The first ever Sophomore Formal was held on March 13 at the National Aquarium at the Inner Harbor. The Student Government Association (SGA) provided transportation to and from the venue along with catered finger foods and a DJ.
According to Sophomore Class President Jahan Mirchandani, over 375 tickets were sold.
For the first hour of the formal, students had the opportunity to explore the aquarium on their own. Afterwards, they were directed to the dolphin and jellyfish exhibits where food and drinks were available.
Dancing took place in the Pier 4 Marine Mammal Pavilion, with music provided by junior Jerald Liu.
Liu was the winner of “King of the Club,” a DJ competition held by the Hopkins Hosting Society last semester. In October, he was contacted by members of the SGA to DJ the formal.
Liu also regularly DJs at his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, as well as at sorority date parties and formals. The aquarium venue for the event especially appealed to Liu.
“Although this was also a dance-oriented event, the venue itself was unusual in that it wasn’t a typical club or frat basement,” Liu said.
Sophomore Samhita Ilango said the location of the formal was also her favorite part of the event.
“It was unique and allowed students to have a variety of things to do,” Ilango said.
Not all students had positive reviews, however.
“It was fine, but they could have given us more time in the aquarium, but the DJ sucked and the food sucked. But the aquarium was cool. It was a good location,” sophomore Leslie Cunningham said.
Others, while not glowing about the event itself, thought it was well worth the sticker price.
“I liked it because it was nice to go to the aquarium for eleven dollars,” sophomore Nina Yanagisawa said.
Previously, the class event for sophomores was a day-long trip to Six Flags. Mirachandani proposed the idea of a formal in October to replace the class trip.
“I really wanted to build class unity, improve school spirit and most importantly, provide sophomores with the opportunity to leave campus and explore the wonderful city of Baltimore and Inner Harbor.”
Mirachandani said only about 100 sophomores attended the Six Flags Trip last year because of the time commitment.
“The Six Flags trip would be so fun,” Ilango said. “However, I would be hesitant to dedicate an entire Saturday before finals season to go on the trip ... the timing of this formal was much more suitable.”
Sophomore Sarah White said she had not known about the Six Flags trip but that she was happy the class activity was a formal dance this year.
“Though a theme park trip would have been awesome, I’m sure, I think people would have just branched off more independently,” White said. “There are so few times where we get to have all of our close friends in one room together.”
She enjoyed that the event brought together different groups from many friend circles, from her dance teammates and sorority sisters to unaffiliated friends.
The other reason Mirachandani proposed a formal dance to replace the Six Flags trip was to promote community.
“One-fourth of the students here at Hopkins are a part of Greek life, meaning they regularly get the opportunity to attend formals and date parties and dances,” Mirachandani said. “In my opinion, a divide can also take place between students [who are] a part of Greek life and those that aren’t affiliated. I felt this not only provided the other three-fourths of the population with the opportunity to attend a formal but also to attend an event that is attractive to all members of the student body.”
Sophomore Nate Choe believes that there are other opportunities for students to attend formal dances, such as the Chinese Student Association’s Lunar New Year formal.
“But I still enjoyed sophomore formal if only because of the fact that it was exclusively for sophomores and so many showed up,” Choe said.
White agreed that the popular class event gave her a sense of belonging.
“Between all of the stresses we see each other go through, [it was nice to see] how happy and relaxed everyone looked all at once,” White said. “When everyone was under the jellyfish decorations dancing, our class looked especially united.”
