Undergraduates celebrated the legacy of philanthropy at Hopkins with Step Up, a week-long series of events, for the third consecutive year. The events began last Sunday and last through Friday.
“We want to recognize the alumni and current students who give back through time and money to sustain the legacy of this place,” senior Bryn Carroll, chair of the Step Up Student Committee, said.
The theme of philanthropy was prevalent through the array of events on campus this week, and provided diverse activities that educated students about community service on and off campus.
The festivities of Step Up were designed to
facilitate this effort, committee members said.
The Step Up committee works in tandem with the staff in the Office of Early Engagement, a subset of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association that serves to attract students and recent graduates to the
University’s alumni network.
Carroll and junior Louisa Drake lead the committee’s other five undergraduate staffers: seniors Synteche Ribeiro and Nigel Hakeem; juniors Will Shepherdson and Marni Aronson; and sophomore Carolina Hernandez.
“We hope to celebrate the students who give back,” Drake said. “Hopkins, after all, was founded on a philanthropic gift – from Johns Hopkins himself.”
The celebration began with a launch party on Keyser Quad late Sunday night, Apr. 29, where staff members distributed complementary glow sticks and snacks to ring in the weeklong occasion. The party drew many of its attendees from those in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library seeking relief from their studies. This event set the tenor for the week to come – five days marked by gatherings in Homewood’s busiest locations.
On Monday, Step Up committee members transformed Levering Plaza into a “life-sized board game.” They asked students who passed by to partake as game pieces.
Members made and distributed “smoothies for service” on the Beach on Wednesday as a commemoration for the 70,000 hours of community service clocked by Hopkins undergraduates in the fall 2011 semester.
“Giving back isn’t simply about money,” Carroll said. “So many individuals give their time and efforts to this place, which in many senses is as powerful as a check.”
Students enjoyed the festive events throughout the week.
“You see people giving out free food on the Beach, and yeah, you’re probably going to stop and get some,” freshman Alvaro Lasa said. “Maybe you’ll stick around and talk, or take a brochure, but most people are in transit from point A to point B.”
Carroll emphasized that Step Up is not merely a week of happenings, but also an overarching campaign for promoting a general affinity for Hopkins. In addition to the week’s event calendar, the Step Up website features videos of members of the Student Government Association and other campus groups discussing the vitality of their individual undergraduate experiences.
“If you have a new initiative or a new idea… funds are available for you,” Junior Class President Alexandra Larsen, who also aids research at the School of Medicine, says in her video, posted to YouTube following Step Up 2011. “It’s all through philanthropy that we’re able to make a difference.”
The website also links to other philanthropy-driven campus organizations: the pages for I Heart Hopkins, the Class of 2012’s senior class gift campaign, and the Student Alumni Society both feature, though neither is directly involved with Step Up. Both Step Up and the Student Alumni Association, however, work in conjunction with the university’s Alumni Association. Step Up falls under the specific umbrella of the Office of Early Engagement, which allocated funding for the week’s events.
Step Up staff members declined to elaborate on the size of their budget this year.
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