The College Lives of Hopkins Faculty and Staff

Katherine Takoudes ’20, Anjali Subramanian ’22

Whether graduating last year or twenty years ago, Hopkins faculty and staff share college stories of their favorite traditions, memorable sporting games and roommate horror stories.

Roommate Horror Stories?
My freshman year roommate got a bunny as a pet without consulting me! It lived in our room in a cage for the remainder of the year. - Lauren Reichart, Cornell University ’01

My sophomore roommate had serious social and boundary issues: insulted people who were nice to him; went through my things when I wasn’t there. I moved in with two friends down the hall. At the end of the year I was awarded “Worst Roommates” and “Best Roommates” at the same time. - Michael Calderone, Rutgers University ’90

I got into an argument with my roommate about the band Wilco, who I described as “undynamic.” Some nights, he would sneak behind the dormitory and smoke an old-school tobacco pipe like Sherlock Holmes. - Stephen May, University of Pittsburgh ’00

Intended vs Actual Major?

Originally, I wanted to do physical therapy until I found out you had to do a cadaver, and I was not into that. However, I didn’t want to go in as an undecided major, so I chose athletic training at random because I thought it would kind of be like PT. My major even led me to working at Hopkins; I applied to work here after doing an internship the fall semester of my senior year at Quinnipiac. - Jillian Gleason, Quinnipiac University ’07

Physics (I thought I could most easily find a job teaching science) to History (my true passion ). I decided I’d just take my chances finding a job teaching history. Look where it got me!!! - Thom Peters, Dartmouth ’85

I started out as an Urban Studies major, then switched to German, then to a German and English Writing double major, and finished with just English Writing. This final change was much to the consternation of my father, who I now see was right: I only had a couple of courses left in the German—why not just finish it? I thought, “I know I’m going to be a writer; why not focus on that?” - May, University of Pittsburgh ’00

I went into college intending to be a pre-med English major, assuming that I would go on to apply to medical school after graduation. However, studying English abroad, writing for student publications, and working in the Writing Center helped to convince me that I didn’t want to give English up! - Alexandra Kelly, Bates College ’09

I intended to be a History major but because the History Dept was in shambles, I was advised not to. I started in the History and Literature Dept but ended up as an English major because of my love for literature and writing. - Zoe Resch, Harvard University ’93

Math vs. Math. - Stephen Sacchetti, Haverford College ’11

Any Memorable Games or Events?

Every Cornell-Harvard hockey game! Lynah Rink is small and the noise that reverberates from the marching band and the 1700 fans is insane. It was a really great rivalry during my four years. - Reichart, Cornell University ’01

My roommate sank two free throws at the half-time of a basketball game and won $100 worth of Skyline Chili. We dined on Skyline Chili for weeks! - Maharidge, Xavier University ’98

The 1987 Harvard-Yale football game (H won 14-10) was at Yale in the Stadium, and on that day it was about 15 degrees F with a 40-mph wind, putting the wind chill at about -25 F. Since I was from Duluth, Minnesota, I was one of the only people at the game who actually owned the right kind of winter gear to handle it. Lots of frozen tears that day. - Dan Drummond, Harvard University ’91

Most heartbreaking loss was our softball team needing to at least split a doubleheader to make conference playoffs my senior year... and we got swept. - Nathaniel Peters, Swarthmore College ’18

I was a founding player of a lacrosse program that now is pretty strong. - Brad Czepiel, Vassar ’87

I didn’t have time for any of that because during college, I worked a full time job and went to school full time (for both my B.A. and my M.Ed.) - Sarah Belbita, Western New England ’04, American International College ’12

Favorite School Traditions?

North vs. North West Campus snowball fight during the first snowfall of the year or the oozeball Game on Spring Weekend. - Timothy Phipps, University of Connecticut ’97

At Xavier U. basketball season is one of the high point of the year. To kick off the season, the school held “Midnight Madness.” Most of the school would pack the practice arena for the hours leading up to midnight, when the basketball team would appear for its first practice allowable by NCAA rules. There was music, videos, contests; the place was pretty much set to explode at midnight. - Chris Maharidge, Xavier University ’98

Going swimming in the duck pond during orientation week. - Sacchetti, Haverford College ’11

Shabbat dinner! Every week, the Jewish community hosted a free Shabbat dinner on Friday nights, and every week, a different group of friends or organization planned and cooked the meal. Generally about 100 people attended every week. - Abraham Kirby-Galen, Williams College ’16

Bates is in Lewiston, Maine, which has serious winters. Every year, the small lake on campus, affectionately known as “The Puddle,” freezes over completely, and every year in the dead of winter, members of the Outing Club cut a hole in the ice for the “Puddle Jump” during the week of Winter Carnival. I finally jumped in senior year! - Kelly, Bates College ’09

Favorite Class?

The Psychology of Sleep taught by James Maas. He coined the term “power nap” and it was the largest live taught class in the world (at that time). - Reichart, Cornell University ’01

The best professor I had was Len Berkman, who taught at Smith. People told me I had to study with him. His only course that term was “Contemporary Canadian Playwrights,” but I went for it. - Melchinger, Amherst College ’92

One of my favorite classes was an acting class. No one in the class was an arts major, so all of us were taking it to fulfill an art requirement, but the teacher was awesome and everyone got really into doing the exercises and assignments. - Gleason, Quinnipiac University ’07

Either Evolutionary Biology with E. O. Wilson or Creative Non-fiction Writing with Verlyn Klinkenborg. - Resch, Harvard ’93

Any College Fun Facts?

My band in college snuck into a Republican-club meeting and pretended to be an opening act for visiting speaker, provocateur and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza. We played three songs before they figured out we weren’t invited. We had great pictures of ourselves being hustled away by these football players. We had all worn pink Oxford shirts to blend in. To be fair, most of the guys there were bobbing to the songs, so no damage done. - Ian Melchinger, Amherst College ’92

My father, who was a police chief at the time, thought I was arrested my freshman year because the local news reported multiple arrests on UCONN’s campus due to a snowball fight. He called me up and I did not pick up the phone so he assumed I was arrested. He then left a long voicemail on an actual answering machine telling me that if I was arrested I could stay locked up and then to plan on leaving UCONN once I found a way out. For the record, I was not arrested, there was nothing illegal about the event, but our dorm did win the snowball fight! GO HUSKIES! - Phipps, University of Connecticut ’97

My unique path to college and ensuing experiences helped mold me as a human, educator, historian, wife and mother, in no particular order. The professors at Western New England saw something in me I never saw or believed in for myself, and thanks to their encouragement, I’m sitting here responding to this survey today. - Belbita, Western New England ’04, American International College ’12

My favorite memory was seeing my roommate in March of our senior year try to write, edit, and print his 175-page senior thesis (at the same time) on the day it was due. We had four dot-matrix printers going at once while he tried to put it all in order and submit it to the Social Studies department administrator. When he got to the office—45 minutes after it was due—the door was locked. He slid the thesis under the door and hoped for the best. (And as I recall, he passed with ‘cum laude’ honors!) - Drummond, Harvard ’91

I fell in love and married her the summer we graduated. - T. Peters, Dartmouth ’85

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