Ringing in the New Year!

Hey World!

After a semester long hiatus, I'm glad to announce my return to blogging! It's been a pretty tiring, but all around rewarding fall semester for me. I moved into my new dorm room in Charles Commons, helped Freshmen move in during Orientation, and got settled into all my new classes. This past semester I took Environment and Your Health, Public Health Biostats, Intro to American Politics, Intro to Social Policy, and Second Year Heritage Chinese. I thought it was a good mix of classes while still making for a cohesive learning experience. There were some days where a lot of the topics overlapped and it was a pretty exciting feeling to be able to relate all these different areas.

Outside of class, I've been fully immersed in all my clubs and organizations which has kept me busy and never bored. In the Taiwanese American Students Association, I organised events as the Cultural Chair like our traditional Taiwanese umbrella painting night, and the annual Taste of Taiwan. I'm also a chair in the JHU Chapter of Innoworks, a national organization that seeks to improve to close the learning gap in underprivileged youth. We plan a one-week, no-cost summer camp for Baltimore area kids every August and we're ready to start planning the 2014 camp in full gear. I'm pretty excited for what spring semester has to hold in these and all my other clubs.

Pokemon themed umbrellas - with my TASA little

After a much needed month of R&R, I'm back and ready to take on Baltimore this spring. I'm looking forward to taking a new set of classes, new events to plan, and most of all new applicants for 2014 Summer University and Discover Hopkins.

Happy New Year! What are your New Year's Resolutions? Leave a comment!

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Home for the Summer

So after a long, fun, but tiring summer, I'm finally heading home. Just a few hours ago I packed up all my boxes in Baltimore, and hopped on a train headed back for New Jersey. For the next few weeks, I get to finally eat some home-cooked food and sleep in (hopefully, if my parents let me!). I'll also be taking a trip to SoCal in less than two weeks! Anyway, I'm getting settled in back at home, waiting for dinner right about now. I'll be sure to fill everyone in about my month at home once I get back to campus on the 25th! I'll be moving into my new dorm, helping out with JHU Freshman Orientation, and settling into my new classes as a Sophomore, officially declared Public Health Studies Major!

Have a great rest-of-the-summer!

Summer 2013 Comes to a Close

It feels so surreal, but Summer 2013 has finally come to a close. We'd been planning for this since last September, but in another day all of our Summer University students and Discover Hopkins II students will be headed back home. Today, we went around to all of the DH classes again to give out Certificates of Completion to congratulate them for a job well done. 

DH 2: Intro to Lab Research class

Later in the afternoon, we got ready for the annual Summer University pinning ceremony. For all their hard work over the course of the term, we presented each student with a certificate and a pin with the official seal of the university. All of the students got gussied up for the event and it was a great end to the summer.

The pins, ready to be given out.

Friends with their certificates and pins.

Staff picture!

Global Goodbyes with Rita's Ice from Summer Programs

As the summer is coming to a close, we decided it would be a fun idea to wish everyone a safe trip home, wherever our students come from. Every year we have students from all over the US as well as countries all over the world. We wanted to showcase all of the unique places that our students come from with our first annual Global Goodbyes Send-off Social. To commemorate the occasion, got a ton of Rita's water ice and color-changing cups for everyone, Pre-College students and the rest of the Hopkins community.

Color Changing Cups decked out in our Summer Programs logo and the new Johns Hopkins University logo!
What colors do you think they change into?

It took a lot of planning, but I think that in the end, the event went really well and we got to see how diverse the community is. We had free Rita's ice for everyone, a photobooth setup for everyone to take pictures with friends, and a world map for everyone to leave mark on their hometown.


In the planning process. Don't worry we cleaned it all up!

Where in the world are you from?

We all had a great time putting on the event, and a lot of the students had a chance to just sit back with friends at the end of an intense five weeks here. A lot of Hopkins undergrads showed up too!

Serving up some Rita's Ice, all 15 gallons of it!

Goodbye and congratulations on finishing the program from the OSIP Staff!

A Quick Trip to DC!

One great thing about going to Hopkins is that we have access to two great cities, Baltimore and Washington, DC. While I've already talked about the many transportation options we have in Baltimore, I haven't talked about getting to DC which is just as easy as hopping on the next JHMI shuttle.

There are pretty hard to miss, they run every 5-15 minutes during peak times!

Getting to DC on the weekdays is really convenient, all you need to do is take the JHMI shuttle a few stops to Baltimore Penn Station. There, you can head over to a QuikTrak machine and buy a ticket for the MARC commuter train's Penn Line to DC's Union Station for $7 each way. This is a great deal cheaper than taking Amtrak. If you have a student advantage card, you can get an evern better discount! While the service only runs on weekdays for now, it's expected to operate on weekends starting this December.

Just yesterday, I hopped on a train to have some dinner with friends in DC. This year, I'm lucky enough to be on the national board for the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association. Being part of a national organization is really great because I get to meet people from all around that I otherwise wouldn't have, as well as extend my passions and skills to larger scale projects. A lot of fellow national board members either live in the area or are just here interning for the summer, so it was a good chance to catch up.

ITASA NB members and Pamela from Board of Directors!
(Photo credits: Jesse Chen)

After some dinner and a refreshing treat from Rita's, I hopped on a train back to Baltimore and made it back to my apartment in almost no time. So many cool places are just a stone's throw away from Homewood.

More info about MARC commuter train service: http://mta.maryland.gov/marc-train

Back in Full Swing

We're now back in full swing here in the office, coordinating more field trips for Discover Hopkins and I'm once again going on all the Abnormal Psych trips with a new batch of students. They're proving to be just as lively and passionate as the last group.

With all of our students finally on campus, we're finally finished with check-ins and giving campus tours. Don't get me wrong, as much as I love giving the tours, it does get really hot on a summer day in Baltimore! I got to meet a lot of families and hopefully give them a better feel for the Homewood campus. 

Coming down the Breezeway and talking about the Wyman Quad

In the office, we're making plans for the rest of the summer, as well as for the upcoming school year. We've even gotten inquiries about the programs for Summer 2014!

Until next time!

Goodbye to Discover Hopkins Session 1

It's hard to believe that three whole weeks since the start of the term have already passed. The Summer University kids have all gotten settled in to their classes and their dorm rooms, while the first session of Discover Hopkins kids are about to say their goodbyes.

Today, we visited each of the Discover Hopkins classes for a quick little awards ceremony and gave each student their certificate of completion.

Group picture with the DH1 Abnormal Psych class

I'm going to miss these kids, but I wish them all a good summer and hope they enjoyed every moment they had on campus. This brings me back to my own DH memories, which seemed like only yesterday.

DH 1: Health and the Urban Environment 2011 on the last day of class

This upcoming Sunday is our last orientation for the summer, so I better rest up!