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\nAfter learning that Johns Hopkins was among a handful of schools that pledge to cover 100 percent of students\u2019 financial need, he applied. A few months later, his mother tore open the mail at their Houston home <\/span>to discover that her son had been accepted with a full ride. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt showed that all the hard work I did in high school paid off,\u201d says Ezekwesili, who graduated with a 4.2 GPA. \u201cIt felt really good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With his college costs covered, he found himself facing a new set of worries. He didn\u2019t know what to expect in Baltimore, an unfamiliar city 1,400 miles away from his family and friends. Neither of his parents had attended a four-year university, so they weren\u2019t able to offer guidance on what campus life would be like. He thought it might be hard to make new friends, and he was nervous about keeping up with college-level coursework. <\/span><\/p>\n Fortunately, Johns Hopkins has a program designed to help students exactly like Ezekwesili.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Launched in the summer of 2015, the Hop-In program<\/a> invites 40 first-generation and limited-income students to live on campus for five weeks before the start of their freshman year. They spend that time taking summer courses, learning about the resources available at Johns Hopkins, and discovering Baltimore through off-campus field trips. With the university paying for travel, food, and housing, it\u2019s a hard offer to pass up. <\/span><\/p>\n In addition to their regular academic advisers, Hop-In students are assigned success coaches for extra guidance on things like goal setting, connecting with faculty members, financial literacy, stress management, and seeking out internships. Hop-In coaches meet with students at least twice a month during their first and second years, and third- and fourth-year students meet with coaches about once a month. Participants are also paired with student mentors\u2014usually first-generation third- and fourth-year students who went through Hop-In themselves\u2014who can offer advice on everything from work-study opportunities to what to bring on the first day of class.<\/span><\/p>\n A growing number of colleges are adopting similar programs to help first-generation and limited-income students succeed in academia. Only 17\u00a0percent of first-generation students obtain a bachelor\u2019s degree 10\u00a0years after their sophomore year of high school, compared to 42\u00a0percent of students who have at least one college-educated parent, according to a 2017 report from the National Center for Education Statistics. <\/span><\/p>\n Among these students who do make it to college, many feel pressure to drop out and enter the workforce so they can help their families financially.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor limited-income students, finances are really a barrier,\u201d says Hop-In Director Candice Baldwin. \u201cThese students often work extra hours to pay their tuition, which in turn leaves less hours for them to focus on their academics. If their grades slip as a result, their families may question why they are at an expensive private school. Their families may say \u2018Well, if you\u2019re not doing well in the class, why are you there? Maybe you should go to a community college or take some time off.\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Baldwin, who was a first-generation student herself, says many of the students she works with also struggle with imposter syndrome. Whenever they encounter a stumbling block, they feel like they did something wrong and question whether they really belong at Johns Hopkins. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHop-In students are highly motivated and among the best and the brightest at Hopkins. They have the capability to be successful but are often saddled with feelings of fear and doubt about their abilities,\u201d she says. <\/span><\/p>\n The inaugural cohort of Hop-In students graduated last spring, and by all measures, the program has been a success. All 31 students either earned a bachelor\u2019s degree or are still enrolled for the fall semester.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We spoke to Ezekwesili and two of his fellow engineering majors about the unique challenges they faced and how the Hop-In program helped them to overcome the odds.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a super outgoing person, so I thought it would be hard to make new friends, but the icebreaker activities made it easy,\u201d says Ezekwesili, who remains close with many of the classmates he met that summer. \u201cI knew I would at least be able to see 39 familiar faces in the fall.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His schedule for the next five weeks was intense, but he enjoyed the fast pace of the program. In the mornings, he took three hours of calculus, followed by lunch and group study hours. In the afternoons, campus offices took turns hosting workshops to familiarize students with everything from financial aid to mental health services. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey told me every single facet about Hopkins. We learned things that many people might not hear,\u201d says Ezekwesili. When it was time to relax, they went to Hershey Park in Pennsylvania, attended Baltimore\u2019s Caribbean Carnival, and watched the Fourth of July fireworks from Federal Hill. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt was so much stuff that I never would have done if I was sitting back home in Houston,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like we had a really good advantage. We just had way more time to settle in and get ready for college.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Before the summer program ended, his mentor prepped him on the ins and outs of dorm life and told him what to pack when he returned in the fall. Looking back, Ezekwesili says the most useful advice he received was to keep his course load light that first semester. Easing in with a manageable schedule ultimately made the transition to college smoother. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was worried that it would be too hard, but that gave me the confidence I needed to take on college,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n He enjoyed Hop-In so much that he decided to return the following summer to mentor the incoming first-year students. He viewed it as a way to give back to the program while also earning extra income over the break. To his surprise, he found that taking on a leadership role with the younger students also helped to boost his confidence and made him more outgoing. Now he\u2019s working as a fitness monitor at the Ralph S. O\u2019Connor Recreation Center and tutors engineering students for the university\u2019s Center for Student Success<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Last summer, Ezekwesili landed a paid internship working as a piping field engineer for Bechtel in Richland, Washington. He credits his Hop-In coach\u2014who pushed him to apply early and fine-tuned his resume\u2014for helping him land the job. Someday he hopes to become a design engineer, possibly improving the design of commercial planes or increasing the efficiency of turbines in power plants. He\u2019s on track to graduate with his BS in mechanical engineering in 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMost limited-income students, like me, don\u2019t know what to expect of college,\u201d says Ezekwesili. \u201cI think programs like these are really helpful, just because they show you\u2019re not the only person at college who is first-gen, limited income. And it just helps level the playing field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018Are you saying that I\u2019m not good enough?\u2019\u201d remembers Adair, who had her heart set on a more prestigious university.<\/span><\/p>\n The summer before her senior year, she received an email inviting her to apply for the Hopkins Overnight Multicultural Experience<\/a> program, which invites prospective students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to spend a weekend living on campus with a current Johns Hopkins student. She applied on a whim, was accepted, and enjoyed the weekend so much that she applied for early admission to Johns Hopkins.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI told my parents, and they looked it up and saw it was almost $75,000 a year. They were like, \u2018What the hell are you talking about?\u2019\u201d remembers Adair. \u201cNobody had ever told me how financial aid worked. I knew that people got scholarships, but I didn\u2019t know that you could get financial aid grants from your school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She found financial aid forms online and completed the paperwork on her own. A few weeks later, she learned she was accepted to Johns Hopkins, but her financial aid award was delayed because she had accidentally submitted documents for the wrong academic year. When her correct aid package finally arrived, it covered the bulk of her costs, but she would still need to take out a modest loan. She took the deal. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy parents were really proud that I got in, but they weren\u2019t really sure that they wanted me to go,\u201d says Adair, whose father was still nudging her toward community college. Her parents had always lived in Northern California, and it never occurred to them that their only daughter might leave the state for college. \u201cMe moving across the country was weird and definitely not supposed to happen.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Like Ezekwesili, she was accepted into the summer Hop-In program and jumped at the chance to take Calculus 1 before the semester began. Her high school hadn\u2019t offered many of the high-level math and science courses she knew she would need as a chemical and biomolecular engineering<\/a> major, and this was a chance to catch up. The group outings around Baltimore also helped her get comfortable. By the time the school year started, she was riding the Circulator bus like a pro. <\/span><\/p>\n But after a few months, she began to doubt herself. A lingering case of bronchitis took a toll on her studies, and she ended the fall semester with a 2.98 GPA. By the spring, she was struggling to stay afloat in Calculus 3, and she did so poorly on a physics exam that the professor called her into his office for a meeting. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a shocker for somebody who\u2019s used to a 4.0,\u201d she says. \u201cI felt like, I don\u2019t want to do this. This isn\u2019t for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In a moment of desperation, she filled out a transfer application to a California state university but stopped short of sending it in. She thought of her grandmother, who grew up poor and left home to work as a nanny at the age of 13. \u201cMy grandma would tell anybody and everybody that I was at Johns Hopkins. I think it would have been really embarrassing to be the first in my family to have gone to college, and moved all the way across the country \u2026 and have given up after a year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In an effort to get back up to speed, she enrolled in a Differential Equations course over the summer with the help of Hop-In. The class helped, and she eventually brought her GPA up from a 2.5 to a 3.25. She also learned that she would no longer need student loans thanks to Michael Bloomberg’s historic $1.8 billion gift<\/a> in support of financial aid at Johns Hopkins\u2014the largest-ever single contribution to a college <\/span>or university.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, Adair believes she has finally hit her stride. She\u2019s landed internships at the Applied Physics Lab and Johnson & Johnson, and has worked as a lab researcher for two years at Johns Hopkins\u2019 Center for\u00a0Nanomedicine<\/a>. She\u2019s also a member of Hop-In\u2019s student advisory board, works multiple on-campus jobs, and serves as president of the Johns Hopkins chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers<\/a>\u2014activities that she says have helped her feel more at home at Johns Hopkins. She\u2019s on track to get her master\u2019s degree at the end of 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n She credits her parents with giving her the work ethic that led her to succeed at Johns Hopkins. \u201cNeither of them went to college, but they both make good money for not having gone to school, and they both work really hard at what they do,\u201d she says. \u201cMy parents instilled in me that you should always be working and trying your hardest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Despite having four college-educated sisters who she could turn to for advice on university life, she still faced many of the challenges that come with being a first-generation, limited-income student. The first hiccup happened when she received her acceptance to Johns Hopkins\u2019 Biomedical Engineering<\/a> program and discovered that she didn\u2019t receive any financial aid. She was told her paperwork had not been submitted on time\u2014though she was sure it had been\u2014and there was nothing the university could do.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was devastated because there was no way I could afford to come here,\u201d she remembers. \u201cJust filling out those financial aid forms, I saw we could not afford it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rather than decline the offer, she decided to go to Johns Hopkins for the Admitted Student Day and visit the financial aid office in person. She walked into the office of her adviser, Albertha Mellerson, and unexpectedly burst into tears.<\/span><\/p>\n Desperate to help, Mellerson discovered that Andrews had, in fact, submitted her paperwork. The error had been caused by a technical glitch, and the office was able to resolve the issue and offer Andrews a financial aid package: a full ride to Johns Hopkins.<\/span><\/p>\n Andrews joined the first cohort of Hop-In in the summer of 2015. Four years later, she still gushes about how the program changed her life for the better. <\/span><\/p>\nHopping into JHU<\/h2>\n
Ebuka Ezekwesili<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Ebuka](\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Ebuka_9-200x300.jpg\")
Ezekwesili remembers feeling lost on Homewood\u2019s sprawling campus when he arrived for Hop-In in the summer of 2017. The brick buildings all looked the same to him, but upperclass mentors were happy to act as guides. All 40 Hop-In students were assigned to live on the sixth and seventh floors of Wolman Hall, where they shared a communal living space.<\/span><\/p>\nPeyton Adair<\/span><\/h2>\n
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Despite graduating high school with near perfect grades, Peyton Adair says no one encouraged her to apply to a top college. Neither of her parents’ education had continued past high school. Her father, who works as a factory foreman for a sugar company, suggested she attend the community college near her home in Oakley, California. Her high school guidance counselor pushed her to apply to a low-ranked state school.<\/span><\/p>\nAlina Andrews<\/span><\/h2>\n
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There was never any doubt that Alina Andrews was going to college. She was a straight-A student and valedictorian of her high school class\u2014an achievement shared by three of her older sisters. <\/span>\u201cMy parents really stressed education. I was always very focused. No nonsense,\u201d says Andrews, whose family emigrated from Trinidad to Miami before she was born. Her parents co-own a small computer tech company, but neither attended college. \u201cI think that was one of their regrets, not going. My mom always says, \u2018You need to outdo your parents.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n