On Wednesday, October 9^th, the Stockton Entertainment Team held a Multicultural Music Festival in the Campus Center Coffee House. The festival included musical acts by several clubs and organizations as well as a buffet of foods from various countries such as pierogies, lo mein, and even popsicles.

Over the course of the event’s two hour run, many groups participated, and the tables were filled with interested students, showing their support for a more accepting and well-informed society. Some of the highlights of the evening include a step team routine, a hip hop quiz, a signed song, and an acapella performance. The step routine, presented by the Caribbean Student Association, was a rhythmic and entertaining display by three talented students who were met by loud applause at the end. After this routine, the United Black Student Society came up on stage to test the viewers’ knowledge of the hip hop genre. The UBSS representatives read lyrics to various songs, then gave a list of possible artists, asking the audience to guess which of the artists were responsible for the lyrics. Participants from the audience seemed excited as they successfully guessed each answer and were rewarded with bracelets. Next, the American Sign Language Club gave a performance to the song “Roar” by Katy Perry. As the music played in the background, eight of the club’s members stood on stage, signing the words to the song in a mesmerizing display of hands in motion. When the acapella group came on stage, everyone, even people from the Gaming Club meeting upstairs, gathered around to listen to their two songs.

All in all, the Multicultural Music Festival was a successful event, spreading awareness of other cultures and traditions through fun music and delicious food. I would definitely recommend watching (or even participating in) this festival if it is held again next year.

On September 26, the freshman of Stockton piled into the Performing Arts Center to hear Mary Roach speak about the freshman common reading, Spook.  Some students came because their seminar required it, others wanted the ULTRA credit, and still others just wanted to be at the event.  Nearly every seat both in the auditorium and orchestra pit were filled with students waiting for the event to begin.

The event started a little after 4:30 with opening remarks from President Herman Saatkamp, Professor G.T. Lenard, and Student Senate President Maribeth Capelli.  Then, it was time for Mary Roach herself to take the stage.

Mary Roach spoke much in the same way that she wrote.  She always had one idea in mind, but she always went off on tangents that in some way related to the main topic she was speaking about.  She spoke mainly about the importance of being curious.  Aside from Spook, she mentioned her books Stiff and Bonk.  At times, she even got a roar of laughter from the audience.

During the question and answer session, Mary Roach kept the ball rolling with quick answers and jests at the audience.  No question was too bizarre for her to answer.  She spoke of everything from her strangest instance with sexual research to her own experience with ghosts.  Her ghost story was a bit of a let down to the audience.  People were expecting a bit more of a gripping story instead of hearing about finding a candy heart on the table, but not everyone can have a gripping ghost story.  Everyone has their own personal experience, exciting or not.

Some people had to leave early due to conflicts in their schedule, but others were able to stay the entire time.  All in all, it was an enjoyable event.

               On September 26^th, Stockton hosted a golf outing at the Seaview Golf Resort. As part of the softball team, I was asked to volunteer for the day. This involved selling raffle tickets, helping golfers on the holes, and being advocates for the college to persuade the attendees into spending more money that will eventually fund various scholarships offered by the school. As a recipient of a Stockton scholarship, I was happy to volunteer and offer my time to such a great cause.

               My day started off eating lunch and selling raffle tickets and other tickets for a Chinese auction. The main purchasers of our tickets were golfers who would later play on one of Seaview’s two top of the line golf courses. After we sold tickets, we were assigned in partners a hole to sit at and assist the golfers with anything they might have needed help with. For my specific hole, the goal was to get the ball as close to the hole as possible on the first stroke. Once the golfer hit his or her ball, we would go out with a tape measure and measure out the distance. When this was determined, we wrote their name on a board for their specific gender. The golfer with the closest stroke of the day would win a prize at the end of the tournament. On one of the courses, golfers had the chance to play against a professional golfer and try to shoot closer to the hole than the pro. It was similar to the rest of the holes but with the added pressure of shooting with a professional.

               Overall, it was a rather successful day for the school. Although I am not sure how much money was raised, I do know that each golfer paid a significant amount of money to play and hundreds of golfers came out. In addition to the entrance fee, each golfer also spent money on various raffle tickets and other fundraisers. It was good for me to see where the money that funds my education comes from. I never really thought about where the money comes from for schools’ scholarships but thanks to the generous people at Seaview that day, thousands of Stockton students, including myself, can afford to go school.

On Thursday September 12, 2013, the Stockton Office of Student Development sponsored its annual event called “Meet the Greeks.” Upon arrival, I waited in a long line that curved out of the doors of Big Blue. The door attendant who swiped my card was excited about how big the turn out was. When I first walked in I was greeted by three rows of decorated tables, each representing one of the Greek organizations. Before attending the event I already had a couple of sororities in mind, so this set-up made it easy to locate each. The representatives for each of the three sororities I visited were extremely friendly and informative. Although I am a freshman and cannot rush until next semester, the representatives handed me flyers and suggested I attend their information sessions to get a head start.

After visiting my interested tables, I took a seat with a couple of my friends to enjoy the Greek introductions. This part of the event was very lively and upbeat. I found myself, amongst others, laughing and smiling throughout the majority of the performances. Many of the Greeks showed videos to give the audience a taste of what their organizations are all about. Most of the sororities performed their chants while most of the fraternities performed dances. It was very enjoyable to see how much fun each group was having; everyone got along so well.

I found attending this event was very helpful. At first I wondered whether Greek life was for me, but now I am excited to join a sorority next semester. This event also helped me narrow down my interests and focus on one sorority I feel is right for me. I learned that Greek life is a great opportunity to meet new friends that will last a lifetime. I highly recommend attending this event for anyone interested in Greek life here on Stockton campus.

When Hurricane Sandy hit about this time last year, nearly everyone in New Jersey was effected in one way or another. I remember it was just around the time of the USSBA marching band state championships. Many schools dropped out that competition because their schools and the students attending the schools suffered greatly from the storm. The damage covered South to North Jersey. But, the coastal areas suffered the most. I realized the extent of coastal damage when I went to visit Ortley Beach near Toms River in April of this year. More than six months later, the town was still torn to shreds. Houses were collapsed in on each other and debris still littered the streets. Now, almost a year later in Atlantic City, I got to see more damage first hand with the Stockton Day of Service. Our mission in this year’s day of service was to rebuild the dunes along Maine Street in Atlantic City. And, the damage was not pretty. There were empty lots surrounding the washed away dunes where high end houses were previously standing. Where the houses were still standing, the garage doors were covered over with plywood. Townhouses right on the water’s edge were brick shells, and many other bricks littered the sand around them. But what really struck me was the concrete skeleton of the collapsed and missing boardwalk. This area was hit hard.

During the course of our day, forty-some students and I planted 2,000 dune grass plants, cleared the sand of big chunks of debris, and removed sand from the street. This would hopefully rebuild the sand dune ecosystem in that area and help keep sand in place next to the bulkhead lining the shore. This was the first small step to reviving that area. But, the impact was immediate. We were greeted by the security officers working in the resort next to where we were working. They thanked us profusely and said that what we were doing meant so much to them. Hearing those words made everyone appreciate what we were doing so much more. Later in the day, I had the privilege of talking to an AC municipal worker who was assigned to supervise us. He had grown up in Atlantic City and seen it go through many storms. Hurricane Sandy seemed to effect him the most. He told that when the storm hit, the street we were on was flooded six feet high with mattresses and wood floating by. Houses were completely washed out. He said he saw the boardwalk floating by. This man had to watch his home be torn apart. And, here we are nearly a year later trying to sort through the mess. Things like these do not go away overnight, though they may fade from our thoughts when we are not presented with the problem everyday. Doing a small thing like rebuilding a dune really opened my eyes to see the bigger problem, but it also showed me that that small thing can make a big difference to someone living with this problem everyday.

The Stockton 10^th annual Day of Service certainly was an interesting experience for me.  I was a member of the voting registration team; our job was to get people to fill out forms so they could have the right to vote.  We also had the job of getting people in the know about an upcoming election for the New Jersey state Senator.  When our initial location had too few people, we moved to the Atlantic City boardwalk.  I had the job of both monitoring the table we set up, and walking along the boardwalk to ask passers to register.

There were plenty of good things that came out of the experience.  Getting to see Atlantic City for the first time in my life was exiting, and the weather was bearable for the most part.  The best part of the whole trip was the positive responses from some people.  Many people stated that they were already registered, and I knew that they were telling the truth.  Several people stopped to complement our college for what it was doing.  Some people even got into lengthy conversations about different subject matters.  (I, sadly, was not one of these people.)  We also did get several people to register on the spot, and handed out a good couple of forms.  But with the good must also come the bad.

There were plenty people who were downright rude.  These people either brushed us off like we were nothing, said they were already registered but were clearly lying, and even straight up ignored us.  These responses were kind of painful.  I was putting effort into this project and they couldn’t care less!  Even worse than the people who ignored us were the people who gave us looks of anger or disgust as we asked them or as they passed by.  They looked utterly disgusted at what we were doing, it was pretty uncomfortable.   The other major problem with our day was in organization; or lack thereof.   The voter registration group not only had to relocate, but it took us at least half an hour before we finally got a table, and we never got any chairs.  These problems made looking serious quite difficult.

The main thing I take away from the day of service is a lesson in tolerance.  I now know not to be rude or brash to people who are trying to advertise or sell stuff from stands like the one we were in.  People honestly put effort into these things, and I think it’s disrespectful to ignore them.  I think that the Day of Service could’ve gone better for my group, but I still view it as a success and a positive experience overall.

On Monday September 23, 2013 the Stockton Theatre Club hosted a free show based off of the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway?  This new adaptation of the popular TV show was amazing.  The show started off with a handful of the on-stage actors getting up and preforming a pantomime slideshow for an imaginary trip to the Niagara Falls. Two other actors narrated what was happening in the scene.  One actress named Kate was described as the one who goes over the falls and dies. She remained in the show, but the “death” stuck around as a running joke throughout the show.  This was followed by a game called The Alphabet Game.  In this game, two actors, Dan and Kate, are given a scenario of how the first time they meet. The scenario they were given involved them getting lost in a corn maze.  Alternating lines, Dan and Kate had a conversation. However, the catch was that each line had to start with the letters of the alphabet in order.  Once the dialogue got to the letter “Z” the game was over and the team moved on to Space Jump.  In Space Jump, two actors start on stage. New actors enter and the scene changes until every actor who is participating is on stage. Then they begin leaving making the actors go backwards through scenes until the original two actors remain on stage.  This game had the actors start out wrestling an alligator, to celebrating Thanksgiving, to talking again about poor Kate’s death at Niagara Falls.  Then the party began!  Seriously, the next game was called Party Quirks. There was a host for an imaginary party and three guests.  These guests were given quirks that the host did not know.  Once the party began the guests were not permitted to leave until the host discovered their quirks.  One girl had to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” while another danced to “Oppa Gangnam Style” whenever the host looked at her, and the final guest had to pretend he was turning into a werewolf.  This game is always a hilarious one to watch.  Party Quirks was followed by the Rhyming Game.  In this game, three audience members are selected and set in a line of the actors.  Two at a time, those on center stage have a conversation where the lines must rhyme. If the lines didn’t rhyme, the person who failed to rhyme went to the back of the line.  Next were monologues, in this game a panel of actors are on the stage and an event is selected.  The selected event was Black Friday at Walmart.  Then with this information each actor picks a character and scenario they will monologue about.  In this scenario a poor little girl was trampled while looking at a 12-inch TV she longed to buy while a hobo took the TV.  The Dating Game was the next endeavor for the actors to experience.  One man, Josh leaves the room while three girls are the potential dates for him, but they are given famous personas.  One girl was Fat Amy, one was Luke Skywalker, and the third was the Tooth Fairy. Josh had to ask a few questions in the dating game until he could guess whom the three contestants were.  The final game was Survivor.  This game holds true to the game of survivor. A scenario is set, like this one where the actors were stranded on a desert island.  After the scene was enacted, the weakest actor was voted off and the whole scene was repeated with that actor now missing.  This continued until only one actor remained. Taylor was left alone to act the part that seven other actors had not been able to do.  She yelled at herself and fought with herself.  At one point she even became some sort of animal and chased herself.  This show was very entertaining and full of laughs.  The humor throughout the show was consistent.  I cannot wait for the next Whose Line put on by the Stockton Theatre Club!

On September 7th, 2013, I participated in the 10th Annual Day of Service. This day is focused on volunteer community service in some area of New Jersey. This year was located in Atlantic City with over 20 organizations involved in helping this wonderful city. I was extremely excited to participate in this event because community service has always been a favorite thing of mine.
When I arrived at the Campus Center that morning I was given a T-shirt, unfortunately an XL because all the smalls were taken, and I was given breakfast. When breakfast was done, we were shown into the Event Room where there were signs with different community service projects I could choose from. My friends and I had no idea what group we wanted to join, so we asked around to see what all the organizations were about. We had gone to the Peace Keepers group but they were all full, but then we found the Stanley Holmes organization. Stanley Holmes is a community center for a neighborhood in Atlantic City. The directors for Stanley Holmes wanted to use the Day of Service to get the children of this neighborhood excited to go back to school. I was very happy to be a part of this organization because I love working with children and making them happy and pumped for their first days of school. And that is just what we did. The activities that we had at the community center were pizza, an ice cream sundae bar, face paint, and many many board games for the children to play with. I was working the pizza station with some of my friends, and it was such a great experience. All the kids who came to this event were so sweet and just had the biggest smiles on their faces. It really warmed my heart to see all these children of different ages coming together and enjoying a fun day and getting excited for school. My absolute favorite part of that day was creating a bond with some of the children. One girl named Maria really has a special place in my heart. She was just such a vibrant girl and could light up a room with her smile. Seeing her and the other kids enjoying their pizza and ice cream, getting their faces painted, and participating in vigorous games of Spongebob Operation really made me realize the importance of education and friendship.
I must say that the 10th Annual Day of Service changed my views of life and opened up a special place in my heart. I will most definitely be back next year for the 11th Annual Day of Service.

As a continuation of Stockton’s seven year tradition, Stockton had Mary Roach, the author of Spook : Science Tackles the Afterlife, come speak.  After thoroughly reading Spook, I was a little apprehensive to listen to the author speak; I wasn’t a fan or necessarily interested in hearing what she had to say.  Spook went very in depth to a level that forced the idea of a dry presentation into my head.  However, when Mary Roach walked out onto the stage and admitted that she had never spoken in a place with the conventional seating of the PAC, the idea that Roach might not be boring slowly started to creep into my head.

Roach isn’t a woman with wild hair and thick glass that make her seem as crazy as her book may portray her as.  The light-hearted author was very down to earth, snarky, and not cocky about her fame.  After seeing authors speak, I figured that Roach would follow the same pattern, but I was wrong.  As a scientific author, she blatantly admitted “I don’t like science, I find it boring.”  Even though I like science, admitting something like that as a science writer made me really like Mary Roach.  Roach wanted things to be interesting in her book, and she seemed to push finding things interesting.

After the typical speech that college students get (to explore and discover), Roach explained that the only way her books got written were by her state of mind.  Mary Roach explained that, “I ask whatever questions come to mind.”  Roach followed up with an explanation of her investigation on what happens to oysters after people ate them, and explained, “Curiosity opens doors.”  When I heard this, I realized that even though Stockton has a lot to offer, there might be more hidden things around here that I have to find on my own.  My own curiosity is the only thing I have that will push me to be as successful as I hope here.

After Mrs. Roach gave her small speech, she opened up a question and answer session where she literally answered any question that a student would pose.  Listening to her talk completely changed my perspective on her.  She willingly acknowledged that the ending of the book wasn’t the best way to end it.  She had tried “to make a point about knowing and believing.”  Instead of a definite ending, Roach wanted the readers to be able to think about what really happens; she didn’t take the information and form an opinion for the reader.  I plan on reading her other books in the future because I think that I have a better understanding of her writing after hearing her speak.

If Stockton has more authors like Mary Roach come to speak, I’ll definitely frequent the events.  I think that sitting with almost the entire freshman class was a great way to help exchange some ideas about the book, and throw in some ideas from other freshman seminars.  After seeing this event, I’m really excited to start exploring RSC’s other events and can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester will hold.  Hopefully they’re as interesting as this one was!