When my parents initially brought up Johns Hopkins during my college search, I gave them a hard no, believing I would never be happy in Baltimore. A week later, they made a surprise pit-stop at the school’s Homewood campus on our way to D.C. to see Georgetown—I was less than thrilled.

Somehow they got me to apply and somehow I got in—and somehow I fell in love. As a native New Yorker, any place I went, I was always in search of the city’s soul—and I found it quite easily in Baltimore. In mainstream media, it’s known for The Wire, but I know it for its strong community and its generous heart. As John Waters said, “You’ll never find a stranger city with such extreme style.”