Hopkins community shares ideas at Ignite

Hopkins held its first Ignite@JHU event at Nolan's Student Lounge last Thursday night. Gathering an audience of 150 students, Ignite is an event in which speakers have only five minutes and 20 slides to present a topic. The event was hosted by the Digital Media Center (DMC) and Charles Commons Connections.

The rapid fire nature of the Ignite event was first conceived in 2006 in Seattle, Washington by O'Reilly Press and was organized by Hopkins alumni Patty Chen and a group of friends. Ignite soon spread to cities throughout the world, including at the Walters Art Museum, where it has been held for five years. Through this event, people are able to share their ideas and interests through an open-mic format. Digital Media Center Director Joan Freedman decided to bring Ignite to Hopkins after her daughter participated in one, speaking about teen activism.

"I thought, ‘wouldn't it be great for the Hopkins students to enjoy doing something like this,'" she said.

Last March, Freedman brought the concept to Craig Rosenblum, who is currently the Assistant Coordinator of Campus Programming and Coordinator of Nolan's on 33rd Student Lounge. She wanted to collaborate with Charles Common Connections, where Rosenblum was a graduate assistant last year, to help recruit staff members for the event.

"[Freedman] was very clear when she came up with this idea of not exclusively allowing students to present it and allow for faculty and staff members as well that we [wouldn't] necessarily have the opportunity to learn what they're really passionate about," Rosenblum said. He also emcee'd the event.

Freedman wanted to bring this event to Hopkins so that students could learn about the diverse interests of not only each other, but of staff and faculty as well.

"The goal of the event is to get people comfortable in their speaking, [so that] people can share their passions, their interests," she said. "It's a great way to sort of network and to find … people that are interested in similar topics."

There were 12 speakers in total, presenting on topics with a diverse range, such as the $2/Day Challenge, the European Union (EU) Swimming Invitational, juggling and human trafficking.  

Seniors Nikki Jiam and Anita Ram, who started the $2/Day Challenge at Hopkins, decided to participate after a public health advisor told them about Ignite@JHU. They thought it would be a great way to share their project with others. In their 20 slides, they first spoke about the issue of homelessness and then went on to explain what actually happened at the $2/Day Challenge.

"I thought they were incredibly articulate and they felt very comfortable on stage," Freedman said. " [They] looked like they were having a good time [and] they clearly enjoyed talking about what was important to them."

Jiam and Ram both enjoyed hearing the other speakers talk about their projects, especially because it was in a five-minute format.

"I thought [the talks] were fascinating," Jiam said. "I honestly wouldn't have attended any of those talks if they were on Today's Announcements … because it's like an hour, and it usually goes over your head, but I think Ignite@JHU made it accessible and quick to the point."

Associate Director of International Studies Julia Galan decided to participate in the event because she wanted to share the work she had done outside of the Hopkins environment in creating the EU Swimming Invitational.  

"I thought it was a great idea to have five minutes to talk about something that you've done which has impacted the world in a way," she said.

Galan thought that Ignite@JHU went very well and hopes that more students will want to participate at future events.

"I hope they were motivated by these faculty, students and administrators who are doing unique things outside of their professions," she said. "I also hope that they'll be motivated to present and feel that what they are doing is unique because many people do things beyond academics that are really interesting … each project is unique, regardless of whether it's on the world level or just here at Homewood."

Senior Yera Jeong, who attended the event to hear a friend speak, appreciated the variety of the topics presented. "I thought it was actually a good idea," she said. "It was short, [so] it [didn't]get boring."

Ram enjoyed hearing about subjects that she had not previously studied or thought about.  

"I think it was a good idea to be exposed to subjects that I wouldn't otherwise think about or attend," she said.

Since this was Hopkins's first Ignite event, the staff, including Freedman, Rosenblum and Mike Yassa, the faculty-in-residence at Charles Commons, did most of the planning.  They reached out to people that they knew to try to recruit speakers.

"Most of the people who presented came through personal networks," Freedman said. "I think that's because it was a new concept on campus, people didn't quite know what it was about … the reality is that it's not that hard, anyone can stand up there for five minutes."

Freedman would like to help students get more involved in the planning process for future Ignite events, including the second Ignite@JHU, which is going to be held in March. She would like for students, staff and faculty members to send the DMC proposals for their five-minute talks.

"The DMC actually was really primarily interested in doing this because we really are about helping students communicate their ideas, whether their academic ideas or their personal interests … so ultimately I'd like to be able to work with all the students who become Ignite presenters to really do a great job at developing their elevator pitch or their five minute presentation," Freedman said.