{"id":2235,"date":"2004-07-15T22:14:14","date_gmt":"2004-07-16T02:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=2235"},"modified":"2014-12-15T22:36:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-16T03:36:05","slug":"mastering-art-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2004\/07\/mastering-art-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastering the \u201cArt\u201d of Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Engineering,<\/a>
Engineering, medicine, and music formed a trio of interests for alumna Tara Johnson, who earned a dual degree as an undergraduate and is now in medical school at Hopkins.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI definitely have a lot of energy,\u201d says Tara Johnson \u201902, \u201902 (Peabody) with a laugh. And it shows\u2014at just 23, she has redefined the meaning of high performance. In just six years since beginning her academic career at the Johns Hopkins University, she has completed two undergraduate degrees with honors, won a major national scholarship, and is heading into her third year at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine while serving on two highlevel volunteer leadership groups for the Whiting School of Engineering.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Kingsville, Maryland, Johnson admired her father, Carl Johnson, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon on the Hopkins medical faculty and clinical staff. \u201cI remember telling everyone as a little girl that I wanted to be a doctor like my dad,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

At the same time, a parallel interest emerged in music. She began playing the piano by age 7, and the French horn, her favored instrument, at 10. By high school, the study of engineering had entered the picture. \u201cI had all of these interests going on at the same time, and I wanted to pursue all of them in some way to make sure that I made the right final decision,\u201d she says. \u201cThat is why I decided to pursue both biomedical engineering and music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson readily admits that Hopkins was her first choice. \u201cI put off my interviews at other schools until I had heard from Hopkins,\u201d she says. \u201cThe University\u2019s doubledegree program was perfect for my needs.\u201d Johnson\u2019s two bachelor\u2019s degrees\u2014in Biomedical Engineering at the Whiting School and in Musical Performance at the Peabody Conservatory of Music\u2014would seem ambitious in itself. Even so, she pushed herself to raise the bar, graduating from the five-year program in just four years with both general and departmental honors. \u201cI doubled up on courses every semester, sometimes taking over 30 credits,\u201d she remembers. \u201cSo I learned how to manage my time.\u201d She graduated with twice as many credits as required.<\/p>\n

Along the way, she was named to the Golden Key Honor Society, the Engineering Honor Society, and the Biomedical Engineering Honor Society. And she received the GE Faculty for the Future Fellowship and was a Maryland Distinguished Scholar and a Robert C. Byrd Scholar.<\/p>\n

Johnson also volunteered as an academic tutor and advisor and for the Child-Life Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. She performed with the Johns Hopkins University Band and the Choral Society. What\u2019s more, she participated in several biomedical engineering research projects, most notably during her three-year stint with the Biomedical Engineering Design Team class. Artin Shoukas, the widely respected professor and researcher who helps teach the class, has nothing but praise for his former student. \u201cShe is a remarkable young woman,\u201d says Shoukas. \u201cWhen one of our Design Team leaders stepped down, she took over the team and did a superb job in leading them.\u201d Johnson returns to the class on a regular basis to judge projects.<\/p>\n

In her senior year, Johnson was named one of the first Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholars. Awarded annually by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to just 50 outstanding students nationally, the scholarship provides up to $50,000 annually for up to six years of graduate studies in any field. \u201cI was so happy when I got it, I was just jumping up and down,\u201d she says. \u201cThe scholarship gave me the financial support I needed to attend the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medical school? Why not a career in engineering or music? Johnson considers her current pursuit to be a natural outgrowth of her undergraduate studies. \u201cI had thought about careers in engineering and music, but I really enjoy interacting with other people\u2014with patients\u2014 and being able to help them directly. For me, medicine can also be an art, because each patient is different. It\u2019s just like engineering and music, because each discipline requires making creative solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she has set her sights on becoming an orthopedic surgeon, Johnson is determined to remain active as an Engineering alumna. She is a member of the Whiting School\u2019s National Advisory Council and the Society of Engineering Alumni Council. \u201cI want to stay involved with the School and make sure that it keeps doing well,\u201d she says. \u201cI have a great deal of loyalty for Hopkins.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI definitely have a lot of energy,\u201d says Tara Johnson \u201902, \u201902 (Peabody) with a laugh. And it shows\u2014at just 23, she has redefined the meaning of high performance. In just six years since beginning her academic career at the Johns Hopkins University, she has completed two undergraduate degrees with honors, won a major national…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-legacy","issue-summer-2004"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMastering the \u201cArt\u201d of Excellence - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2004\/07\/mastering-art-excellence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mastering the \u201cArt\u201d of Excellence - JHU Engineering Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cI definitely have a lot of energy,\u201d says Tara Johnson \u201902, \u201902 (Peabody) with a laugh. 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