Hopkins students have been noticeably absent from recent events on campus. Last week, only about 50 students attended the MSE Symposium to listen to Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America. Only six students attended the second annual $2/Day Challenge, which seeks to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless by encouraging its participants to sleep outside with limited resources. The event coordinators attributed the low turnout to students’ aversion to living without luxuries such as electronics and showers.
This page is disheartened with the lack of sociopolitical engagement on campus and encourages Hopkins students to make an effort to show up to these important events.
As students, we all have genuine interests in learning. But a true education must consist of academic work within the classroom and experience outside of it. These extracurricular activities provide students a rare opportunity to learn from leaders in their fields and from firsthand experience. We are fortunate that such important figures choose to speak at our campus and that we have a number of altruistic clubs dedicated to the betterment of our community. We shouldn’t let these opportunities go to waste.
This page also believes that attendance at such events is necessary to maintain Hopkins’s position as a role model for the community. As one of Maryland’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, Hopkins should be regarded by Charles Village and Baltimore City residents as an exemplar to follow. When we as students are engaged in our communities and make a concerted effort to influence the world around us, the surrounding community often follows suit. But if we leave the seats empty, we send a message that we as students have better things to do, and that the rest of the community shouldn’t bother either.
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