On Saturday October 25^th Stockton College held its 2^nd annual Make a Difference Day. The event was held and organized by the Office of Service Learning in hopes to promote service and good character throughout the campus. The day started in C/D atrium at 10 a.m. as about 70 to 80 students waltzed to find a service project that suited their interests.    Students had fewer options to pick from in terms of service projects than Day of Service, as only seven organizations needed volunteers for that day. Also a vast majority of the projects were off-campus that was less convenient for the students in terms of familiarity with their environment of the service project.                                                      I was lucky and happened to choose a project that was on campus right in the Office of Career Development. The office needed some assistance in scanning documents into the computer system in order to eliminate some of the clutter of boxes and folders of files lying around the office. While this seemed like an easy task it definitely took a toll as it was tedious and frustrating. A total of nine boxes of documents with about 20 folders a piece with about 100 pieces of paper in those folders had to unstapled and scanned. It seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment for six good-natured honors students.

Five people were working on removing staples documents, and when a folder was completed I ran the documents through the scanner. This continued until unfortunately the scanner jammed up and even the tech department was unable to fix it. A reflection session was held afterwards in which we all expressed our frustrations and boredom throughout the process. However, we expressed gratitude in knowing that the college was making an effort to go green and make the campus more environmentally friendly. At the end of the day we were proud and happy to give a helping hand to the cause.

On Thursday October 9^th Stockton kicked off its annual Homecoming and family weekend with the 9^th annual myths and legends panel in a jam-packed room L112. Stockton invited back around twelve alumni, and faculty who were a part of Stockton’s first or second school year. The faculty shared stories, laughs and opinions about the history of the school. They also took questions from the audience who were interested in learning more about the history of Stockton.

One of the hot topics that arose from the panel was the purpose of the college opening in 1969. The panel reached a general consensus that the reason Stockton opened was because the state wanted to provide an elite education for those who chose to attend a state school at the reasonable price of public education.

Another point of discussion was the reason why Stockton truly is a “distinctive college”. Distinguished professor Bill Daly went into great detail about the differences between Stockton and other schools. He says one paramount feature that makes Stockton stand out is the fact that it is a highly liberal institution. Students are able to learn what they want to learn without having the nagging requirements of learning what they did not. “If they decide they don’t want to learn how to write they don’t have to,” said Daly. The “GEN” courses are a distinguishing feature because students could take a class outside of their major and learn information just because they want to learn it

The panel also shared some humorous anecdotes such as Bill Daly’s story of a student back in 1969 who had asked for a neck tie because he was involved in a drug bust and never returned it. The panel also discussed the story of a cabin that burned down in a suspected arson in 1973. Certainly the Stockton Myths and Legends panel was both entertaining and informative and made everyone feel like they went to a college with a lot of history.

On Saturday September 6^th 2014 Richard Stockton College held its 11^th annual Day of Service from 8:30am to 3:30pm. The goal of the Day of Service has always been to promote community service both on-campus and in the communities surrounding Stockton. Different clubs and organizations prepared unique service projects and students were able to choose what service project they would like to be a part of.                         Perhaps, one of the most popular choices was a suicide awareness and prevention project, organized by the club Active Minds.Over twenty students gathered around the Campus Center coffeehouse area in order to help Active Minds prepare for their upcoming suicide prevention week in October.                                                                                   One aspect of the project included making posters for the suicide walk that will occur on Sunday October 5^th. Each group designing a poster was given a different fact or statistic that related to suicide or depression awareness. Meanwhile, another group within the project was to cut and pin ribbons for the suicide walk. Ribbons varied in color as each color represented why the participant would be walking. Also a third group was working with shoes. The Active Minds club previously collected shoes to be displayed on the walk with the number of pairs coinciding with the number of college suicides in the last year. The students assisting with this part of the project were finding matching pairs for the shoes and tying them together to be displayed for the walk.                                                                                                                        Afterwards, Active Minds held a brief reflection session. Each person who helped with the project shared his or her experiences with depression and suicide in their lives and offered ways to battle the stigma in day-to-day routine. All left with a sense of fulfillment and knowledge that they were promoting a fight against one of the most deadly disorders in teens.