A Measure of Hope
Last fall, in what has become an annual rite of passage in the Johns Hopkins master of public policy program, 32 first-year students went out to test their mental mettle on the streets of Baltimore. Working in teams of six or seven, the students analyzed data and gathered observations on five public housing developments throughout the city being reconstructed as part of a multibillion-dollar federal initiative known as HOPE VI.
   Under HOPE VI, Baltimore has received more than $150 million in federal funds to replace antiquated, substandard housing projects built in the 1950s, '60s and '70s with newer mixed-income townhouse-style communities. The developments--Pleasant View Gardens, The Townes at the Terraces, Heritage Crossing, Broadway Overlook and Flag House Courts--are scattered across downtown Baltimore, from the steps of the Johns Hopkins medical campus to west of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Full story...

Undergrads drawn to Public Health
Above James Goodyear's office door hangs a nondescript charcoal-and-white sign that reads Public Health Studies. It's a small sign. His is a small office, tucked away on the first floor of an unnamed brick building located across the street from the Homewood campus proper. Although his space may be somewhat off the beaten path, Goodyear says, students seem to have a knack for finding it.
   How? Well, they just follow "the buzz."
   Goodyear is the associate director of Public Health Studies, an undergraduate program offered by the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with the Bloomberg School of Public Health. A sort of academic orphan, the program is currently not affiliated with any department. Public Health Studies' independent status, however, has not stopped it from last year ranking as the third most popular (out of 40) degree-granting programs in the school, positioned just behind such stalwarts as international studies and biology. Full story...

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