Asian Perspectives event held last weekend

The Inter-Asian Council (IAC) held its Asian Perspectives event on April 14-18. 18 Asian prospective freshmen participated in the program.

“Asian Perspectives is an opportunity for accepted students with an Asian background to come here and find out what Hopkins is really about,” sophomore Rachel Wang, who was one of the IAC members that planned the weekend, said.

“At first, I wasn’t planning on going,” high school senior Stephanie Huie said. “I was just planning on going to the official SOHOP program, but I was basically set on coming to Hopkins. I just wanted to do another visit so I could spend more time on the campus and get to know some people.”

The event was held over Spring Fair this year, which had not happened in previous years.

“That might have made the program more interesting to a lot of prefrosh,” IAC Co-President senior Lester Kao said.

Most of the prospective freshmen arrived on Thursday night, where there was a Game and Snack night for them to meet the other members of the program. On Friday, they were able to attend classes.

Huie wanted to have a more regular Hopkins experience of going to the FFC and doing other non-academic activities. However, she also came to see what the academic experience was like. She went to an IFP 2 class, Intro to Social Psych and Intro to Business.

“[I liked IFP2] because it was a small discussion class. I thought it was interesting and I liked it because I want to go into the humanities, so that would be similar,” she said.

She also enjoyed Intro to Social Pysch and Intro to Business, though they were very different from IFP 2.

“All the professors seemed really knowledgeable and at the top of their fields,” she said.

Friday afternoon, the students went to an Alpha Kappa Delta Phi fondue event so they could meet the sorority sisters and learn more about social life at Hopkins.

“I never really thought of myself as a person who would join a sorority, but everyone was really nice and made it seem like it was not your typical sorority,” Huie said. “It seemed more like a bond of friendship.”

After dinner, the prospective freshmen were able to go to the Chiddy Bang concert and the Blackout party.

On Saturday morning, there was a panel breakfast where the high school seniors were able to ask IAC members questions about the school.

“We had a panel of seven sophomore and juniors, and the [seniors] asked us questions about pre-med, our individual majors and our social lives,” Wang said.

Even though it was raining, the group went to the Inner Harbor to eat at Noodle and Company and go shopping. They also went to the breakdance competition in the Glass Pavilion.

“That event wasn’t planned. One of my friends just told me about it and I asked if they wanted to go because Spring Fair was closed,” Wang said.

There was another Asian sorority event that night, hosted by Sigma Omicron Pi. They taught the pre-frosh how to make fried oreos and also talked to them about the school. They also went to the DMC game night. IAC members made breakfast Sunday morning before the pre-frosh went home.

Overall, the IAC feels that the program went well.

“This year was a lot more of a close-knit group. There weren’t as many pre-frosh who signed up. There were about 10 who hung out the entire time weekend,” Wang said.

Huie enjoyed getting to know other potential freshmen.

“Everyone I met was actually really friendly and really nice. I didn’t meet anyone that I didn’t think I could be friends with. It kind of showed me the general atmosphere of Hopkins and its students,” she said.

While Wang would’ve liked the weather to have been better, she thinks that the rainy day actually helped the pre-frosh bond.

“I think the weekend was really fun to just be around pre-frosh,” she said. “I guess having them hang out the entire Saturday together because the weather was so bad made them a lot closer. I feel like a lot of them really enjoyed their experience at Hopkins, and hopefully most of them will come next year.”

The IAC already has confirmation from six students that they are definitely coming to Hopkins. Huie is one of these students.

“I really liked meeting a bunch of different people, [including] all the different hosts and other prefrosh, and different students. That was probably my favorite part throughout the trip,” Huie said. “I am definitely coming here next year.”