Opportunities at Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins, “America’s first research university”, has a variety of pre-college programs that cater to the various advanced interests of high school students. (About us) The multitude of topics they offer can range from Anatomy, Physiology, & Disease to Social Inequality and the Public’s Health. (Pre-College Summer Programs, 2020)
Hayden Rockaway, a sophomore at iUniversity Prep, attended one of these programs and has some valuable insights on her experience.
A Little About Hayden Rockaway
Hayden has been attending iUP for four years, this year being her fifth. When she’s not acing her schoolwork, Hayden can be found giving back to the school as an Owl Pal and a student officer of Wisely’s Parliament. She also participates in many other clubs such as book, art, and crotchet.
She originally joined iUP due to the pandemic, but quickly realized “Being able to work at my own pace offered the kind of academic environment I was looking for.” She aspires to dive into her passions of mechanical/chemical engineering and biomedical engineering in the near future. “I hope to work a lot on the engineering side of the healthcare system.” she stated while sharing her aspirations.
Hayden’s Experience
Hayden loved her time at Johns Hopkins and “The CTY program helped me in ways I didn’t really expect. She said she “ended up making really amazing friends” and “found out what I was passionate about”.
At Johns Hopkins, she “had classes in the morning, afternoon, and evenings”. As for hands-on interactions with what they were learning about, Hayden said there were “lots of mini-projects that we worked on as groups”. For the course she picked, there was a larger project where “We could pick any topic (as long as we could relate to the course) and our job was to design a research study”.
Besides the academic side of the experience, Hayden had fun at the summer program as well. She described that “there were dances and other fun activities throughout the week”. You also get to meet several people from around the world and enhance your experience with different cultures. Hayden said she “had dorm mates from Germany, China, and Switzerland.”
Overall, the Johns Hopkins experience proved valuable for her. She said “It was a great introduction to science careers as a whole.”
Recommendations
Hayden “would absolutely recommend it for people who are looking for an introduction to a little bit of everything and who are open to new experiences”. So, if you’re looking into summer programs and want to check out the diverse and engaging programs Johns Hopkins offers, feel free to find those and the application process here: https://summer.jhu.edu/programs-courses/pre-college-programs/
Works Cited
About us. (n.d.). Johns Hopkins University. Accessed February 13, 2025, from https://www.jhu.edu/about/
Pre-College Summer Programs. (2020, October 28). Summer at Hopkins. https://summer.jhu.edu/programs-courses/pre-college-programs/
