Everyday Hopkins: Jonathan Sneddon, LAN III Admin

I’ve always felt for people who don’t have the means or resources to do things for themselves. I try to give back as much as possible.

For several years following college, I was homeless in Dallas. I lived on a series of couches and my car for the better part of three to four years. I moved to Las Vegas to refocus my life and my direction. You wouldn’t think it’s the place people go to retreat from chaos. Fortunately, I don’t gamble and I had so many skills I could put to good use: hairstyling, makeup artist, being a personal stylist, executive assistant to several models, a professional photographer, writer, graphic designer, the list goes on.

When I moved to Baltimore in 2014 for an IT job, I discovered Johns Hopkins and thought it would be a great place to work. Aside from going to college for IT, I only had three months of IT experience and couldn’t find many Hopkins positions that fit my skillset. When I finally got an interview, I told my (now) manager he wouldn’t be disappointed if he hired me. I’ve been here for almost four years now.

I’m the lead LAN Administrator III for nine locations, which is like being a mini project manager. There are five of us and we all have different specialties; mine are communications and organization and documentation. I try to find “how-to” documents that don’t exist and then I create them. Over the past six months, I’ve built a repository of 150 documents, including how to connect to printer drives and how to add another mailbox to your Outlook account.

I donate my time to United Way, especially Project Homeless Connect. Having been homeless, I understand the necessities that people need, even when all they want is a cell phone. When it’s cold outside, I’ll hit up my friends for spare blankets and gloves and go pass them out. I try to give everyone just a little help and happiness so they know it’s not all bad.

I also conducted focus groups with homeless people in the community for Johns Hopkins Office of Government and Community Affairs. Drug addicts, drug dealers, alcoholics and some very violent people came together to discuss their relation to healthcare. Regardless of their situation, though, every single person had health insurance.

In the LGBT community, I manage a house of drag queens and co-produce three monthly shows. I also mentor a few other drag queens outside of the shows. I’m the brains of the operation and I like to be in the background, which is why IT works for me. One of my drag queens is set to release an album in April and I’m helping manage the release: marketing, booking, scheduling, press kit, all of that.

When I first started at Johns Hopkins, I really struggled with personal style and fitting into a professional office setting. I’ve been dressing up in some capacity since I was a kid – makeup, sparkly shoes, jewelry – it’s second nature to me. Polo shirt and khakis are not me in any way, shape or form. If you don’t feel comfortable, how can you succeed? My manager was fully supportive and told me that by all means, I just needed to feel myself.

I have an intern right now from the Year Up program through Baltimore City Community College. I asked him if anyone in his class was working on the things he’s working on with me, and he said no. When he talked about the hands-on projects I’m having him work on—like helping install new printers—his class was blown away. I can only imagine being 19 years old and knowing there are tons of possibilities out there while also gaining the opportunity to achieve those possibilities.

Listen to Jonathan talk about his connection to the homeless community.

Everyday Hopkins: Jonathan Sneddon, LAN III Admin, 4.9 out of 5 based on 18 ratings