The HOP is a student-run organization that plans events throughout the year for Hopkins undergraduate students. Before I joined the HOP, I used to go to a lot of their events—my favorite was Hoptoberfest. Every October there are fun fall events on campus each day for a week, such as our annual pumpkin decorating contest, concert, petting zoo, and hot cocoa stand.
I didn’t realize that events like Hoptoberfest were planned by students until my sophomore year. That year the HOP booked the comedian Mikey Day for a student-conducted interview. As a huge “Saturday Night Live” fan, I was geeking out at the event and even got the opportunity to ask him a question. During this time, I was obsessed with the talk show host Seth Meyers. While at the HOP’s event, I got the slightly unhinged idea: what if I got Seth Meyers to speak at Hopkins and asked him a series of absurd questions in an interview? And so, I decided to join the HOP and run as the chair for the Lecture Series committee, which oversees selecting guest speakers. It’s kind of crazy we can have an idea of a cool speaker we want to come to Hopkins and, if we can manage to book them and find co-sponsors, no one is really going to tell us no. The process to book guest speakers involves contacting their agencies, pitching our events, and negotiating rates and contracts. I’ve learned a lot of important skills in budgeting, marketing, and communication from this role.
By the time I was elected as co-chair, my obsession with Seth Meyers had dwindled. Instead, I became a big fan of another comedian who—if all goes well—we will be booking this spring!
I’m really glad my admittedly selfish goal resulted in me joining the HOP. I’ve made a lot of friends while planning and staffing our events. Over the summer, our executive board went to a campsite for a retreat. My favorite part was the campfire we had by the beach on the last night. At the end of the weekend, we all became a lot closer.
My co-chair for the Lecture Series and I are also great friends now. Our committee meets on campus once a week to discuss planning. We usually will get distracted from tackling our agenda and end up just chatting. When the day of the event rolls around, we spend a lot of time running around campus, gathering our materials and setting up the venue.
My favorite part of planning these events though is when our event attendees tell us how much they enjoyed the events. While I’ve certainly found a community through planning our events this year, it’s heartwarming to see other people reflecting on the event together during the receptions and finding their own community.
