The Digital Media Center (DMC), in collaboration with Nolan's on 33rd, hosted the second Ignite@JHU event at Nolan's last Thursday. It featured five minute, TED-like talks by Hopkins staff, professors and students.
"We want to know what student, staff and faculty are passionate about," Joan Freedman, Director of the DMC and primary organizer of Ignite, said. "It's also a great way to bring interesting new topics and perspectives into the public discussion."
Hosted by Frank Richardson, staff of Campus Safety and Security and a speaker at the inaugural Ignite@JHU event last November, the event featured topics ranging from philanthropic causes to personal stories.
Freshman Katrina Rios spoke about the Program for Animal Wellness & Safety (PAWS), an animal cruelty awareness group. During her talk, Rios explained the difficulty she had participating in existing animal cruelty awareness groups due to her young age and then how she founded PAWS to try to affect change.
"Regardless of age, [anyone] can definitely make a difference," Rios said.
Jennifer McDowell, a graduate student at the Hopkins School of Education, spoke about the need for renovations of Baltimore City school buildings. According to McDowell, Baltimore City school buildings are in need of $7.8 billion in repairs. But in addition to maintenance repairs, McDowell argued that the buildings are in need of aesthetic improvements if there is to be hope of academic improvements.
"Make schools a place students want to be," McDowell said.
As with the inaugural event, attendees found the presentations to be very engaging.
"The presentations have been really interested and have been keeping my attention," freshman Anna Belous said.
Belous heard of the event through one of her co-workers, Raychel Santos, who spoke about the Hopkins Community Garden at the event.
Joe McSharry, an employee of the Hopkins Department of Talent Management and Organization Development, heard about the event via Hopkins Today's Announcements but also knew Santos would be speaking.
"I like the informal feel of it," McSharry said.
While the audience consisted of a range of Hopkins students, faculty and non-affiliates, the number of attendees was roughly 35 people, a significant drop from the first event's attendance of 150, according to a previous News-Letter article.
A number of attendees, particularly those further from the stage, felt that Nolan's was a poor choice of venue.
"There's a lot of background noise so I haven't been able to hear what [speakers] have been saying," sophomore Matthew Delgrosso said.
According to Freedman, one of the reasons behind the choice of Nolan's was the partnership between the DMC and Nolan's.
"We initially had partnered with Nolan's for the first one in November and it made sense to have it at Nolan's again," Freedman said.
Freedman also recognized the large volume of people the event could reach if hosted at Nolan's.
"There's so much foot traffic and so many people who were coming into the space because they were coming in to eat and [then they] stuck around to listen," Freedman said.
However, Freedman has acknowledged the negative aspects of Nolan's and has sought alternative venues for future events.
"We'll definitely be looking for another space in the fall," she said.
One aspect of Nolan's Freedman appreciates and hopes to find in their next choice of venue is an unintimidating atomsphere.
"The difference of doing a five minute presentation on the stage at Shriver versus the 12 inch rise at Nolan's is a whole different experience," Freedman said. "Keeping a small, intimate, unintimidating space would be a real priority."
So far, Ignite events have only been planned for one a semester. Currently, Freedman has been focusing her efforts in raising student interest in Ignite to transition it to a student run organization.
"I would love to work with a student committee who really wants to take over the event and make it their own," Freedman said. "I'd like to collaborate with either the Momentum group or another group on the medical group that is doing TED-type talks."
In addition to the DMC and Nolan's, Ignite received assistance from Michael Yassa, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences and Faculty-in-Residence for Charles Commons, and Jimmy Roche, a video specilist in the DMC. Yassa assisted in the advertising and hosting of the event and Roche supervised the video recording of the event and operation of slides for the speakers.
According to Freedman, no logistical changes have been made to the event. The only change has been the creation of a website for Ignite. Visitors can access videos of past Ignite events and submit speaking proposals. Currently, only a video of the last semesters Ignite event is available online. Freedman expects the videos for this past Ignite event to be available online within the next week.
Anyone interest in Ignite should visit either the Ignite@JHU website at ignite.jhu.edu or email Freedman directly at digitalmedia@jhu.edu.
