Class rings for student leaders

One student created an app to streamline academic advising and degree planning for undergraduates. But instead of selling the app to other colleges for a profit, she gifted it to her own school.

Another student helped kids at a summer camp manage anxiety as they coped with a parent's cancer diagnosis. And still another used her business acumen to mend social problems like inequity and climate change through a student organization.

These Johns Hopkins students along with eight others were awarded an official Celestrium Hopkins class ring through the Alumni Association's caRING program, created to help students struggling to pay for a ring themselves, says Ember Harnett, associate director of regional, student, and young alumni programs. Over time the initiative evolved to give rings to undergraduate and graduate students who excel in leadership activities and make a positive contribution to campus or the community, all while pursuing a full course load.

Typically, the caRING program awards a ring to nine students, one from each academic division of the university. This year, however, Mike Pryzby, Engr '09, and Stephanie Talton, A&S '02, both members of the Engaging Future Alumni Committee—part of the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association's Alumni Council—decided to fund and award an additional two rings, bringing the total to 11.

The ring features the university's seal, emblematic of the institution's dedication to the advancement of knowledge in service to the community and the world. In addition, explains Harnett, "the ring represents the idea of One Hopkins across all nine divisions and across time and place," meaning that once a student graduates, no matter where life takes them, they become part of the single legacy of the university to advance knowledge and work together for the greater good.