As fall comes to an end the start of a new season emerges. No, I’m not talking about the upcoming holiday season, I’m talking about basketball season. On Saturday, November 15th at 7pm, our very own Stockton Ospreys mens basketball team took the court against Wilkes University Colonels in the annual Tip Off Classic to start their season.
As I entered Big Blue on Saturday night I wasn’t quite sure what to expect; I had heard that each game brings out a large crowd, but I wasn’t expecting filled bleachers. As the warm up began, Eminem’s popular song, “Till I Collapse” blared through the speakers. Fans could see the Ospreys internalizing the lyrics and getting pumped up for the game. As warm-up ended, the Ospreys ran over to coach Gerry Matthews, and although I could not hear what he was telling his players, judging by the looks on their faces they were inspired and determine to start the season with a win.
The Ospreys started the game on a high note winning the jump ball and built a 10 point lead! The team worked hard to maintain their lead, ending the first half 34-29, not a bad start. As both teams returned to the court to start off the second half it was clear the Colonels were not giving up so easy. With the Colonels so fired up to get ahead the Ospreys had a tough time keeping in the lead. Fouls were being called left and right. It was clear each team was willing to do what ever it takes to secure the win. With five minuets left on the clock Wilkes was now in the lead 72-65, Stockton needed to get their acts together. After a short time out the Osprey’s spirits seemed to have been rallied back. Stockton returned to the court scoring ten consecutive points, re-taking the lead. Wilkes tied the game by sinking a three pointer leaving the score 75-75 with twenty-six seconds on the clock. As the Ospreys took possession they were desperate to score. Player Josh Blamon drove quickly to the net determined to score, only to be stopped by an illegal block. The Ospreys now was two foul shots away from taking hime the win.
As the foul was awarded the fans filled the gym with cheers. This was it, within the next ten-seconds or so, the Ospreys would be starting their season with a win or battling it out in overtime. Blamon stepped up to the foul line and each teammate patted him on the back: they knew he could do this. The game was all up to him at this point, the ability to win resting on his fingertips. Near silence filled the gym, us fans were doing our part to assist in the focus, all hoping he had what it would take. As the ball left his hands it was headed right for the net only to be deflected by the rim of the hoop. The shot fell short. Still tied Blamon returned to the line, one last shot to score the game winning shot. This time it was dead silent in the packed gym, any one of us could have heard a pin drop. All eyes were on Blamon and his directly on the hoop, a confident smile spread across his face, he knew this shot would make it. As the ball left his fingers again and sailed towards the hoop smiles appeared on every ones faces, the shot was perfect. The ball dropped through the hoop catching all net and the gym was filled with the cheers of fans. As the Ospreys stormed the court, it was as if each and every one of us fans were right there with them. We were just as proud of Blamon as his own teammates.
In the last few moments of the game I believe the Stockton students all came together bonding over this experience. Every one of us wanted nothing more in that moment than for the boys to take the win they deserved. The Ospreys will have ten home games throughout the season, and I urge everyone to attend!

Whose Line is it Anyway?

By Lauren Roesch

            On October 29 2014, I went to Whose Line is it Anyway? with some of my friends.  The theater club puts on Whose Line multiple times a semester; this was the third or fourth show so far.  It is an improvisational comedy show where the actors make up everything on the spot with suggestions from the audience.  In front of the theatre, the actors put out a few buckets, one for each of the skits they do throughout the show.  Each bucket has directions or a label of the skit so patrons can write their suggestions or lines to use in the show.

This show started out even more interestingly than usual because there was a special guest in the audience.  My group of friends and I walked into the theatre and chose our seats, and as I was about to sit down, I noticed the special guest: a Taylor Swift cut-out sitting in the front row.  It was my Taylor Swift cut-out, that I had gotten from my work.  Apparently some of my friends had taken Taylor on an adventure that ended at Whose Line, and everyone seemed to be having fun with her.   She even went up on stage with some of the actors and they took pictures with her.  Everyone got a good laugh out of it and it was a great way to kill time before the show started!

Eventually the excitement around Taylor Swift being in the audience died down and the show started.  The skits played out in the usual order.  The actors played the Alphabet Game, where they went back and forth starting their line with the next letter in the alphabet.  Then, they picked two people from the audience to play the Question Game, which is when all the actors and their two guests stand in a line and the front two go head to head asking only questions.  The person who does not respond with a question goes to the back of the line, while the other person continues asking questions to the next person in line.  The theatre club also did a skit where they pull out suggested lines and say them randomly throughout the skit.  They ended the show with Helping Hands, which is when 2 people have 2 other people be their hands and they make “yummy” food with the ingredients in front of them.  It always ends in a mess and the audience in fits of giggles.  There are many more hilarious skits throughout the show and each one never fails to make the audience chuckle, giggle, or full out laugh.

One of my favorite things about the Whose Line is that everyone feels a sense of community for that one hour of comedy.  The shared laughter everyone feels bonds us all together.  And if you go multiple times, like I do because I love it so much, you start to recognize the other patrons.  Usually the same people go each time and they bring a few new guests with them because they want to expose their friends to the fun show.  I made sure I brought two of my commuter friends who usually are home by the time the show starts; I wanted to share the joy I feel when I go to the show.  It’s not really just show; it’s an experience that everyone should have at least once.

Cassidy Troy

Professor McGovern

Life of the Mind

20 October 2014

Sorel King’s Story

On October 2^nd, I had the privilege of listening to guest speaker, Sorel King. King was excellent, as she discussed the effect of medical errors, specifically one personal to her. In the year 2001, Josie, King’s daughter, was brought to the Johns Hopkins University Hospital to treat the burns she received from a bath that was too hot. Josie was treated fairly quickly, and seemed to be healing well. Josie was transferred to the “step down” room, a room for patients with a lesser need for intensive care. This was a positive step toward recovery, right?

Wrong. Sorel King noticed right away that Josie looked thirsty, dehydrated, tired, and discolored, so she informed the nurse of this. Sorel was given ice chips to feed Josie, and the doctor disagreed with the severity of the concern expressed by Sorel. Soon enough, the doctor removed the central lines from Josie’s body, and the nurse gave Josie Gatorade and Methadone, (a strong prescription medication to treat pain), despite the fact that Sorel did not want to give her child the medication. Josie was extremely dehydrated by that time, and Sorel kept repeating the fact that Josie did not look well. Sorel was too trusting of the nurses, and she listened to them with limited questioning. Shortly after hospitalization, Josie was determined brain-dead. Josie died from dehydration, something that could have easily been prevented.

Sorel King specifically wanted health science majors to attend this event. Not only did she want to tell her story, but she also wanted to help educate her audience of the mistakes that are made so easily in the healthcare field. King stressed the importance of interprofessional communication, and communication between the patient and the family members. King wants to create a new generation of healthcare professionals that are better educated of the significance of interaction, and the negative consequences of poorly executed communication.

On September 25th Christina Baker Kline was scheduled to speak at Stockton’s Freshman Convocation. From the day I found out in early September, I was ecstatic that I was going to get to meet Mrs. Kline. I absolutely loved Orphan Train and I was excited to hear her perspective on the book. But more than anything I was excited to meet a famous author. I absolutely love book and I had always wanted to go to a book signing, but I never had the opportunity before. But now that a New York Times Bestselling author was coming to my school I wasn’t going to miss it for the world.

When the day finally arrived, I all but ran from my 2:30-4:20 class in F wing (wich of course ran five minutes over time) down to the PAC. I arrived just in time to be seated in one of the last available seats and I watched as the people behind me stood in clusters where ever there was room. I waited anxiously for the presentation to start; the thought of being late to my six o’clock class always at the back of my mind.

After a few minutes waiting and a few short speeches to thank everyone who had made the night possible, Mrs. Kline entered and began her presentation. I learned a lot from her slides, like how the train riders all thought that they were the only train that existed at the time. I found that so interesting for one because it helped me understand part of why Vivian spent so much of her life feeling so isolated from the world: she thought she was the only person to have this kind of experience. For another it really helped me understand how scary and confusing this whole process must have been to a child. With every fact and statistic I learned a little more and got a better understanding of Orphan Train as well as the Orphan Train. Not to mention all of the sweet and heartwarming anecdotes she gave about actual train riders.

Once the presentation had ended, I checked my watch and realized that any hope of getting to my class on time was lost; the only question now was how late was I going to be? A sensible person in my position probably would have gone to class instead of waiting in the enormous line to get Mrs. Kline’s autograph. But I had come there that day with a mission: to meet my first author and get her autograph, and I was going to do it come hell or high water.

I was somewhere in the middle of the book signing line and it took about fifteen minutes for me to get to the front. When I did I told Mrs. Kline how much I loved her book and in addition to asking her to sign my copy of Orphan Train I asked her to sign my writing journal. This, I explained, was something I did whenever I got the chance to meet a speaker/presenter who I found particularly inspiring. I’ve found that looking at their quick messages and remembering what they presented about really helps me get though cases of writers block and helps motivate me to share my writing when I can. She happily agreed, and wrote me a little message telling me to never stop writing, with a small smiling face next to it.

I then rushed to class and apologized to my professor for being 45 minutes late.

On Tuesday, October 7th, I had the pleasure of attending the Scuba Certification Course interest meeting. The meeting, sponsored by Atlantic Divers, was created to interest students who were either looking to become scuba certified for the first time, or who wanted to refresh their certification. Being a first-time scuba diver, I did not know what to expect, but I was extremely interested in diving and wanted to see what would be expected of me.

Upon arriving at Big Blue, I realized that there was only one other attendee, which made the meeting more comfortable, as the dive instructor, Jean, was able to answer all of our individual questions. Jean was very warm and patient, answering all of our questions and addressing all of our concerns. Unfortunately, I was not informed that I was supposed to pay my deposit, preferably before the interest meeting. While this was a minor setback, and would have been easily fixed by depositing as soon as possible, it still would have been helpful to know this information prior to the meeting. I found out about this event via a flier which said that the cost was five-hundred and twenty dollars. On top of that, there were extra (albeit reduced) fees for essential gear. The deposit, I later found out, was fifty dollars.

I was pleased to know that a majority of my surf gear was useful for the dive certification (i.e. wetsuit and booties), but the costs were too much for me at the time. Luckily, Jean will be teaching another course in the spring 2015 semester. I felt very well-informed at the interest meeting, despite the lack of information regarding the deposit, and the instructor was very helpful with everything I needed. I hope I will have the time and money to continue this course in the upcoming semester, as it is nearly vital for my Marine Science major.

The week of the semester that was dedicated to suicide prevention, was an interesting week. I enjoyed the speeches about suicide prevention and the events that were held for the cause. It was nice to see people speak up for what they believe in and have their voice be heard. One event that I really enjoyed was about suicide prevention where I listened to Jordan Burnhan from Active Minds, who spoke about his experience with suicide.

Before the event began, I thought that this man was going to talk about the general facts for suicide and spread the word about stopping this terrible act, but it was not like that at all. Jordan Burnhan was extremely sincere and he opened up to us about his past. He talked about his lifestyle and how he grew up as a child, and how that affected him emotionally and mentally. The terrible things that happened to him as a child, caused him to want to commit suicide, but luckily it was a failed attempt and he did not actually succeed at this terrible act.

During his speech, I looked around the room, and I noticed, by the look on my peers faces, that they were touched by this inspirational speech, as was I. Jordan Burnhan did an incredible job getting his point across because he made his speech enjoyable, which caused people to laugh and smile, but took him seriously when necessary.

The speech that Jordan Burnhan presented to his audience was a speech I will never forget. Jordan Burnham touched the lives of many that night and I hope to someday touch the lives as many as well.

Never could I have ever predicted sitting in the audience before an 11 year old girl asking Justin Timberlake to copulate with her. However, this was the titular scene from Stockton’s production of Crumble (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake). The show told the story of a distressed mother, mentally scarred 11-year-old, cat-obsessed aunt, and a vengeful apartment. Needless to say, it was an interesting show.

I went into the show not really knowing what I was about to see. Given the rather outlandish title, I was expecting a lighthearted, funny show. I was pleasantly surprised that the show was laugh out loud hilarious at some points, while being thought-provokingly depressing at others. In my opinion, the show was a total success. I had never seen a college level theatrical production before, so I was blown away. First of all, the acting was fantastic-from the quirky aunt and her 57 cats to the homicidal, horny apartment who admits to murdering the father and husband of its current inhabitants. The sets, too, were incredibly detailed. It was even more impressive when I consider that it was completely designed by Stockton students. One thing that really topped it off was the lighting. I have been in several productions throughout my high-school career and I have never seen lighting anywhere near this caliber. It was downright professional. Another encouraging sign was seeing how many fellow honors students (and teachers) came out to support a member of the honors community who was performing in the show.

The show made a dramatic impression on me and my friends as we have been quoting its more humorous parts for the past few weeks. The show was a brilliant piece of art that portrayed a meticulously crafted image of women and family dynamics. I commend the actors and crew on a fantastic job, and I can’t wait to see more shows at Stockton!

November 1^st marked the Honors Program’s field trip to the Mummers Museum and the Italian Market. The field trip was put together by our Honors’ director Lisa Rosner and the two other Honors’ seminar professors, Heather McGovern and Georgeann Lenard. Before this trip I was completely unaware that there even was a Mummers Museum in Philadelphia; the only thing I knew about the Mummers was what I saw on television every New Years’ Day. This field trip to the museum gave me insight into something I may have never thought to research on my own. The tour guide was a very nice man with a somewhat crude sense of humor and the costumes that the Mummers performed in were incredible.

While we toured the museum we were allowed to try on the Mummers’ costumes and we all took a nice group picture that was put onto the honors webpage. After the tour, we went downstairs and were given a challenge. We were told that we were separated into groups and that we had to make up and perform our own Mummers strut for our professors. The performance was Halloween based and all of the performances by the three different groups were very original and somewhat comical. We were all having a great time and it was a really good day even if it was raining and cold outside.

When it was time to leave the museum we went back onto our bus and it took us to the Italian Market. We were given time to split up into groups of our own and look around the market. My group went off and found a traditional Italian restaurant where we stopped and ate. I had ricotta gnocchi for lunch and it was delicious. As if we didn’t already find so many good things to eat, there was a chocolate restaurant across the street from the restaurant we ate at. We all got delicious gelatos and chocolates of all kinds.

When our fun was over, it was time to get back on the bus and take the hour long trip back to Stockton. The gloomy weather put the whole bus to sleep on the trip back home. We had a long, fun day and a nap was something we needed more than anything. The field trip was not only a fun time but also one filled with new knowledge of things that probably none of us ever knew about before that day. Now when I watch the Mummers parade on New Years’ Day this year, I will be watching it with the knowledge I gained by attending this field trip.

International Education Week is held every year and this year it was during the week of November 16 – 20, 2014. It is presented on college campuses across the country and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State. The week is full of various activities—some educational and informative and others simply fun—that honor and promote global education and awareness with programs such as Study Abroad Programs, International Students Programs, and International Travel for Faculty/Staff Programs. According to Assistant Secretary of State Evan Ryan, Exchange Programs, U.S. Department of State, “Through international study, students cross socioeconomic, cultural, political, religious and geographic borders. International students enrich classrooms, campuses and communities in ways that endure long after students return to their home countries.” Both students who go abroad and students who come to the States to study can enrich the schools they attend and add a universal element to those around them.

Stockton listed over 30 events under the International Education Week 2014 Schedule on the Stockton website. The events included various national dances, martial arts, crafts, fair trade gift fairs, clothing and customs presentations, an international flag display, lectures on various countries abroad, cultural films, workshops on various topics including Emotional Intelligence and Cultural Intelligence and other topics such as Human Trafficking and Foreign Service Careers, and even an opportunity for students, teachers, and community participants to get their passports.

Posters promoting International Education Week were posted all over the Stockton campus. According to the poster, the week was sponsored by the Office of Global Engagement, Office of the Provost, School of Arts and Humanities, School of Business, School of Education, School of General Studies, School of Health Sciences, School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Sara and Sam Schoffer Holocaust Resource Center, Stockton Center on Successful Aging, and

Joel Horn (Stockton Alumni ’91). The international flag display was in the cafeteria in the Student Center. I found the poster (pictured here) in various buildings near classrooms and the library and in the Student Center. The poster is informative about the events promoting International Education Week, providing specific events, dates, and locations.

I personally do not have any interest in international studies or studying abroad, but I do meet students from other countries who attend Stockton. Although I do not have an interest, it is important that these programs and activities are available to those people who do have an interest in international education and the opportunities to travel to and learning about other countries, nationalities, and customs.

Works Cited

“International Education Week 2014.” The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. n.p., 2014.     Web. 21 November 2014.     <http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=252&pageID=27>

“International Education Week, November 16-20.” The Richard Stockton College of New     Jersey. Stockton campus (various locations), Galloway Twp., New Jersey. 2014. Poster.     < http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/international_services/content/docs/IEW/IEW-Poster-    2014%20%285.15%29.pdf>

Ryan, Evan. “Evan Ryan Speaks at Open Doors 2014.” 15th Anniversary International Education     Week 2014 (Facebook), Nov. 20, 2014. Web. 21 November 2014.     <https://www.facebook.com/InternationalEdWeek>

On September 27^th, I attended the Animal Shelter Service Project. The Honors program ran the project and it was a one-time meet up. I joined about eight other girls, to help volunteer at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter in Pleasantville, New Jersey. When we got there via car pool, the woman who was in charge of the shelter greeted us. She was very kind and gave each of us specific jobs to do. Some people had to clean the kennels, some had to mop the floors and some had to clean the windows. As for my job, I partnered up with another girl to work on sterilizing and filling the litter boxes.

The task was not too hard. My partner and I decided that she would sterilize while I would fill. She would sterilize the litter boxes in this dishwasher like machine, where the boxes would be steamed with chemicals for several minutes. After they were done, I would then take them to the litter room and fill them up to the right amount. While the job was simple, it took a while. I ended up going through three large containers of litter in order to fill all the boxes.

After we were done with the litter boxes, we were allowed to go into the cat room and take the kittens out to play with. The kittens were very cute and lively and would keep jumping onto the volunteers. I then decided to check out the dogs. There were mainly pit bulls in the kennels and they were very loud with their barking. However, they were very sweet. They would press their bodies up against the fence so they can be petted. I played with the dogs for a while until it was time to go. The woman in charge thanked us for helping out and we all took a picture in front of the shelter.