plus many of them are my age and that would just be weird haha).
Ok I have a Public Health info session meeting to go to now…
5:58pm. Info session over. It was about BA/MHS programs that the Bloomberg School of Public Health has for Public Health studies undergrads…you canbasically do your undergrad degree and a master’s in 5-6 years. I’m eying the one in Epidemiology but we’ll see. Ok I have a SAAB meeting in 2 minutes so I”ll be back!
7:45pm. SAAB meeting over! I love SAAB (we bring you Hopkins Interactive!), I look forward to it on my Mondays because it’s def the coolest and most uni
que thing I do. But nowwww I have to go meet my group project members for my Sociology of Disability class. We have been assigned the task of assessing how disability friendly research labs at Hopkins are. So we somehow got a wheelchair and will now test how easy i
t is for someone in labs to get around.
8:47pm. Ok well that was cool! I learned that I am in huge trouble if I ever need to use a wheelchair because I can’t steer them at all :( Kept crashing into walls. well we found out that the chem lab is def doable for someone in a wheelchair…we’ll test the organic chem lab tomorrow and the bio and physics labs next week.
OK I FINALLY GET TO BREATHE! This was an odd day in that I literally had NO time to just PAUSE and take a breather.
And with that, I’m going to bed soon lol. I am pooped. Yes I am being an old lady tonight.
sleeeeeeeeeeeepy
Thanks for reading yall! :D Don’t stop til you get enough…I love being busy!
Describe my schedule however you want – fun, self-fulfilling, or exultant – all that matters is that I love my course schedule this semester. Every semester I spend a lot of time during the first weeks exploring courses in order to make sure I’m content with my class schedule and this year was no exception. Coming in to my senior year with just 12 credits (for those of you who don’t know, this is equivalent to four ‘typical’ courses) needed to graduate and just 10 left within my major is a great situation to be in. It may sound crazy that I’ve decided to “get it done” in 2 semesters, rather than in 1 as I had previous thought. And it may sound even crazier that I’m registered for 18.7 credits this semester. But (so far) I have only felt that it’s been one of my best life decisions.
As a senior public health major I am required to take 10 credits worth of classes at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. The School of Public Health is run on the quarter system. There are so many positives of being able to take courses with graduate school, such as working on projects with students that have years of work experience, being able to take classes in the same building that I work in, etc. Here’s what I’m currently taking:
- Couples and Reproductive Health – a once a week course taught by Professor Becker who also teaches another course that I took on the Homewood campus: Population, Health and Development. The course is structured as a student-led presentation on our readings followed by a discussion. Our grade is based on a lecture and a paper; mine will be on couple decision-making regarding breastfeeding (one of my favorite public health subjects).
The course forces us to take a couple perspective in all of our discussion because although it may be easier to discuss, for example, contraception on an individual-level, the truth is that it’s often a couple decision.
- Statistical Reasoning in Public Health –a two-term biostatistics course. Having already taken AP Statistics and Biostatistics my freshman year, some people think I am a little insane for taking another statistics course. But after having just interned at the department of Health Statistics and Informatics at the WHO and having had a break since my last statistics course, I decided that taking this course would be a good refresher and help me better grasp the tests done in public health research. So far it’s been only rewarding: as graduate students, the students all want to take the course, the professor makes teaching his priority and holds extra office hours, and the lectures fly by.
- Critical Challenges in Global TB Control and Research – is a second-term course, meaning it begins October 20th. However, I’m super excited for the course. It is co-taught by the professor I have done with research with and who supported my work in Brazil. Although I have self-taught myself about TB, I am glad to be able to learn about the disease within the classroom.
Although courses at Bloomberg have been rewarding, when I got back from studying abroad I had this feeling that I hadn’t fully gained all I could from courses at Homewood. Leading me to three great course decisions.
- Honors in Public Health- is the two-semester undergraduate course for the twelve public health majors writing a thesis. Writing a thesis is the main reason why I decided not to graduate a semester early. The current working title of my thesis is, “Interest-Group Politics and the Global Fund.” Personally, I think it is a unique public health thesis because it is historical in nature. The course itself meets once a week and is well structured: forcing us to submit drafts of our background every two weeks, present to the class, etc. I’m super excited to be working on such an ambitious project. I will most likely write a separate blog entry on just this, so stay tuned.
- Spanish – is yet another course that I enjoy. I took Spanish up until my sophomore year of high school. Unfortunately, a poor teacher combined with little confidence in my Spanish abilities led me to drop the course. So maybe it’s because I spent the summer in New York City seeing tons of Spanish advertisements or maybe it’s because I want to visit my grandma in Mexico, but I have decided to “start over.”
- Basic Black & White Photography: Wet Darkroom – isprobably my favorite class that I have taken at Hopkins. Fun fact about me is that I was art editor of my high school’s literary magazine. Now in no way do I think of myself as artistically talented but I do love photography. Being able to spend my Fridays wandering around Hampden taking pictures and develop my film has only been a rewarding experience. I definitely have a new appreciation for film photography and I know that improving my photography skills will be useful no matter what I decide to pursue.
Combine these courses with working, extra-curriculars, family visits, and hanging out with my friends and I have got myself a great senior year! Stay tuned for my next blog about the best advice I have ever gotten. In the mean check out a Dr. Oz segment on our nation’s chicken industry, featuring Dr. Lawrence, the director of the Center I work at:
Guess it’s time to ease on down the road of my Fall 2010 classes…I feel as if I am the only one not at the Lupe Fiasco concert going on right now in the gym, but hey it’s ok. I would have felt odd being there but not really being that familiar with his music so maybe it worked out for the best.
Anyways, yep….here are my junior year classes:
Physics 1: Eh, physics was never my favorite subject but I can definitely appreciate that it is very easy to see how applicable it is. For some people, this is important because they can’t like a subject without seeing how it matters directly (ahem…orgo and chemistry). We have to kind of teach ourselves from the book, which I don’t like, but what can ya do? Physics 1 Lab: It’s reputation for being the easiest lab at JHU is proven. I actually like ir because it is low stress. yay!
The Environment and Your Health: A required public health course that teaches us about all of the environmental hazards to which we are exposed on a daily basis. It scares the mess iout of me but it is oh so informative and I like it a lot.
Black History and the Fictive Imagination: This is a 300 level English course that I wanted to take instead of the usual Expository Writing or Intro to Fiction and Poetry. SWe read books by Black authors from different eras and compare the subjects of their works and its relevance to the time period. The discussion is always a good one and the 1.25 hours flies by.
Intermediate Spanish: Knowing another language is always a good thing…so I am continuing with this.
It’s been about a month and I just finished an awful week of work, and I am actually about to go and do this online physics HW that’s due at 11:59 pm…I think I’ll take a trip to NYC next week to recover from this week.
In the spirit of everyone in the States going back to school these next few weeks, I thought maybe I could finally get around to talking about my classes at the University of Cape Town.
It’s strange enough to be a month into school in the middle of August, but everything from the classrooms to the professors have been totally different here. I’m taking four courses–Medicine in the Making of Modern South Africa, Third World Politics, History of Southern Africa in the 20th Century, and a really interesting Sociology course called Race, Class & Gender.
my lovely new school!
Third World Politics talks about the idea of the Third World, how it developed over the last 100 years, resistance to being labeled “third world” and then looks at case studies of Brazil & South Africa.
Medicine in the Making of Modern South Africa is really interesting. I have a great old professor who manages to make even the more boring topics entertaining just by the way he speaks–he’s so excited about Public Health, it makes it a very interesting class to attend. We’ve talked about the development of biomedicine and traditional healing, medical history in the Cape Colony, and public health approaches to the AIDS epidemic, amongst other things. This is definitely one of my favorite classes at UCT.
History of Southern Africa is admittedly not my favorite–between being at 10 am and having a professor who relies a little heavily on the slide projector, it’s not the best. It’s interesting to learn about South Africa beyond and before apartheid, though.
Race, Class & Gender is my first sociology class, and it’s amazing! We talk about the social construction of the idea of race, the history of prejudice and racism in South Africa, and I’ve gotten a way better understanding of the extraordinarily complex racial hierarchy here.
Today in my Race, Class & Gender “tutorial” (UCT-speak for section) we were discussing the idea of “everyday racism.” The tutor stood up and asked if the Americans in the class would mind answering a few questions about racism in the US. We agreed, not sure what to expect, and spent the next five minutes explaining to a boy from Jo’Burg precisely what a redneck was. After using the phrases “farmer’s tan” and “y’all” in the space of 30 seconds, we realized we had totally lost him, and the class dissolved into laughter. I got asked if there was “anything rural” in America, what the public schools were like, and what the Midwest was. We didn’t ever really get to the point of actually discussing racism in the US, but it was a better learning experience for both groups than any class could have given us. It was funny to realize their only conception of the US came from shows like The Wire, rappers, and American magazines–no wonder we aren’t so popular internationally.
I can’t say I have experiences like that every day in class here, but it is incredibly different. It’s so interesting to be able to study American events from a non-Western perspective, to be a minority in a class, hear four or five languages of chatter before people settle down. It’s overwhelming to realize I don’t understand any of the cultural references, and probably won’t unless I move here. It’s an odd experience in a country with no language barrier to hear something and immediately have to turn to the student next to me, asking what they meant.
I didn’t realize how much background knowledge every class assumes you have. Not academically, necessarily, but culturally. No teacher is going to stop a class to explain the difference between coloured and mixed race, or that “Zim” is short for Zimbabwe and no one really calls it Zimbabwe anyway, or where exactly Pretoria is, or what a certain type of food is. Often someone will tell a story and I’ll have no idea whether this event occurred at a bar, a gas station, a restaurant, or in their neighborhood at home. Imagine not knowing what McDonalds, Starbucks, Oklahoma, Chicago and NBC are, not knowing who the president, Britney Spears, the Kennedys and Donald Duck are, and not knowing what it means to be “a New Yorker” or “Southern,” transfer that to South African culture, and you’ll have an idea of how confusing it can be.
Despite being slightly confused a lot of the time, I’m really enjoying going to school somewhere else. It’s totally different from Hopkins. There are over 20,000 students, I take a bus to campus, the exams count for almost all of your grade, and a 75 is considered “top marks.” I miss Hopkins a little sometimes (particularly if I can’t find the building my class is supposed to be in, or don’t know where to get coffee) and it does feel a lot like being a freshman again, but I love it here.
If you’re about to head off to Hopkins, I’m so jealous! I hope you love it! You will. For everyone else, have a wonderful start to the school year!
(Before I start, lemme just say that you really have to listen to this video at the end of the blog because “Push Me Away” really is a phenomenal song. =] And different from what you’re used to hearing from MJ. )
Anywho, why the title? This blog will be about one of my classes. I spotlight one each semester, and this semester it’s “African American Poetry and Poetics.”
Now, I don’t really read/understand poetry (the professor made this a running gag throughout the semester hehe) so initially the thought of taking a poetry class pushed me away. I even was enrolled in Introduction to Fiction and Poetry (a class that seemingly half the student population takes for their writing/english requirement) because everyone swore it was easier than Expository Writing (which is like an AP English Language class), so I did it.
And dropped it. Because Dominique and poetry don’t mix. I wasn’t looking forward to the class proofreadings of each other’s works, writing poems and short stories and analyses of them and portfolios of work and blah blah blah. BUT I found this class, which was NOT writing poetry, just reading and analyzing it. And it counted as an English class. SCORE!
So the class. It is taught by Dr. Hollis Robbins, who is HILARIOUS and teaches here and at primarily at Peabody (JHU’s music conservatory downtown). For such an educated professor (Proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollis_Robbins --I just found this page seconds ago BTW) she is not stuffy and uppity…quite the opposite, actually. And she is a JHU Writing Sems Alum. A prime example of the quality of the department and the places it can take you. In Dr. Robbin’s case, Harvard, Princeton, and back here to teach.
Dr. Robbins
Although I didn’t understand half of the poems we read in the class, what I did learn overall, was how different and diverse African American Poetry was compared with other types of poetry and it’s literary importance, and it’s history and development over time with a changing America.
We discussed why there was a need for a class called African American Poetry--i.e is it so separated from other genres of poetry that it needs its own? What makes a poem part of the realm of African American poetry--the author’s ethnicity or the topic of the poem?
Norton Anthology of African American Literature
We read Percy Shelley’s “Defence of Poetry” (if you are a poetry fanatic look it up) as a standard of what defines poetry…poetry as imagination, poetry as being used for the moral good of society, poets being legislator’s of the world…etc. That was kind of over my head but I got through it somehow.
We started reading poems from the 18th century till present, so here are a few (seriously we read so many poems I couldn’t even try to fit them in this blog)…
1700′s- Beginnings. Phyllis Wheatley was a poet who was brought from Africa to America as a young girl, and she learned English so well for a slave. However, her poetry didn’t show herself, for lack of a better phrase, and although it was technically magnificent, it is not regarded as the best poetry because of its self-distancing nature. It is understandable though, because if you look at the time period, slaves were not yet (as an overwhelming majority) protesting…besides, Wheatley had a much better life than most other slaves so maybe writing to students at Harvard or about Maecenas was all she had to worry about.
Early 1800′s-Antebellum Period. Here’s where Frederick Douglass kind of made his debut as an advocate for the freedom of the slave, and his prose is great. I’ve read some Douglass before but Dr. Robbins also sees it as poetry, something I would not have thought of before. We read other works of prose from David Walker and Henry Garnet, who appealed to slaves and blacks to try to get them to rise above their oppressors. One of the things we discussed is whether or not non-protest poetry and poetics can be considered of the African American ”genre.” What do you think? Usually when we think about black literature we think about protest. Many scholars hold this opinion, and before this class I have never quite thought about it like that.
Frederick Douglass
Various times: Spirituals, Vernacular, Gospel: I thought including this in the class was pretty cool. You’ve heard spirituals before…Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, This Little Light of Mine…they weren’t just sung by slaves to sound pretty. A lot of times they were code for means of escaping or plotting. Masters and others thought that slaves just sang to keep themselves happy, which some may have, but often it was a secret code that didn’t give itself away and hid in plain sight.
Mid-late 1800′s: Protest Tradition: We learned about how poets like Frances Harper wrote to protest slavery. Her themes included creating some serious sympathy for her subjects, who were usually slave women and children. She was also about black people being educated and raising themselves to a higher standard of living. If you have ever read or heard of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” in your history or english classes, here’s where that comes in.
The War and Post War: There was not much black war poetry…why do you think that was? After the war, there was a change in black poetry…meaning it was not necessarily racial or political. Again, if a black writer writes about nature, with no reference to race or politics, can it be considered black poetry? There were many scholars who wrote about the need or lack of need for criteria for black art, one of whom was WEB DuBois. What do you think?
Early 1900′s: Harlem Renaissance. This is probably the era of black poetry with which you are most familiar. Langston Hughes. Countee Cullen. Claude McKay. Think of it as a flowering of African American intellectualism, and the “New Negro”--blacks shouldn’t dress badly, shouldn’t stand out, shouldn’t speak “black” or dress ethnically, no Africa references, no Jazz, no vernacular…again, look at the time period. If you were a slave or had parents/grandparents who were enslaved, you wouldn’t want to go back to that…slavery was a shameful past and New Negroes aimed to wash that past away. You would just want to be a “normal” part of society. Plus there were still rampant Jim Crow laws and other things still going on in the country.
Now, definitely not all writers and artists and people during this period were New Negroes of course, and many new developments in black culture occurred…for instance, Hughes was more modernistic in style and a bit more raw with his poetry and he was racially charged. There is actually an english class here about the Harlem Renaissance so if that interests you, go for it!
Post Renaissance, Post WW2, Modern Black Poetry: After the Renaissance, traditionally structured poems were used as racial commentary…so kind of a combo of previous black poets’ styles and subjects. Then poems got more modern…think of Lucille Clifton, who was very into not using capital letters in her works, and she was a feminist (think male-female gender struggle) and saw her body as her poetry. Modern=move from Western traditionalist type poems. Protest poetry came back (well, I guess it never really left but it was stronger), and we read some of Amiri Baraka’s poems. Lots of anger and forcefulness mixed with some weirdness. I won’t link to some of his works here for slight decency purposes but if you wish you can Google him. :) He was actually Poet Laureate for a while, which is cool.
We ended the class with modern poetry, like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and Rita Dove. Then we discussed whether hip hop lyrics could be considered poetry…again I won’t link any of those but feel free to explore on your own.
All in all, I REALLY enjoyed the class, even though poetry in itself tends to make me uncomfortable and push me away, and I learned a lot. I am SO happy I took this class instead of Introduction to Fiction and Poetry because I got more out of it and learned how to read and analyze poems differently, as well as how to look at the historical contexts of place and time to discuss why a poem is the way it is. This course is Dominique approved!
That’s how I feel about this semester. I think it had something to do with snow week, and me being here for intersession, but I never quite got a handle on it. Luckily, midterms scared me out of that one, but I still feel as though this spring is a bit out of hand
Nonetheless, I have exciting classes to talk about. This spring I’m taking Bio II, Fundamentals of Health Policy and Management, Economics of Discrimination, Social Psychology, and War & Peace in International Trade.
The first two (Bio and Health Policy) are requirements for my Public Health major. I can’t say I enjoy biology, but I’ve never been a science person so I’m just trudging through it. For those who enjoy science though it’s apparently not that bad…I’ve even heard the word “easy” being batted around, much to my frustration. Fundamentals of Health Policy and Management is nice, and similar in theory to my Econ class last semester (Economics of Health). We talk a lot about the recent healthcare reform policies, today we discussed the nursing shortage, we’ve gone over hospital structure, insurance, and primary care. I really like it, and it’s nice that we can incorporate topical information as it comes up over the semester.
Economics of Discrimination and War & Peace in International Trade are two great Economics classes that I’m taking to (try) to finish up my Econ minor. Economics of Discrimination is a great class taught by a professor I had last semester as well. She’s actually also the advisor for my minor! We talk a lot about the wage gap between women and men, mothers and non-mothers, minority racial groups, etc etc. It’s really interesting, and a more people-oriented approach to Econ. It’s nice to have economic models that can then translate into good conversation, as well. My other Econ class is a bit over my head (as in they may as well be speaking a foreign language) but it’s an enjoyable challenge so far. We’re discussing the effects that environmental policies have on national welfare right now, and though I think I understand it in principle, I’m always slightly mystified when I look up to the board to see a graph with 12 lines on it. It’s a really small class though which helps a lot, and we can ask a bunch of questions, question why something is the way it is, and generally just work through the problems together.
Last but not least is Social Psychology. This may seem a bit out of place in my usual Public Health-y schedule, and it is. My roommate Laura and I have completely opposite class schedules (she’s a Chemical and Bio-mollecular Engineer) so we took this class just because we could both take it. As far as I know it satisfies zero requirements for my major, but as we both have odd schedules this semester, most days it’s the only chance we get to see each other during the day. I’ve never taken a psychology class before and it’s really interesting–side note it’s also the class I sat in on when I revisited Hopkins my senior spring.
hopefully the snow will melt one day….
Explaining all of these classes as least helped me figure out why on earth I’ve been so overwhelmed this semester…it actually looks like a lot of work. I’ve been doing some fun stuff here too, namely digging out of the snow, spending time with my roommates, going home for the weekend, counting down till the return of Gossip Girl, making spring break/study abroad plans, and getting used to my internship (more details on this next time)
Me snowshoeing after crossing the border into France
It’s not always easy to write about life at Hopkins for an admissions blog for prospective students, however we manage to do it. And it’s especially harder to write a blog when you’re not at Hopkins and are instead enrolled in another university’s program on a different semester schedule than Hopkins that doesn’t include a one-week snow vacation….
Every semester we blog about our courses. I’m notoriously known as the person that takes weeks to decide on a schedule. At least this semester one of the stresses that I usually have to deal with—making a schedule—was nearly diminished because of being abroad on a small program with limited selection
So here is the structure of my semester…
A picture of my Principles of International Health on the final day.
Firstly, Principles of International Health. Well, the funny part is that this course just ended for good yesterday. The course met nearly every day for a total of 40 hours over the last 5 weeks. The course was really cool in that it featured a different lecturer from the World Health Organization (WHO) each session. Although I thought this course might be repetitive for me, I quickly learned that a lot of the sessions were topics that I haven’t really talked in length about at Hopkins such as female genital mutilation, antibiotic resistance, unsafe abortion, etc. It’s definitely been different to have class every day and tests every week, but by the end of it our class—made up of the thirteen students on the public health track of this program—we definitely bonded.
Secondly, Beginners French. I’ve wanted to take French for a long time. Geneva, and particularly the area around where I live, is definitely French speaking. And though I’ve been told that everyone speaks English here, I would beg to differ. And once again, just as I passed as Brazilian, I seem to be able to pass as Swiss. I’ll admit, sometimes I just feel like quoting Jack Johnson and singing, ”Je ne comprends pas francais. So you’ll have to speak to me, some other way.” However, I try to control myself. Like many other Americans, I’m often faced with constant desire that I was as multilingual as the rest of the world seems to be and also regret quitting Spanish. Anyway, my French class meets nearly every day and is taught by a professional translator and lawyer for the University of Geneva. We don’t have a formal textbook, which allows the class to be a little more unstructured and tailored to our daily life. Although, I definitely am not a natural when it comes to French, I’m glad I now know a little. This class too is ending soon and I’m actually preparing for my final that’s on this coming Wednesday.
Me on my 21st birthday dinner
Although it’s definitely different to have so much class a week, I’ve been enjoying only having two classes on my mind. Next Friday I actually head off on my spring break to London where I will be meeting up with my boyfriend to look at graduate schools and explore!! I am so excited to go to London with him and to get a break in an English-speaking country. I plan to finish up my spring break in Paris at the end of the following week (and maybe even run into my Dad!!). It’s been really nice to connect with other Hopkins students studying abroad. I actually just met up with two Hopkins students who are visiting Geneva yesterday (and we’ll continue our adventure to Basel tomorrow) and I plan to visit another student in Paris!! It’s also been somewhat reassuring for people studying in other parts of Europe to tell me that Geneva is more expensive, there’s now hope that the rest of this continent will not be as bad. My general rule is to half the price and to ask myself if I would pay that much in the United States. And, well, sometimes the answer is no.
Once I get back from spring break I will have a very intensive few months ahead. I will be taking a Controversies in International Health Course that meets once a week for five hours (this is in order to get 40 hours in eight weeks). I’m really excited for this class and the site visits to places like Handicap International, Doctors Without Borders, International AIDS Society, the Red Cross, etc.
So you might ask what I’ll be doing with my rest of the time during the week? I’ll be interning at the WHO for the other four days!! I’m super excited for this!! Although I know my week will definitely be a little more full than at Hopkins, I know that this opportunity is going to be invaluable. During this time I’ll be helping with the Global Burden of Disease publication. And although I could write all about this now, I think I’ll wait for later. But in the mean time, you can check out the website: http://www.who.int/topics/global_burden_of_disease/en/. I actually have decided to stay a few weeks extra in order to get the most of this WHO experience. But don’t worry, I’ll still be back for Hopkins commencement….and summer in New Jersey!!
Phew. Well I could go on and on but the blue sky outside means that a beautiful run along the lake is calling my name. I didn’t even mention my 21st birthday here nor my trip to the Olympic museum this past weekend nor the amazing Italian food here nor my future trips around Switzerland. But hopefully the pictures give you some sense of what it’s been like!! As you can see I’ve been keeping myself busy and although the days have gone by quickly I’m still impressed with the amount of stuff that I have been able to get done (and yet still not run away from Hopkins life since I’ve been video chatting into admissions meetings and working on the undergraduate public health conference…). Luckily, I just rewarded myself with 10 hours of sleep and plan to leave my computer in my apartment for spring break. And I know, and have been warned, that the second part of this program will be even more packed!!
Until next time,
Jessica
P.S. Although I thought I had acquired a new addiction to chocolate. I just googled “addiction to chocolate” and supposedly you can’t be addicted to chocolate (http://psychcentral.com/lib/2006/does-chocolate-addiction-exist/):
“Although there are similarities between eating chocolate and drug use, generally researchers believe that chocolate “addiction” is not a true addiction. While chocolate does contain potentially mood-altering substances, these are all found in higher concentrations in other less appealing foods such as broccoli. A combination of chocolate’s sensory characteristics — sweetness, texture and aroma — nutrients, and chemicals, together with hormonal and mood swings, largely explains chocolate cravings.
Chocolate is seen as “naughty but nice” — tasty, but something which should be resisted. This suggests that the desire is more likely a cultural phenomenon than a physical one. The inability to control eating may be a result of inborn traits and today’s environment.”
In this case, I’m definitely blaming the environment for this craving. I didn’t really think Switzerland would live up to its stereotypes—precision, trains, cheese, watches, wine, and, of course, chocolate—but it absolutely does.
…Of second semester! :) New semester=new post about what I’m taking.
Organic Chemistry 2:Just continuing Organic Chemistry 1. Last semester didn’t go so well for me so I’ m hoping that I can redeem myself this semester. Our professor is Thomas Letcka, and I must say, he is a character. He’s very chill when he lectures and has an interesting sense of humor…plus, he uses the chalkboard to lecture rather than annoying PowerPoints, so that works for me!
Organic Chemistry Lab: Run by Dr. Jane Greco. I love seeing women having success in male dominated fields like science, so I’m happy about that. She is very knowledgeable and helpful, and has a sense of humor also. Orgo lab seems like it will be less stressful than Intro Chem lab, so cheers to that! Currently we are synthesizing aspirin.
yea...still can't tell that's aspirin.
Health Policy and Management: One of the four required classes that all Public Health Studies majors have to take. We learn about health insurance and laws in America about healthcare.very timely, seeing as Obama has made healthcare reform his priority. It’s helping me to understand a lot of the terms I hear in the media. I like the material of the class, but I wish it were more dynamic and engaging…but that also depends on who is lecturing. We did have an animated man who was a lobbyist come a few weeks ago though, so that helped to spice things up.
exactly what we learn
Spanish Elements 2: Just a continuation of Spanish 1. No more review terms from high school here…so it’s a lot harder than last semester but still enjoyable. The department coordinator is our teacher this semester and she’s very enthusiastic. Although language requirements are not a part of my major anymore, I think I will continue with Spanish until I graduate. It’s REALLY useful.
African American Poetry and Poetics: This class was a rare find because it fulfills one of the pre med English requirements, yet it’s not your traditional poetry or essay class. Here, we just analyze poetry rather than write it. I had Intro to Fiction and Poetry last semester but ended up dropping it for credit reasons and also because I despise writing poetry, but I don’t mind analyzing it…(sorry poetry fans :) ) This class doesn’t require me to write any, so I don’t have to be graded subjectively on my poetry, just on essays that show my analyses of it. Plus, it will help me with my minor in Africana Studies. The class looks at speeches, narratives, and songs also as part of the anthology of African American literature too, so it’s not just poetry. =]
Dr. Hollis Robbins teaches it, and she is so cool because she is a white woman teaching an African American poetry class. She’s hilarious and also very passionate about what she does. She’s one of the people who is crossing barriers and muddling lines of race by showing that anyone can do anything he/she wants, regardless of what our culture is used to. And she’s quite good at what she does, and well-known in the field! Seeimingly everyday she comes in saying “I wrote a piece about ___, and I’m getting hate mail!” Jokingly. Well, kinda. We could have lost her to Harvard but she’s here, so that’s awesome.
Our Textbook
So there ya have it kiddos…my semester! Hopefully it’ll be a good one. Feel free to ask questions/comment!
