June 1, 2004

Dear Colleagues:

Johns Hopkins is proud of its long record of support for the Baltimore City
Public School System. We work closely with the system's principals,
teachers, and students every day, in areas as diverse as teacher and
leadership education, curriculum reform, dropout prevention, summer
learning, and tutoring.

We believe, however, that we can do even more. And we are committed to
doing more.

That is why the university will announce on Wednesday an exciting new
initiative in support of the students in our city schools.

Our new Baltimore Scholars program will provide full-tuition scholarships
to Baltimore city residents who graduate from the city's public high
schools and are accepted as undergraduate students at Johns Hopkins. The
first Baltimore Scholars will enter the university in the fall of 2005.

This program -- first envisioned by the university's Commission on
Undergraduate Education -- is a bold commitment to the young people of our
city, a step that we hope will encourage many of the very brightest and
most capable students to stay in the public school system. We want to help
foster, recognize -- and reward -- excellence within the city schools. This
is what the Baltimore Scholars program is designed to do.

I am pleased and proud to say that this program has the enthusiastic
support of the deans and admissions and financial aid staffs of each of the
five Johns Hopkins schools that educate undergraduates: the Krieger School
of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of Engineering, the School of
Nursing, the Peabody Institute, and the School of Professional Studies in
Business and Education. I thank them for their hard work in preparing the
Baltimore Scholars Program for Wednesday's launch.

A brochure outlining the program is available online at

http://www.jhu.edu/news/home04/jun04/pdf/scholars.pdf

Additional information will be available after Wednesday afternoon's
announcement on the university's home page at http://www.jhu.edu

Baltimore is Johns Hopkins' home, and Baltimore's future is our future. The
health of the city schools is essential to that future. Alone, of course,
the Baltimore Scholars Program will not remedy the problems the school
system faces.

It is, however, another in an ever-widening series of initiatives we are
undertaking in support of the schools. I am confident that our efforts,
along with those of the system's administrators, teachers, parents, and
students, and so many others in our city, will make a difference.

Sincerely,

William R. Brody