Hello, HopCommunity (see what we did there?)!  

Before we head into finals season and close out the semester, we have a few events coming up this month.  

• April 8: AI in Communication Q&A
• April 17: Crisis Management Workshop  

This month, we also asked our leaders what serving on the board has been like, and they had a lot to say about finding community and professional development through HopCommNet.  

Stay tuned to learn about 2026-2027 elections! 

EVENT: Crisis Management Workshop 

Want to learn how to respond in an organizational crisis (think product/service failures, natural disasters, lawsuits, public outcries)?  

Practice your crisis communication and mitigation skills in our upcoming interactive workshop with Dr. Bayless Davis! 

Location: Hopkins Bloomberg Center (555 Penn), 657 

Date: Friday, April 17 

Time: 6:00 PM ET 

Register for Crisis Communication: Navigating Organizational Crises Workshop.  

EVENT: AI in Communication Q&A 

Join HopCommNet’s April General Meeting to hear how faculty are thinking about AI in communication at JHU. Ask your questions about using AI in professional or academic communication!  

Location: Zoom 

Date: Wednesday, April 8 

Time: 6:30 PM ET 

Register for AI in Communication with Dr. Petkov. 

HopCommNet has learned a lot since our first event last semester. With club elections coming up, our leadership team reflected on what has made serving on the board worth it for them.  

The board spoke on gaining professional confidence and connection with the team, plus getting to create the kinds of opportunities they’d want in the AAP community.  

Finding Community: 

“As international students, sometimes we may feel like we are kind of in a marginalized group. But being in the club has given me a lot of opportunities to form relationships with other students and has helped me to erase the feeling of being isolated.” —Jewels (Kaiyue) 

“Being a virtual student, it's not always easy to make connections. So being a part of a student organization gives a chance to make deeper connections and get to know peers in a way that just interacting in discussion forums or even working on a group project doesn't.” —Lisa 

“Having a community, a good support system, in a club is so essential. It’s nice to have a team that's like, ‘Hey, this isn't working, how do we fix this?’ Or ‘This is doing great, how do we continue doing this?’ Or, like, ‘You having a bad day? So am I,’ And then we just check-in with each other for 20 minutes.” —Marissa 

Gaining Confidence and Career Skills:  

“I've developed more confidence in myself. I thought people were not going to be interested in these kinds of events, that they’d just keep to their own business. But actually, they really loved it. Some students even came and thanked me for sharing the information about the event afterward.” —Jewels   

“I was nervous before our first event. It was my first time being a speaker and leading one of our games. And I thought ‘I can’t, there are too many people,’ but I did it and everyone had fun. And that led to me designing the Panel Discussion where I got to be the moderator and collaborate with our guest speakers. So I got to improve my communication skills, but I also got to have more practical experiences for my career development.” —Ruoying  

Even as everyone had their assigned positions, team members got to try out each other's duties and found they enjoyed the challenge of doing something new.  

“I've gotten to explore where my strengths are as a leader and a little bit of where my growth spots are. It's nice getting to have other team members who are willing to let you do one-on-one check-ins and say, ‘These are the things that I'm noticing that you can work on.’” —Gillian 

Getting The Most Out of Grad School: 

“For our networking events and Q&As, I do wish that I put myself out there a little bit more, especially with the people in the professional sphere that we interact with for our events. But being in the club, it is something I’m getting to actively work on while facilitating events.” —Marissa  

“I think it's important to create the experiences we want to have. It's very easy to sit back and say, ‘Well, why doesn't the school have this?’ It's harder to take that moment to recognize that ‘they’ is ‘us’ and it's our responsibility to create the opportunities that we want and that we want other people to have.” —Lisa 

View our Leadership Team page to learn about HopCommNet's executive board positions. Applications for all open positions will be posted on HopCommNet’s website later this month. 

Improv Event Recap 

Last week, we had the pleasure of working with StoryLab and DC Improv to host a workshop for AAP students!  

In the picture, you can see us doing a classic beginning improv activity. We went around a circle and each person introduced themselves by coming up with a sound plus movement that went with our name. For example, Matthew from StoryLab got us all to make a little walking soldier with our hands and say “march.” Great professional skill to remember others’ names!  

We were also introduced to Dr. Professor (aka Dr. Know-It-All) who reassured us about our love lives... Then recommended chocolate.  

Linda and Melinda also had the most EPIC rock-paper-scissors battle of all time, one our voices are still recovering from.  

If you didn’t get to attend, you can check out DC Improv’s Comedy School to take a class.  

See you at our Crisis Management Workshop April 17!