2022 Orientation: Non-profit Management

Genesis Aire | Public Justice Center

This past week went by in a flash. Going through orientation all over again, but this time in person, was a whirlwind experience. As a mentor, I was the most nervous about navigating through the scavenger hunt in person. While we had one last year, I’ve never used the Transit app to get around Baltimore myself. It’s one thing to listen to a presentation and a complete other to put it into practice. I was delightfully surprised to find out how easy it was to find our way to the various stops together. We only had a slight hiccup trying to find the correct stop for the Orange CityLink, but we persevered. I was also so excited to have the opportunity to meet my Peer Mentor group for the summer. I didn’t have any expectations for how we’d do with the scavenger hunt, only that we try our best and possibly win the whole thing :). I was so impressed with how they worked together and kept up a positive attitude through the six hour pursuit. And even though we were not successful in trying to find ice cream near the YNOT lot, we’ll be able to make it up later in the summer.

I had two big highlights of the week. Both of them were linked to good food in Baltimore. During our Peer Mentor Orientation, we stopped by the Baltimore in a Box Ice Cream to reward ourselves after Disc Golf. I tried Otterly Divine which was birthday cake flavored with chunks of Otterbein’s sugar cookies. I liked how the company featured Maryland/Baltimore specific brands in a lot of their flavors. I’m now an avid fan of Otterbein’s and will definitely be adding them to my shopping list. Moreover, on the scavenger hunt, one of our stops at Lexington Market featured Faidley’s Seafood, infamous for their lump crabcakes. Despite being a rising senior, I haven’t had a lot of seafood in Baltimore, and I’ve been wanting to try more crabcakes, especially given Baltimore’s reputation. Faidley’s ‘world famous’ jumbo lump crabake did not disappoint. It was a nice and well deserved break from our scavenger hunt and I will definitely be returning for more.

Rebecca Baxter | Corner Team, Inc.

This orientation week was really amazing and insightful. Everyone I met was very friendly and open to sharing their thoughts, which gave the space a really good energy and made it feel very welcoming.

My favorite part of this week was definitely the scavenger hunt. As a freshman, I honestly didn’t get to see much of the city, so it was really nice to get to go to so many neighborhoods that I had never been to before. I’m also glad we went to places that weren’t in the “touristy” parts of the city – I felt like we actually got to see where people live day to day, which made the city feel more alive and real. I also loved the spontaneous things that happened while we were exploring, like talking to someone at the Ynot Lot about some petitions he wanted people to sign or just saying hi to people as we passed them. I feel like the scavenger hunt really showed me the strong sense of community and interconnectedness that Baltimore residents have, which was really cool to experience and definitely something I will be keeping in mind during my internship.

Throughout the week, one of the main focuses of a lot of the presentations and reflections that we did were the ideas of identity and privilege, both ours and those of our communities that we will be serving. I really started to realize how many layers there are to someone’s identity outside of the characteristics we typically identify people by, and that all those layers interconnect to create someone’s unique identity. I also learned that identity and privilege can be somewhat fluid, depending on the context we are in. For example, I had a really good discussion with someone about financial privilege and how that can change based on the financial situations of the people we are around. I really liked what Rev. Brown said about not letting our privilege freeze us and instead using it to create the changes we wish to see in our community.

More than anything, I feel like all the presentations and activities this week have really allowed me to be more aware of how my actions and identities can affect my interactions with the people of Baltimore. That’s not to say I won’t make mistakes ever again, but I feel like I have a much better awareness that will allow me to identify times when I do something that could negatively impact the community. I also feel that this awareness will also allow me to notice when other people or institutions (like Hopkins) do something that could be harmful to communities in Baltimore, which I could then address or call out.

I had so many insightful conversations this week and met some really amazing people, and overall, orientation went great! I’m excited to start my internship next week and can’t wait to see where the summer takes me.

Ayla Frost | Station North Tool Library

I really enjoyed orientation this week. I think it is so important for us as Hopkins students to have an experience like this, and I wish I had had the opportunity to go through an orientation like this before my freshman year at Hopkins. I think, and I’m sure everyone reading this agrees, that it is important for Hopkins students to learn about Baltimore history and the ways in which Johns Hopkins has taken advantage of different Baltimore communities throughout its long history in Baltimore. I think the section on using public transit in Baltimore and fun things to do in Baltimore are in particular so important for anyone living here and having a session like the ones we had could really get Baltimore students out of their bubble. I know I for one am really excited to start using the MTA busses, which I’ve been intimidated to use in the past. I know this isn’t a revolutionary take, but as an upperclassman, I feel like I have learned about Hopkins’ history in bits through my older friends, but I would like this history to be passed on in a more formalized manner so it is not dependent on specific relationships which not everyone has.
My favorite parts of orientation were the community-building moments. I liked reflecting with my peer mentor group, and I also really liked being put into other randomized groups who we met with a couple of times to build those other relationships. Some of my favorite parts were the exercises we did with the Theatre Action Group because created opportunities for one on one reflection on important topics. I think the structure of the exercises opened up moments of vulnerability between members of the cohort. It really made me feel more connected to the whole group and really established the cohort as a community.

Neal Lim | Baltimore Urban Baseball Association

This week, I met so many talented and driven people, and together, we learned so much about the city of Baltimore and the opportunities we have to serve the Baltimore community. Here are some principles and thoughts I took away from the wonderful orientation and conversations with my fellow CIIP peers.

Baltimore should not be defined by its troubled past or current problems.

I loved learning about the history of Baltimore from Lane Victorson from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, but it was heartbreaking to learn about the actions performed by those in power that actively discriminated against colored people and incentivized the exodus away from the city into the surrounding county. How many people were negatively affected by those racialized mandates? Not only people living at that time, but the many generations that followed and grew up in those conditions and with those restrictions?

It was a chilling reminder that the actions we take have lasting consequences that go beyond our lifetimes or the short periods of time that we find ourselves in an area. This fact is not inherently good or bad, however. The actions we take out of love, respect, and humility during our service have the potential to impact many lives and lead to compounding effects that might come to fruition long after our service.

Where much is given, much is required.

Could there have been a better way to conclude the CIIP orientation than with the electrifying words of Reverend Dr. Heber Brown III of the Black Church Food Security Network? I don’t think so.

Our discussions of privilege helped me feel comfortable with discomfort. But he didn’t stop at just highlighting the many privileges that we as Hopkins students enjoy. He encouraged us to use those privileges that we were given to change the very structures that grant us those privileges and create lasting change in a more equitable society. I hope we all remember and do what he instructed during our time in Baltimore this summer!

Amira Rady | Fusion Partnerships

For me, orientation was a brave space–I was able to speak openly and honestly about the confrontations I have had with others and with myself about my identity and how it has shaped my interactions with others. I have had these kinds of conversations before in a D&I-oriented space, but I think what stood out here was being able to figure out how to examine all facets of my identity and APPLY that knowledge in order to be a better ally. What the Reverend said on the final day of the orientation really sat with me: “Critique what is, create what should be.” As a student majoring in Public Health at Hopkins, I spend a lot of time in classes critiquing the systems that have led to Baltimore’s opioid crisis or lack of access to healthcare; however, we don’t always give equal attention to calling out the systems of oppression that propagate these public health issues. This is our time to finally apply our experience, but to also know when to sit back and listen to communities who have not been listened to often enough.

Just this morning, I went out with a friend for lunch who recently graduated and is looking to consider a career in the field of health; like myself, he is a transplant to Baltimore. I reopened a lot of the conversations we had during orientation about the Black Butterfly and White L, and the intricacies of the relationship between Hopkins and Baltimore. When I mentioned the Black Butterfly, he told me that he had never heard of it before–after I explained it to the best of my ability, he told me he wished he had learned about it earlier before he moved into an internship in Baltimore. For the first time, I got him to travel to our destination on a city bus and let our initial conversation spark more dialogue about Hopkins’ relationship to the city. I am by no means an expert, but I am thankful I was able to have that open dialogue with my friend. After all, he told me he is working in a lab that uses HeLa cells; now he can move into that space having more context on how they arrived there, and hopefully continue the conversation we started. I hope that far beyond orientation that I continue to uphold my values and have these conversations with my peers to help all of us unlearn problematic narratives about Baltimore and continue to let our communities educate us.

Jane Slaughter | Impact Hub Baltimore

I went into CIIP Orientation not completely knowing what to expect, but I had a wonderful time getting to know other members of the 2022 CIIP Cohort! It has been a couple of years since I have had a completely in person orientation like this, and I think it really solidified for me how much more can be learned and communicated in this in-person format. In particular, I really enjoyed getting to know my peer mentor group. I think we had a lot of good reflections together, and I got to learn a lot about the past experiences (both inside and outside Baltimore) from members of my group. We also had many adventures on our scavenger hunt day, including learning about a food drive that takes place in the Ynot Lot on Wednesday afternoons, and walking half a mile to get ice cream at a location that did not exist. We also took the subway line, which was my first experience taking the subway line in Baltimore. I think the fact that I did not know about this route of transportation despite living in Baltimore over the past three years just showed to me how most of my movement throughout Baltimore has been restricted to the White L, as I have mostly only traveled using the Circulator.

Throughout the presentations across the week, I found the panel on Nonprofit management particularly intriguing, as that is what I will be mostly learning about within my placement at Impact Hub this summer. I thought it was a great introduction to how grant funding is awarded and how nonprofit governance functions on both a local and national level. I also was surprised at how much I enjoyed the Theater Action Group’s workshop. We have done so much verbal and written reflection upon the presentations we heard throughout the week that I thought it was an excellent departure to reflect on our own stories, or the stories from our peers, through physical movement. I thought this added a great dimension of reflection and really helped me to hone my own active listening skills. Through the many reflections and presentations from different community members and leaders, I really enjoyed learning throughout this past week’s orientation.