Hunting for diversity brings collages to Gilman

If you've strolled through the Gilman tunnel recently, you will have most certainly noticed the bright collages featuring pictures from project known as "The Hop Hunt." This activity took place this past fall of 2006 and served as an effort to have Hopkins students get more involved in the community they are immersed in upon their arrival to Baltimore. The Counseling Center Advisory Board, more commonly known as CCAB, began efforts to improve the sense of community two years ago when they requested ideas from campus faculty, staff and students and received a total of 58 proposals.

The winners, Citlali Miranda-Adalco, a faculty member of the Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, and two Romance Languages graduate students, Regina Galasso and Ann Deleon, suggested the Hop Hunt.

This scavenger hunt called for incoming freshmen to get acquainted with the diversity of Baltimore neighborhoods and sent them downtown to various locales with the task to find clues and take pictures. Galasso clarifies, "We sent out in the orientation packages which included a paper with information about the hunt, and the freshmen responded to and wanted to do it got to participate. We did have a wait list however." The scavenger hunt sparked the interest of a good number of freshmen as a superb way to get introduced to the cultural environment which they will inhabit for the next four years.

The event took place on a Saturday afternoon in September when 120 freshmen were divided up into 10 groups and assigned to specific neighborhoods including Canton, Federal Hill, Fells Point, Hampden, Inner Harbor,  Little Italy, Mt. Vernon, Mt. Washington and Spanish Fells Point. Each group was assigned an upper-classman guide as well as a camera and then released into the cultural centers of the city.

Many of the tasks involved approaching restaurant and shop owners within these neighborhoods. Galasso provides an example of one of the group's tasks: "I was in charge of Spanish Fells Point, and they had to find out where they could get fresh tortillas from, salsa, and Mexican pastries."

Some of the students even happened upon some surprises. Galasso explains: "One of the groups was assigned to Little Italy and ended up spending the whole time in a restaurant that provided them with a huge lunch on the house and even played bocce ball with the owners!" This event conveys the vibrancy and congeniality of the various cultural scenes spread out around downtown Baltimore. This unexpected turn reflects how much the restaurant and shop owners enjoyed participating in the scavenger hunt with the Hopkins students.

The seven collages entitled, "The Spirit of Community," are now located in Gilman Tunnel until April 1. They represent each of the neighborhoods and will be judged between the period of March 8 and 30. Galasso explains that the collages consist of "the pictures that the students took and anything they collected in the neighborhood like menus, maps. They were then required to put it all together in these collages, make them on their own, and could do whatever they wanted. They had to show the spirit of the neighborhood and represent themselves."

The collages allow for the rest of the University to enjoy this project that aims to unify Hopkins students with the cultural diversity that defines Baltimore. The city is full of life with events and festivals occurring year-round.

Students should be able to experience the numerous cultures and interact with locals more often. The Hop Hunt proved to be a success and hopefully it will be one of the first of many to come!