Adam Smith

Dr. Rosner

GEN 1033-003

10/16/15

Freshman Blogging Project: Sherlock Holmes

On Friday, October 2nd, at 7:30 p.m., I sprinted through the dark parking lot in the pouring rain towards Stockton University’s Performing Arts Center. As I neared the building I noticed a crowd of people standing inside. Contrary to my prior beliefs, I soon realized that the Sherlock Holmes play that I was about to watch was for more than just Stockton students, but also for those around the community who enjoy the arts. I entered the theatre in my rain-soaked clothes, took my seat amongst the audience and waited for the show to begin.

As the play commenced, I was shocked to see that the main character, Sherlock Holmes was played by a woman. Whispers murmured around the audience as soon as Holmes stepped on stage. The play continued on and it soon became apparent that not only was Holmes played by an actress, but the character was actually referred to as a “she”! Various characters, including Watson, who was played by a male, would refer to Holmes as a woman. The show went on and Holmes did as Holmes usually does, and used his or her heightened intelligence and analytical thinking process to solve an “unsolvable mystery”. In this case, the play actually focused on three simultaneous mysteries.

Due to the sex-change of the main character and the already confusing plot, I found myself struggling to keep along with the play’s storyline. Out of the three mysteries present in the play, I was only able to really follow one of them. This particular mystery revolved around a white husband and wife. The wife would often sneak out in the dead of night, long after her husband is asleep, and would venture off to an old abandoned house nearby. One night, her husband is awakened by her leaving and waits for her return. It is revealed to the audience, with the help of Holmes, that the woman was visiting the child of her previous husband. The child was African American and lived in the abandoned house, where the woman’s new husband would not see her.  

All ends well for the couple and the child, but I still found myself wondering why the director of the play chose to do what he did. Why did he or she change Holme’s sexuality, and not that of any other characters? Why did the director not inform the audience why he or she did this? I found that this took away from the play, not because Holmes was a woman, but because it was not explained. I found myself pondering this idea more so than the actual play’s  plot.

Sherlock Holmes is a world-renowned fictional character that has made appearances in all forms of media. In the Sherlock Holmes play hosted by Stockton University on October 2nd, the director of the performance made the decision to change the sexuality of the main character without explaining why. I would argue that this change had a negative impact on the play because it added to the confusion of the already perplexing plot. After discussing this topic with my peers, various conspiracies arose to why this happened. These explanations varied widely. Some believed that the director was trying to prove a point that women can play a role just as well as men, while others thought it was just because this particular actor could play the violin. A way to clear this confusion would be a simple explanation as to why the director chose to do this before or after the performance, rather than leaving the audience to attempt to guess for themselves. The play was an entertaining experience, but could have been easily enhanced with little effort.

Adam Smith

Dr. Rosner

GEN 1033: Life of the Mind

11/17/15

Stockton University vs. Montclair State University Volleyball Game

As I swiped my Stockton ID and walked into the gymnasium in Big Blue at 2:00 pm on the 7th of November, I looked eagerly at the volleyball nets as this would be the first college level volleyball game I would watch. I took my seat next to my friends and waited for the National Anthem to play. Everyone removed their hats and faced the flag as the song played over the sound system. I glanced towards the players they all seemed to glow with excitement. As the song finished, Stockton’s women’s volleyball team walked towards center court to meet their opponents, Montclair State University. After shaking hands, the referees told the players to take their positions. The match was about to begin.

The referee blew his whistle to start the match and immediately cheers from the stands commenced. “Go Stockton!”, “Let’s go Ospreys!”, “Beat Montclair!”, all rang throughout the stands as the Stockton served the ball. After a short rally, Stockton’s Stephanie Kovacs spiked the ball down to win the point. It became clear that Stockton would lead this match. As the match progressed on, I soon learned that a college level game of volley is won by the team who wins best three out of five matches. A match is won by whichever team wins 25 points first. Stockton quickly accumulated 25 points, beating MSU, with 16 points.

Although the attendance was only 233, the enthusiasm of the Stockton fan base made up for the lack of people. Everyone was wearing their osprey apparel as they cheered their team on. The second match soon began and MSU ran on to the court with more excitement than before. MSU took the lead with two aces and a spike. An ace is a term used for when the player serves the ball and wins the point without the opposing team returning it. Stockton took a timeout and rotated in new players. They stepped back on the court with confidence and started the clock again. The new players quickly regained the lead and won the set. The MSU players bowed their heads as they lost the second set 18 to 25 and walked toward the bench to receive a pep talk.

After a five minute break filled with osprey cheer and support, the two teams took their places on the court and began the match. It was evident that MSU’s defense was slowly crumbling as Stockton continuously scored point after point. “Choke! Choke!” screamed a few Stockton fans to the right of me. MSU served the ball only to be spiked back down by Stockton’s Macy Schwartz. It was 24 to 10. Stockton was in the lead and only needed one point to win the final match. Lindsay Schuele served the ball, but MSU took possession and set themselves up for a spike. The audience stared at the ball, eager for the match to end as a MSU player smacked the ball down towards the ground, but just as it was about to hit the floor Kovacs saved the ball and gently bumped it over the net. MSU stared in disbelief as the ball fell into their court and hit the ground. “We won!” cheered the crowded as the women’s team rushed the court and hugged each other. After a few minutes of celebration, the stands cleared and I walked outside with my friends. The women’s team’s win over MSU invigorated me and left me wanting to attend more athletic events at Stockton to support the Ospreys.

Helping out with the club S.E.T. (Stockton Entertainment Team) has been a major part of the contributions I have made to this university. It allows for me to work with friends and many other new members of the group as we organize and spread news of upcoming events around campus. The club is ran by several upper classmen students on an executive board. Among them some are Nicole Leppert, Hannah Feldman, Sarah Voishnis, and Chelsea Miller. They hold meetings every Thursday at 5 o’clock in room B-125. There is one major event in the fall and spring semesters. This year it was the comedian Carly Aquilino in the fall, who took the stage during University Weekend on Friday October 9^th. The performance went great and it only continued to bring attention to the Stockton Entertainment Team and their work. In the spring is the highly anticipated annual concert, WoodStockton! Last year’s show was highlighted by Panic! At the Disco, and was very well received. Recently the club has sent out this year’s options for possible bands to play at WoodStockton 2016, in order to see what the rest of the students would like to hear. Some of the options are Snoop Dogg, Third Eye Blind, and Gym Class Heroes. All students received a poll in their Stockton email so that S.E.T. can get the most desired performer this spring!

I myself have contributed to the club by tabling for the S.E.T. information table, handing out flyers for Taco Tuesday, and helping to set up for the Halloween dessert bar. I hope to gain enough “Piggy Points” by participating in these events so that I can meet the band that performs at WoodStockton, just like several S.E.T. members met the lead singer from Panic! At the Disco last year. Despite that incentive, it is fun and rewarding helping out with the different weekly events knowing you are making others happier and more comfortable on campus. Therefore I plan on staying with this club and possibly running for a position later in my time at Stockton University.

Playing volleyball all four years through high school was a big part of my life. Coming to Stockton and knowing they had a great volleyball was very exciting to me because that meant I was able to continue to watch and love the sport. On November 5, 2015 the volleyball team was having an important game at 7 PM in Big Blue. If they won this meant that the team would advance to the NJAC tournament final for the eighth consecutive time. The team they were playing was the Ramapo Roadrunner from the Ramapo College of New Jersey, which is located very close to my home.

        The game started out in Stockton’s favor. The Ospreys started off the evening in fine shape as they came out to a 15-9 lead. They won the first set 25-15 Lindsey Schuele and Stephanie Kovacs had five kills each, which set up a good pace for the Ospreys.

        The second and third sets of the match did not go in Stockton’s favor. To start off the second set the Ospreys held a 12-9 lead, but Ramapo used a 13-2 run to take a 22-14 lead. They ended the match with the 25-19 victory. A hitter on the Ramapo team registered 13 kills while the whole Stockton team registered just 10 kills the entire set. The third set was an intense match with many long volleys and difficult calls made by the officials. Schuele kept Stockton close with six kill in this set. The teams battled back-and-forth during the third set but the Roadrunners scored the last three points and came out on top by a slim 26-24 margin. In volleyball the set is normally played to 25 but teams have to win by two points so they had to play to 26 in this case.

        The fourth and fifth set the Ospreys gathered themselves. The team took set number four with a score of 25-17. Middle hitter Idi Uffen had a great set and took charge with five kills and two blocks during the period. The fifth set is played only to 15. Stockton led 5-2 early but later fell behind 11-8. With the score tied 15-15, Shannon Clark placed a kill deep into the Ramapo corner for a one-point lead at 16-15. The Ospreys came away with the final point and the win 17-15 to advance to the NJAC championship match. In the last set, Schwartz came up huge with six of Stockton’s eight kills plus two blocks.

        Going to the volleyball was a fun and exciting experience, I thoroughly enjoyed watching the sport that I played throughout high school at a higher level and watching the team battle through tough spots to come out winners together at the end.

Samuel Connery

Life of the Mind

Professor Lenard

30 September 2015

Blog Post #2

Over the summer we had to read “Whistling Vivaldi” which is a book that discusses stereotypes felt throughout society.  One of the contributors to the book was Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, who was also a student of the author Claude Steele.  The speaker was Valerie Purdie-Vaughns and I heard from a majority of professors that she was going to be a very entertaining speaker and provide  interesting topics to cover.

Valerie Purdie-Vaughns had started off the convocation in a very exciting way.  She told the audience to participate in an activity where you would turn to the person sitting next to you and discuss what you wanted to do for a living after you got out of college.  I enjoyed this activity because I got to meet two new people and since this was at the beginning of the year it had helped me introduce myself to some new friends.  After the opener Valerie Purdie-Vaughns began to go over statistics.  One of these was the difference between math scores of men and women and how the stereotype affects women in a learning setting.  Although this information was pertinent to the discussion it was very similar to examples that we had read throughout “Whistling Vivaldi”.    It seemed like a general overview of tests throughout the book which in some ways could be helpful since the majority of students had to do an assignment concerning the book.  I was hoping that we would hear about different tests or different findings not mentioned in the book that she could provide for us .  Although I didn’t find the information she presented very interesting Valerie Purdie-Vaughns was a very good speaker and knew how to keep her audience interested   throughout the whole presentation.  I definitely recommend the convocation to any incoming freshmen in the future.

Anthony Gingerelli
Event Blog 3
11/19/15
Book without Borders is a fun community service based club. This club is very active at Stockton University and impacts people all over the world. The purpose behind Books without Borders is to supply books to those less fortunate, allowing them to further their education by supplying them with books. The meetings are very relaxed as there is a lot of brainstorming and planning occurring during the entire time. Students will plan events, review future “days of service” and collect any books people have brought in to store in the trailer. These events they plan are called “days of service.” These days are scheduled on their own or in conjunction with Stockton’s day of service. There are several steps involved in this community based service from planning to shipping. At these events students move the books from the storage and bring them into the school. They then organize the books into the categories and genre. After reorganizing them, we repack them so they are ready to be shipped. Then the books get shipped out to a variety of locations, depending on the need at the time. We send them to local Stockton communities, to other New Jersey locations as well as across the country and world, where people are desperate for books.
In addition to the meetings and days of service, they will have club meetings which take place in the actual warehouse. Here students are proactive and get a head start to reorganize the books so when the scheduled days of arrive, all the books will be packed and ready be carried out and sent to the shipping location. This makes the process much faster and efficient for the club and everyone in it.
Books without Borders is one of the most active clubs on the Stockton campus. Not only being one of the most vigorous clubs, it is one of the most prominent clubs. They have a significant impact for people not only in our local area but across the globe. Joining Books without Borders would be a great way to impact others who are less fortunate but choose to be educated and make a better life for themselves.

Samuel Connery

Life of the Mind

Professor Lenard

13 October 2015

As high school came to an end I was upset over the possibility that my sports career was coming to a close.  I was only average when it came to the single sport I played which was track and field and knew it would be extremely difficult for me to make the team.  In order to make up for the lack of physical activity I got while playing sports in high school, I knew that I had to find an activity to keep me active.  After discussing club possibilities with my one friend Klaudia, she had suggested that I sign up for Jiu-Jitsu club.  I was reluctant at first due to the problem that I had no prior fighting experience; however, I knew that I should learn some form of self-defense in case I was ever to put in a situation where I needed to protect myself.

As I arrived in the racquetball court room where jiu-jitsu meets, I was nervous to encounter what the club had in store for me.  As I got down and began to stretch, I scoped out the competition.  They all appeared very strong and each one looked as if they had prior training in jiu-jitsu.  Luckily for me the first hour of jiu-jitsu practice involved no one v. one situations.  It was just practicing moves for different positions that someone may find himself in when rolling with an opponent.  The practicing was helpful since it gave me some basic moves to practice.  The sensei was also walking around observing the groups and giving tips on how to properly perform the moves.  The hour passed quickly, and it was then time for the sensei to leave us.  This was not the end of practice for the club.  After the hour of learning the techniques, most members stay behind to learn to roll with another opponent and apply the techniques previously learned.  Particularly on my first day of rolling, I was destroyed by my opponents.  They were able to have me tap out in a matter of seconds.  Luckily for me, all the experience fighters recognized my lack of ability for the sport and began to teach me techniques as we were rolling.  They would stop as we were in the middle of rolling and give me tips such as how to break a hold or how to perform offensive moves like an arm bar.  I found this teach method a lot easier since it was a real fighting situation.  I feel that I’m improving more and more each lesson.  The club meetings have become the highlights of my Tuesdays and Thursdays and although I’m still in the early stages of training, I believe that I’m going to stick with this club throughout the rest of my years at Stockton.

Samuel Connery                                                                                                                                               Blog Post #1

Professor Lenard                                                                                                                                             9/14/15

The day of service was quite the interesting experience.  When I had first signed up for it back in the summer I had assumed that the day was going to be filled with working on small projects throughout the day to give to the people who are less fortunate.  Rather the day was mostly filled with sitting through presentations on different services that are offered as clubs at the school or the surrounding area.  This provided an interesting opportunity to find a service club that was best suited for me.

Out of all the presentations that I saw, I believe Green Dot was the most intriguing to me.  Green Dot in an organization that encourages people to stop potentially dangerous situations, known as red dots, by having someone intervene in some form either through words or actions.  The people who were intervening and trying to help the situation were known as the green dots.  The speaker had helped me realize that there were situations that I’ve encountered in my own life that I could have helped make better through stepping in.  In order to help in these situations, the organization needs more people to become aware of how to become a green dot so that there’s a better chance that they will be there to stop a red dot.  This group teaches people the proper way to intervene in dangerous situations so they can help defuse the situations.

Although the day was mainly filled with presentations, there was one activity during the day that actually made me feel like I was actively helping others.  The name of the group was Books without Borders, which is an organization that collects books to give to people in other areas that have a hard time accessing books.  The organization had us actively work by unloading boxes of books from their vans and then categorize them into subjects and from there repackage the books in other boxes.  The process made me feel that I was putting my time to good use at the day of service, and it was also the kind of thing that I was expecting the day of service to be.  Since there was a large amount of people that had signed up for the Day of Service the club was able to get many hours of hard work which they wouldn’t have if they had just worked with the members of their club.  I felt this Day of Service was extremely valuable to this club just because of the amount of work that we were able to help them finish in such a short amount of time.

Above all, I believe that the Day of Service was a valuable source of information to learn about different community service groups around the school.  Next year I hope that the Day of Service has more active projects, such as making care packages.  I do now feel that I have a better understanding of the community service opportunities here at Stockton and hope to get involved with at least on sometime soon.

Macie McCallion

Homecoming weekend at Stockton University is a jubilant time for everyone. Families and their Stockton students are reunited and there are plenty of festivities for each person to enjoy. A momentous occasion for the students in particular is the Osprey Ball. This year was the 20^th annual Osprey Ball and we could feel the anticipation of each person attending as the women curled each other’s hair and the men put on their nicest shirts. Groups of friends would meet up before the ball to take pictures to have something to remember these moments by. College is only a short time in our lives and we need to appreciate every minute of it.

Some couples went together as dates and others went with groups of friends; it didn’t matter because everyone was going to have a great time. The ball started at nine and when students walked into the room the first thing they saw was an elegant balloon arch at the opening of the door. Other remarkable amenities of the evening included a photo booth with fun props, delicious dinner, dessert and an amazing DJ. Some of the best moments of the night were when the DJ played songs like the cupid shuffle, the cotton eye Joe, the wobble, the electric slide and more because that’s really when all of the people in the room were up on the dance floor having the time of their lives.

The party went all night long, when the ball was officially over at one in the morning, the individuals who stayed the entire time were sad to leave. My friends and I in particular stayed until the very end. Since the ball was one of the first official Stockton events that freshmen were able to attend, I was happy to be spending it with all of my new friends here at Stockton.

The night was a huge success. Any student who showed up would have had a great time, and all of the ones who did proved it. The students and faculty who worked together to create this event deserve to be commended on their spectacular efforts.

Macie McCallion

SOAR is an exhilarating experience for all incoming freshmen. It stands for the Stockton Outdoor Adventure Retreat. It serves as a way for freshmen to get to know each other and build lasting connections before beginning this new chapter of our lives at Stockton University.

As we moved in on August 25^th 2015, there were so many emotions running through the minds of every parent, family member, and student. We felt fear, excitement, worry, thrill, eagerness and more. After we said goodbye to our parents and headed off to SOAR, all of the worry and fear began to disappear; we started to feel more comfortable around one another. We were split up into tribes. The tribes were orange, navy, pink, yellow, red, green, purple and sky. I was a member of sky tribe (the best tribe out of them all). There were about 30 people per tribe and by the end of SOAR we were all each other’s second family. This aspect of SOAR really makes Stockton truly feel like our home away from home.

The activities that we participated in are really what contributed to all of the bonds that we made. We contemplated several mind games and were elated when we understood when no one else did. We sang, danced, played cards, went kayaking, climbed rock walls and chased some metaphorical lions. On top of all the fun activities, we also participated in some activities that educated us on topics like diversity, acceptance and trust.

SOAR may have only been three short days. However, they were 3 of the best days I have had in a long time. By the end of it we all had bug bites and dirty shoes and sweaty shirts but none of us cared because we had such a great time. Thanks to SOAR I feel so much more comfortable assimilating into this new environment and being the outgoing, confident person that I have always been.