Johns Hopkins University is located in Baltimore. Before college, I had never lived anywhere near a city.
To help my transition, I enrolled in the pre-orientation program, B’More Community Bound, hosted through the Center for Social Concern. The program is designed to connect incoming first-year students to the communities in Baltimore and provide them with productive ways to get involved in the city. It introduced me to the beauty of community-based learning—an approach that involves getting directly involved in the surrounding environment, its systems, and people—and organizations.
In high school, many of my extracurriculars fell under community service. I often worked with kids in my neighborhood or my town’s public schools. However, I never expanded my reach beyond those closest to me nor bothered to take the time to understand their backgrounds. Over the course of my first year at Hopkins, I had completely fallen in love with engaging in a community from a learner’s point of view. The city of Baltimore has shown me that there is so much to learn from any person I have the opportunity to engage with. I have seen firsthand how important it is to familiarize yourself with the backgrounds and circumstances of a community while considering how those may impact reactions to things now. Now, I approach all of my interactions with a much more open mindset that allows me to be more empathetic toward viewpoints I hadn’t previously considered.
I took this perspective into the communities I engaged with throughout my first year. Through the Tutorial Project, my eyes were opened to the joys shared by the children of the city. I saw how Baltimoreans fostered community wherever they went, greeting peers with smiles and supporting each other as needed. When one family couldn’t make the pickup time, a neighbor showed up in their place and brought their child safely home. Outside of community-based learning, however, I have found a multitude of ways to engage with Baltimore beyond Hopkins. I’ve attended city-wide festivals like the Asian Food festival (so, so yummy!) and the Lantern Parade held before Halloween each year (so unique and memorable!). Even without events running, exploring Baltimore is always a good way to spend an afternoon. I’ve found that my favorite spots to just sit around in the city are on the pier in Inner Harbor and on park benches in Roland Park and Druid Hill.
Prior to moving to Baltimore, I was warned a multitude of times about the environment I would be in, which ended up causing me to have a lot of misconceptions of the city coming in. Yet, by being here and engaging with the city through classes, friends, and co-curriculars, I have since realized that the city is far from what I thought. My German class in the spring semester spontaneously decided to hold class at Blueprint Cafe (right next to campus!) one day and it opened my eyes to the hospitality and kindness that Baltimoreans possess. Exploring the city with friends, it is clear how different neighborhoods of the city show different levels of funding and resources. But whether I am trying a new restaurant in Mount Vernon or discovering a new small business in Greenmount, I have found a certain charm across the city that is unmatched by any other experience.
Behind the headlines, Baltimore shines with the quiet strength and grace of its people. Engaging with the community beyond campus has taught me to consider circumstances and recognize systemic failures that Baltimoreans do not deserve to bear the weight of. I have experienced such a grace firsthand as I wander around the city I now call home. Everyone around me is starkly aware of the history of Baltimore and Maryland throughout the Civil War and beyond. Yet I am met with kindness and curiosity for who I am and the stories I carry. For the next two years of my college life at Hopkins, it will be a priority of mine to learn as much as I can about my new home city and my neighbors. I can only hope that I reflect the same kindness back on this beautiful city.
