As a freshman, one thing you worry about is what to do when you get sick on campus. There’s no mom to take care of you. You are responsible for deciding if you are so sick that you cannot go to class, if you are sick enough to go to the doctor or if you are even sick enough to go home. When I got sick on campus the first thing I did was call home, which is a natural reaction. The next step was to go to the doctor. Fortunately, we have a place you can go to on campus that can be used with your insurance so you personally do not have to pay money to go in. This is the wellness center at West Quad. I went there when I had an awful rash on my knee. I had no idea what it was, but the knowledgeable people there knew that it was chiggers. Chiggers happen when a very tiny bug bites you and you have a reaction to it. It is a common thing to happen here at Stockton if you are out in the woods a lot. Anyway they are able to prescribe medication and can send it to any pharmacy where you can go and pick it up. They accept walk-ins and will evaluate what is wrong. If it is something not life-threatening then they will arrange an appointment with you to see the doctor that is on campus. In my experience, they are professional, courteous, and make the appointment as soon as possible to be able to help you. If, however, it is something that needs immediate attention, then there is always the hospital. Luckily, we have a hospital practically on campus. Atlanticare has seen many Stockton students and from what I have heard they take care of their patients very well. I personally have not had an experience there, and hopefully neither will you. Altogether the experience of being sick on campus is not fun, but there are friendly, helpful people surrounding you who are willing to help.

            Stockton is a distinctive college for many reasons. Our school is located on a beautiful campus within a national reserve, operates inside state-of-the-art buildings, and has full-time faculty members that truly care about the success of their students. Perhaps the most distinctive of all, the student body, have the potential to make Stockton’s name world-renowned.

Some of the most impressive work from our students can be seen within the pages of Innovations, our undergraduate research journal. Each year, inspired students generate ideas for research that have the ability to enlighten the community on a certain issue, test the validity of a particular theory, or potentially spread awareness regarding a social movement. One of my proudest accomplishments that I can take away from my time spent at Stockton thus far has been the opportunity to work on the editorial staff for Innovations and meet these individuals, who I truly believe can change the world through their research.

            Each year, undergraduates submit InDepth or InBrief research projects to the editorial board, which then have the role of meeting with these authors to create an article that is ready for publication. As an editor, I have the opportunity to read drafts of these articles and interview the authors to gain insight on their personal backgrounds, experiences and motivation for conducting their research. Last week, I met with an author who wrote about social mobility.

Nicole was assigned a research project for her Economic Wellbeing course, and was told that the research could be done on virtually any topic that fell under the umbrella of economics. Nicole saw this assignment as an opportunity to take her knowledge of this concept to the next level, and hopes to continue researching this topic in the future because she believes the concept of social mobility can relate to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic class. She hopes to inspire students to continue their efforts in pursuing their own dreams, and to not give up in the face of adversity. Nicole believes that it is important to be aware of this issue, as is can ultimately affect the economy on a grander scale.  Getting to know Nicole and working as member the Innovations staff has opened my eyes to the impact any of us could make in this world.

Sometimes I think it’s a shame we’re not away at school in the summer and home during the gloomy months of winter. For the majority of the school year, the residential areas on campus are reminiscent of an old-fashioned ghost town. While the temperatures hover in the teens and snowfall frequents the forecast, students stay huddled within the warmth of their rooms or apartments, only venturing outside when they have to attend class or their hunger simply becomes unbearable. In recent weeks, there have been a few spring-like days that have brought life to campus again. When the thermometer reached over 80 degrees, students lay sprawled out on the quad soaking up the rays while volleyballs and Frisbees flew overhead.

Some of my favorite aspects of Stockton in the springtime are the various barbecues hosted for the students by different organizations. Not only is this a huge relief for those who are running out of meal swipes at this point in the semester, but these gatherings offer students a chance to socialize with neighbors they never even knew they had, and enjoy the natural beauty of our campus at the same time. Neighborhood Watch hosted a barbecue in the freshman quad on one of the warm-weather days and received an overwhelming response from the student body. My friends and I had such a pleasant experience, we decided to attend the SET barbecue at Oasis the following week!

Though the weather wasn’t quite as enjoyable, SET put on a great event including food, live music, a surfboard simulator and a tie-dye tee shirt station! As a freshman, I found these events to be a great way to experience other members of the Stockton community and come together to socialize in a pleasant atmosphere- and the free food was definitely a key factor! I have my fingers crossed the weather decides to cooperate again before the end of the semester so that we might be able to get out and enjoy each other’s company once again.  When the weather is nice, Stockton in the springtime is a wonderful place to be.

Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the New Jersey coastline, destroying countless homes and leaving millions without power for days on end. Monmouth County, where I live, was hit particularly hard by the storm. The boardwalk that I stood on exactly one week earlier no longer existed, and the beach towns I frequented were in shambles. I returned to school after days of sitting in the dark with my family, feeling guilty that I could enjoy electricity while they were still without power. It was that very night that I came up with the idea to design a tee shirt that could be sold to benefit the recovery effort.

I wanted to get started as quickly as possible, so in a matter of a few hours, I came up with a design reading “Revive, Rebuild, Recover” and threw together a Facebook page to determine if people would actually be interested in purchasing the shirts. Overnight, my Facebook page received over two hundred “likes”, and countless supporters expressed interest in my idea. The following morning, I contacted a local printer in Mays Landing, who offered to print the shirts for simply the cost of materials. We decided to sell the shirts for fifteen dollars each, and donate all of the proceeds to the Red Cross’s disaster recovery effort.

            I enlisted the help of my roommate in order to accomplish this project, who eagerly took on the role of secretary, creating spreadsheets and charts to keep track of our finances. Within one week, we had sold 46 tee shirts. After placing and delivering our first order, we figured we had reached the end of our fundraiser. We had successfully raised five hundred dollars for the Red Cross, and we were extremely satisfied with our efforts. We didn’t realize just how wrong we were. In the following week, our sales doubled, as we sold almost a hundred more shirts and raised another thousand dollars. As it turns out, our first week was only the beginning of even greater things to come.

            To date, our shirt sale has brought in well over $2,000. I am truly shocked at how an idea that I came up with on a whim has grown into a truly successful fundraiser for those who could really use a helping hand. While sales have finally died down, our efforts have not gone unnoticed. We have received much praise and encouragement from the Office of Service Learning, who even suggested we form a club to continue selling shirts and generating new ways of aiding the disaster recovery effort! Even though it has been months since the hurricane, there is still a lot of work to be done and many people who can use our assistance. We aren’t sure what the future has in store for our fundraising efforts, but we won’t give up until our boardwalks are back, business is booming, and everyone can return to their homes along the shore.

            In high school, one of my proudest accomplishments came from being a member of the Relay for Life committee, which consumed a great amount of my time actively planning and executing one of the most successful charity events in the country. Relay for Life is an overnight walk and community event that celebrates the lives of those who have survived cancer, remembers those who lost their battle, and pledges to fight back against this terrible disease. I joined the committee in my high school four years ago for Howell’s first-ever relay, and was overwhelmed with pride when I realized how much the event grew over the four years that I helped run the event. During my senior year, we put on our most successful Relay to date and raised over $60,000 for the American Cancer Society.

            When I found out the American Cancer Society was now bringing Relay for Life to the Stockton community, I knew I wanted to be involved. I organized a team with the newly formed Health Science Club, and we attended the event unsure of what to expect. Typically, Relay for Life events take place outdoors on a track, where participants walk laps throughout the night to signify that cancer never sleeps. Our Relay took place inside of Big Blue gym due to inclement weather, but the event was successful despite the location change. The event raised over $20,000 for cancer research and ACS patient and family services- not bad for our first year!

            Next year, I would really like to join the planning committee here at Stockton so that I can contribute to the growth of our event in the same way that I was able to in high school. I know that Stockton is capable of expanding our participation in the event, and I have made it my personal goal for our school to raise $60,000 by the time I graduate as well. If a group of high school students can do it, Stockton certainly can as well! In the upcoming years, it would be wonderful to see every club and Greek organization participating in Relay for Life.

            Cancer knows no bounds. Everyone has either been touched by the horrible disease in their own personal lives, or knows someone else who has had to deal with the struggle associated with cancer. I lost my grandfather to cancer, and one of my friends from home is currently fighting for his life as well. I want to know that I am doing everything possible to rid the world of this awful disease, and work towards creating a world with more birthdays.

            For as long as I can remember, my house has always been full of music. My dad has been in various bands throughout the years and the radio is always blasting classics while he works on one of his many home improvement projects. My little sister plays six instruments, and I have sung as a member of my church choir since I was twelve. Though I am not involved with any of musical organizations while at school, I jumped at the opportunity to see the Stockapella concert on campus last week with my roommate.

            The show featured Stockton’s three different a Cappella groups: Stockata, The Stocktones, and Stockapella- each with it’s own unique style and sound. The curtain rose to all three groups on stage together singing a chilling rendition of Fun’s Some Nights that truly started the show off on a high note. Following the opening performance, each of the three groups sang a selection of songs showcasing their own unique sound. First up was Stockata, our newest all-female vocal group. One of my favorite performances of the show was their rendition of Madonna’s Like A Prayer, led by soloist Gabby Marrone. Stockata was followed by the Stocktones, a co-ed vocal group that sang several more alternative song choices, but finished their set with an upbeat rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s Hero featuring soloist Sarah Baginsky.

While all three groups are composed of truly talented singers, it was evident the best was saved for last. The final set of the evening was performed by Stockton’s award-winning competitive a Cappella group Stockapella. Stockapella has won several awards, including Best Choreography and Best Vocal Percussionist at the Quarter Finals this year. After witnessing their performance at the spring concert, it was evident why the group has been so successful. From chilling solo performances of Mumford and Son’s The Cave by Andrew Treuer and Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black by Chrisina Cibotti, to a tear-jerking rendition of Phill Collin’s You’ll Be In My Heart, Stockapella was truly in a league of its own.

            The show concluded with all three groups reconvening on stage for their traditional farewell version of Happy Ending by Mika, during which a Cappella alumni are invited back on stage to sing with current students. It’s evident the a Cappella program at Stockton is truly a family environment, and enjoying their performance on Monday night reminded me of my own musical family waiting for me at home.

So… Hello again! I have news! I did a SET cupcake war event and won 3^rd out of 8! When I went to the event room I didn’t think that I would be competing, I thought I’d just be watching and eating some free cupcakes, but I got a partner and we were assigned a table. The way the game works was that the first round you and your teammate grab one cupcake flavor and ice it with another flavor of icing then decorate the cupcake using the icing, sprinkles, and fondant that was provided. The catch here was that you had to decorate your cupcake to fit the theme. The first theme was animals and my partner and I gravitated toward an elephant. We put together the elephant ears and trunk out of blue fondant and then covered the rest of the icing with blue sugar. We were given ten minutes and when the time was up, we presented our work to the judges. The judges based their decisions of the winner of four categories: taste, creativity, theme, and how it overall looks. In the first round four out of the eight people were illuminated. My teammate and I got third and then came the second round. The second round’s theme was sports. My teammate got the idea of making a baseball diamond. I cut the cupcake to make it look more like a diamond and used the excess cupcake to make bases. We used chocolate icing and pound cake and we put green sugar on top of the icing to make it look more like grass. I had another idea at the last second to take some of the extra cupcake and place it on the back to look like a stadium where the people would sit. For a final touch I put a bat on one side of the cut cupcake and a baseball on the other. The funniest comment I received on this cupcake was “Oh the judges already ate it?” Anyway we won first place, probably just for creativity.  So we made it to the next round and the category was holidays. My teammate and I chose to do a Christmas present. We cut the cupcake into a square and I decided to cut a hole in the middle of the cupcake and put rainbow sprinkles to symbolize the gift that would have been inside the box. We chose red velvet cake so the judges would see both red and green. We decorated the plate with a festive Merry Christmas and hoped for the best. This was the best cupcake we had done together so far, but we lost by 2 points. It was a great time and I had a lot of fun and at the end of the night we got to eat the leftover cupcakes!!

Being that I have the amount of credits as a sophomore, I was qualified to apply for the Stockton Foundation Scholarship. This application required that you get two letters of recommendation, one of which had to be from someone a part of the Stockton faculty. You also had to attach a copy of your unofficial transcript and you had to write a 250 word statement about yourself.

That seemed easy enough for me, so I decided to give it a shot. I had no problem getting the letters and my transcript. But once I hit the 250 word statement, I got stuck. Have you ever tried to write about yourself in 250 words? Not only are you writing about yourself, you are trying to convince a panel of faculty members that you deserve whatever amount of compensation that they are willing to give to you to repay you for your hard efforts. You think to yourself, 250 words is easy to write. I can do this. Until you sit down with your computer in your lap, and you realize that you have way more than 250 words about yourself that you would like to tell this panel. This was definitely a struggle for me, considering if I listed the amount of things I’m involved in or have been involved in, I would use up the 250 in an instant. I needed to figure out how to weigh what was important and was worth elaborating on briefly. I needed to try and figure out how to get into these people’s head, to try and figure out what they would consider worthy of receiving this scholarship.

I did my absolute best with the 250 word statement and I think that it summed up who I am and what I stand for very well. I have yet to hear back from the panel of reviewers but I am keeping my fingers crossed!

The Honors scavenger hunt was the second big event for this semester in the honors program. First I arrived ready with a group to go off and find the things assigned to us. Unfortunately my group was too big and so I opted to join a new group. This new group turned out to be a blast to work with! We first ran around the campus center searching for Argo stands, the offices, and then it was off to the main campus building. We had to get creative when it came to the schools. We had to find all of the schools on campus so instead of running through the main campus building going up and down the stairs, I decided to go out to the flags and take a picture of each flag with the school’s name on it. One adventure we had while running around was trying to go out to the entrances and take pictures with the signs. We hopped in the car, sped away and pulled over as close to the sign as we could get. We bolted out of the car ran over to the sign took the picture and ran back into the car. It was like we were robbers afraid of getting caught by the police running for the get-away car. We drove all around campus searching for everything from a police officer to the laundry rooms, to the plum and the rose (which I still cannot find). We only had an hour to try and get as many things pictured as we could and to get back to Dunkin Donuts so they could tally the scores. When we finally made it back the scores were tallied and we ended up in third place. We still got a nice candy prize while first place got a giftcard to the bookstore. Although we did not win, it was a lot of fun to go running around campus trying to get points. Hey, at least I got my exercise for the day! I hope that next year we can do this event again (and I think we will since I am the co-director of events).

This past week I participated in Building Battles. It was so much fun to go through with the people in my building and participate in the games. I however, got to see some of the background preparation for Building Battles considering that I am in RHA. During the preparation for the event we unfortunately had to reschedule twice. The original date was set for the fall so the freshman could get out and meet the other residents of their buildings. Unfortunately, this year the date had to be changed because the effects of Hurricane Sandy so the date was rescheduled for the spring so it would be warmer. Then again we had weather problems when it snowed the day before and the ground was too wet to put the inflatables on, so the date was finally changed to the last preceptor day. This finally worked out. The day began at 10 am with set up. We unloaded multitudes of bandanas, burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, chips, drinks, and then helped set up the games. First the inflatables came with attendants, were rolled out, and blown up. We had ordered an inflatable jousting ring and an obstacle course. After we set out the areas for the other games, we got to “test out” the inflatables which was so much fun and then the day began. It began when building “A” dressed all in red came down from their rooms and began to stretch. Pretty soon people started coming out and the games began. Each building had a specific station to go to so they could battle it out in a game. My station was called Butterfingers and 12345. Butterfingers is a relay race game where one person goes and grabs an item then runs back and gives it to their partner. Their partner then goes and picks up a second item. Eventually one person would end up carrying everything from a hula hoop to a pillow to an orange. This was such a fun game to play with the teams and anytime I was not running the game, I was participating with my building. The other games we played were musical pie in the face, pie eating, egg toss, flag tag, Stockton trivia, and volleyball. The day lasted from 12-4 and in the end my building won! It was such a fun day and it was a great way to meet and connect with the other people living in your building.