Just as students are beginning to feel a little homesick, Stockton’s family weekend comes! Not only does this four-day event take care of homesickness; it provides endless activities for students to reunite with their families in the most enjoyable way possible.

“Stocktonopoly” begins the Thursday night before homecoming weekend by showing “Monsters University” in the campus center, just in case any young children and their parents decide to visit a little early. Then, a parade goes through the campus, allowing the various clubs here at Stockton to recruit more members and impress the judges. Then, a bonfire and the S.E.T. comedy show end the night with lots of fun and laughs. To start the next day, parents were welcome to enjoy a brunch with their Stockton student.

The fun goes on from here. With a carnival taking place in the parking lot of “Big Blue,” the commotion increases as the day goes on. A twisting ladder game, trampoline, and blow-up obstacle course are sure to take up the day in the sun. Students find that after being active for so long, the water balloons cool things off a little, and then it’s time for some basketball and getting to know different clubs at Stockton. For my family, the blow-up games and obstacle courses were a perfect fit for five cousins under the age of ten. After we squeezed a total of fifteen people into the dorm room to see the pictures on the wall, my cousins couldn’t wait to see what the carnival was all about! This provided a way to reunite with them in a unique way.

Finally the Osprey Ball comes, where students hang out and dance the night away with friends. Homecoming weekend concludes with an Alumni Walk and baseball games on Sunday, which prove to be a perfect way to close a hectic weekend. All in all, Stocktonopoly definitely succeeded in providing fun activities for students and their families to enjoy together.

Recently I auditioned for Walter Wyke’s play, The Profession, directed by Dan Cerullo. Going on my first audition here at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey was something that got my adrenaline pumping. Performing is my true passion and finding an outlet for it here on campus was of paramount importance to me. The show’s cast called for three actors total, with one female lead. Talk about intimidating. I had never auditioned for something so exclusive. In reality, I just wanted to get my name out there and associated with the theater program. I wasn’t expecting to receive a part, but I wanted to dip my toes in the water of college theater.

I auditioned with a dry reading of a monologue that Dan, the director, had provided me. Having never seen the monologue before I was very nervous, but I connected to it and felt as though I could really portray the character well. It was an exhilarating feeling to deliver the monologue in the Experimental Theater for two reasons. The first was that I had never had an opportunity to perform in black box before. The second was because I was making the director and stage manager laugh. Nothing is more encouraging to an actor than an engaged audience that responds to his/her humor.

It was so rewarding when my name was on the callback list. My first college audition yielded my first college callback! I had never thought that my audition would do anything more than connect me with more students involved in theater. Having a callback was an extremely heartening experience. In the end, although I was not cast in the show, I had accomplished two items on my college bucket list: (1) audition for a show and (2) get a callback. I hadn’t expecting to achieve either of these things in my first semester, let alone in the same day!

Having had such a great experience with my audition, I could not wait to see the show go up and support the cast. I signed up to usher for the Saturday night performance, excited to get to help out with the show in some small way. The show itself was unlike anything I had ever had the opportunity to work with before. The Profession is an absurdist piece, which means that just when the audience is grasping the plot of the play, something crazy happens that challenges everything that they believe and forces them to question what it all really means. In the same way that a dystopia novel causes the reader to question how the commentary applies to his/her every day life, absurdist pieces of theater provoke the same types of questions. The genre was something I had never experienced before but I have always loved dystopia novels; I was so excited for the show to begin.

The show followed the character Eugene, portrayed by my friend Jeremy Rotolo, who was learning the trade of The Profession along with another student Rosetta, played by Taylor Cawley. Both characters were being taught the profession by an ominous looking teacher, Schaefer played by Ryan Gorman, who appeared to tower over his students. The content covered in their course seemed extreme to Eugene and he often objected to the lessons, questioning their necessity and by extension his purpose. Throughout the show, Eugene’s questions reflected the questions of the audience. As the drama escalated to a climactic point, the questions that bounced around in my head were abundant. I left the theater with more questions than answers as there wasn’t a real resolution. At first, I wasn’t satisfied; the show was lacking a conventional dénouement. Upon reflection I realized that having so many questions in the end was what made The Profession a success. Good theater is theater that leaves makes the audience think, and almost a week later I am still thinking about The Profession.

I have plenty of things to worry about as an incoming freshman. “Where are all of my classes?” “What is my chemistry professor talking about?” and personally, “Why do I keep locking myself out of my dorm?!” These questions aside, we are all thinking about one main worry: “Will I be able to make friends?” Unlike the previous three questions, this one has a simple answer: S.O.A.R! Being able to “soar” like an osprey before starting the semester is a great way to become comfortable with new peers before setting foot on campus as an official Stockton student.

S.O.A.R (Stockton Outdoor Adventure Retreat) is a three-day camping trip intended to bring students together through activities such as high elements, “Big Black Pony,” and our favorites, the mind-twisters. S.O.A.R. includes eight tribes in total: green, navy, sky, red, pink, orange, yellow, and purple. After coming up with their individual chants, the tribes then split up for scheduled activities. For instance, the low elements activity was made up of various challenges, such as walking across a log to get in birthday order, without falling off. Another activity, the high elements, included more fear-inducing tasks, such as rock climbing and the tight rope. Between making up skits, meeting the T.A.L.O.N.S, and playing blind dodge ball, all tribes can agree that SOAR has proven to be one of the most effective activities at Stockton. Coming back from the trip, we were able to easily transition to our new lives here at Stockton, excited for the next step.

One more intention of this trip is to open minds; since we are all new to this setting and to each other, this is the perfect opportunity to become acquainted through new activities. Along with an open mind comes a well-rounded college experience. In other words, the skills learned in S.O.A.R. will be applied to a countless number of experiences, from learning names as freshmen to finding career interviews as seniors. Meeting people outside the classroom also proves to be influential due to the fact that each person is interested in different activities, whether it be athletic, academic, or just for fun. Each student has a way to get to know the various clubs Stockton has to offer by communicating interests.

Upon returning to Stockton at the conclusion of the trip, there is already a sense of unity. This unity will provide students with long-lasting friendships, in addition to new experiences. Communicating interests to different people, therefore, is another way in which S.O.A.R. makes the college experience at Stockton even more influential than it already is.

This week I attended my weekly Circle K meeting. Circle K is a student organization on campus that is service oriented. The meetings are every Wednesday in room L112. Meetings always start off the same way: our President, Lauren, rings the traditional Kiwanis International, our parent organization, bell to get the meeting started. From there, it is business as usual. We go over the many event we have coming up during the rest of October such the Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk and our club project that is our Adopt-A-Road program on Tilton Road where we have to clean up that road every so often. Then we talked about the several social events we will be hosting soon like a movie night for the club on Friday, and the New Jersey District Club Rally at Drew University on Sunday.

After handling the business of upcoming club and district events, we talked about our weekly service projects. On Mondays club members can go to a program called Campus Kitchen at Atlantic City High School and help serve meals to people in need. On Tuesdays, there’s Project Linus in which students help make teddy bears, blankets and pillow cases that get donated to several different hospitals. Wednesdays is on-campus service that has a new service project every week, and Thursday is Salvation Army where we go to the local Salvation Army and help the kids there with their homework and alsoon Thursday and Tuesday we go to Sunrise which is an assisted living facility and we go and play games and interact with the residents. Finally, on Friday club members can go to the Atlantic City Rescue Mission and help serve dinner to the homeless.

Finally, after all of this, comes the end of the meeting. At the end of every meeting we have a tradition of introducing ourselves, saying what we are happy for that week and putting some change in a plastic piggy bank named ‘Porkahontas’. This is also usually the longest part of the meeting. At the end of the year, all of the money that was collected in Porkahontas will be donated to several charities.

Overall, I really enjoy going to the Circle K meetings. It gives me a break from the rest of college life and everyone there is very nice so I always leave having had a great time. Although some of it is just repeating the same things we hear every week it doesn’t really get old as some would imagine. I also like the idea behind Porkahontas. It really makes you think of all the positive things going on in your life. Even if people in the club are having a rough week they can always find one thing to talk about to be their happy thought for the week. Circle K is definitely a great club to be in and I am so happy I decided to join.

On October 5, the Stockton College hosted their 18^th annual Osprey Ball in the Campus Center Event Room.  Tickets were sold in advance for five dollars and for ten dollars at the door, a relatively low price for four hours of dancing, food, and friendship.

A photo booth was positioned outside of the event room complete with hilarious accessories so friends could pose together and just have a great time.  A photographer milled about the event, taking pictures of various individuals, couples, and groups of friends.  Once inside the room, dancers were greeted with a blast of music and a foggy dance floor lit up by lasers.

The Campus Center was redesigned to look like a Monopoly board come to life.  Giant cardboard cutouts of spaces from the board as well as large dice were scattered around the room.  (One die even made it into the air part way into the ball as dancers tossed it around the dance floor as though it were a volleyball.)  There was also an arch against one wall that depicted all of the streets a person could buy on the Monopoly board where people could take pictures either by themselves or with friends.

The music stayed within the pop genre, ranging from Miley Cyrus’s “We Can’t Stop” to Ylvis’s “What Does the Fox Say?”.  The dance floor was jammed packed with dancers and friends hanging out and just having fun.  It was rather noteworthy that when a line dancing song came on, the hodgepodge of people managed to quickly move into a grid-like formation to move along as one and do dances like “The Wobble” and “Cha cha Slide.”

All in all, it was an exciting and enjoyable evening that, despite not always given the highest regards by students, was worth the money to just have some good, clean fun.

The end is near for the students at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.  A zombie apocalypse has infected the campus, leaving students to fend for themselves. However, this apocalypse is not real and just for fun. This week-long simulation of a zombie apocalypse has students equipped with Nerf guns and sock-grenades to fend off the zombie hordes. All participants must wear a green band around their arm indicating they are not infected. If they are infected they must wear a green band around their head. There are over 150 students participating in this event which makes the battle between the living and the living dead that more intense.

Students had to register online to participate in this event. However, there are some rogue participants joining in the fun. Also with this event, students who are labeled as “humans” must partake in nightly missions to ensure their survival. Some of these missions include scavenging for food and other supplies. The missions run pretty late from 8 pm to possibly 12 am. The zombie craze is spreading rather rapidly from all of the recent movies and television shows. If one has been “infected” by this craze, this Stockton event is the anecdote.  So grab your friends, your family, some Nerf bullets and socks, and prepare yourself for the Stockton zombie apocalypse.

Thursday, September 19^th,  was the opening day of one of Stockton’s most prestigious intermural sports, flag football. This intense version of football is a fast-paced sport with great competition and even greater intensity. Countless teams formed rather quickly and went to the required meetings for the club. Some specific teams to look out for on the field include the Gotham Rogues, the “?” team, Grandma’s boys, the Good Team, and Team ‘Merica. Relationships among fellow teammates are beginning to form, and the hunger for victory is overtaking every team in the league.

This version of football is played on a smaller field with differing rules from that of regular football. The game is fast-paced and extremely entertaining to play and watch. Thursday, September 19, was the first preseason day for many of the teams in the league. This gave some of the newer teams the time to understand the game and adapt to it to the best of their abilities. This intermural sport is a great way for new friendships to be formed, great for students to experience something different the college has to offer, and most importantly it is great for forming long-lasting memories for the future. College is the time to live life independently, to earn a quality education, and to make new friendships and memories. Flag football is a great way to take complete advantage of what Stockton College has to offer, which was demonstrated clearly during the opening preseason day on Thursday, September 19^th.

When I arrived to the event room for the Day of Service I was extremely nervous with many questions. Would I be with my friends? Would I be outside in the heat all day? I eventually got a club to work with, Circle K with my best friend and I was excited because that was the club we picked a few days prior. Circle K is a volunteer-centered club and for the Day of Service we had the option of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the homeless, making dog toys for dogs in shelters, sewing blankets and making teddy bears for less fortunate children, or making cards for terminally ill children in hospitals. I wanted to do the cards because I enjoy drawling and I thought who does not like being written to? When we sat down, one of the club members gave out sheets of paper with pictures of the children on them with their age and hobbies. Also we had a few guidelines for the cards: make it simple and fun, and do not direct anything to the future, because we cannot tell a terminally ill child to have a nice Halloween, because they might not make it that long. It was initially difficult to decide what to write, what do you say to someone that is seven or even seventeen and dying? Eventually it became simpler. When we started doing the cards I did not think that they would have much of an impact at all but then I reconsidered, if this little girl is sitting in a hospital bed all day, a card addressed to her in her favorite color, with her favorite princess on the front might just make her day more bearable. We had the information of the ill children’s siblings also. I did not contemplate that the siblings are also suffering; they are afraid they will lose their brother or sister and they are probably getting less attention at home because the parents are probably focusing more so on their sick child. I am really glad I had the service project that I did because it made me very grateful for not only my own health but the health of those around me.

On October 22nd, 2013 there will be an event called “Send Silence Sailing”. This event is hosted by the Active Minds Club, which I am the treasurer of. The Active Minds Club’s goal is to change perspectives on stigmas about depression, anxiety, and other temporary mental illnesses. We have events to help student cope with anxiety, depression, and stress. Our “Send Silence Sailing Event” is to raise awareness about suicide among college students. Around one thousand one hundred college students commit suicide every year. To show the effect of how much that is, we are making one thousand one hundred origami sailboats (hence the name “Send Silence Sailing”) and they will be hung in trees and around the library. We will also be having stress-releasing games and a screening test and those that feel they are suffering from depression, anxiety or other minor mental illnesses will have the opportunity to speak to on location therapists, who can give them guidance. In addition, there will be music and snacks so the event should be enjoyable for all involved whether they are seeking help or not. Although the event has not happened yet, I know it will turn out well and hopefully we will be able to help students and give them an opportunity to talk to a professional if they feel necessary without the pressure of going to a doctor’s office. In previous years, the club has done similar events such as “Send Silence Packing” featuring a thousand book bags around campus and “Send Silence Walking” with a thousand or so pairs of shoes around the school, raising suicide awareness. These events by the Active Minds club are important because they diminish stigmas and help students cope with stressors included in the college experience.