by Emily Calhoun

On November 11, 2016, I visited the Drawing Against Oblivion art installation.  It has been open and available to the public since September and ended on November 13, three days after I visited.  The art installation featured two floors full of hand-drawn portraits of various children affected by the Holocaust.  Each portrait was accompanied by a small description of the child featured, usually including the child’s name, if known, and how he or she was affected by the Holocaust.  Most of the children were sent to concentration camps.  Many of them died there.  Only a handful survived.  The coolest part of the installation, in my opinion, was the part called Writing Against Oblivion.  This part encouraged the visitors to the installation to take an envelope and write a short letter to one of the children featured in the installation.  The letters really allowed me to become personally involved in history and form a real connection with the children whose stories and pictures I spent an hour looking at.  I found Drawing Against Oblivion to be very moving.  Reading the personal stories of the various children featured in installation really helped me connect personally to their experiences.  I did my senior research project on the Holocaust, and in all the research I did for that project, I never connected with the experience as much as I did in the hour I spent at Drawing Against Oblivion.  I know that there is a documentary on the installation, and I hope to watch it soon and become even more connected.  I highly recommend a visit to Drawing Against Oblivion to anyone interested in any way.

by Emily Calhoun

The Animal Friendly Organization sponsored a private screening of Leonardo DiCaprio’s new documentary of Before the Flood on Tuesday, October 11, in the Campus Center Theater. Before the Flood tells the story of DiCaprio’s journey as the appointed United Nations Messenger of Peace. DiCaprio focused on the real crisis facing the world: climate change. The documentary provided evidence to show the realities of climate change. It also gave predictions of what the future will look like if we globally continue to live the damaging lives we currently live. Finally, it gave examples from around the world of how the crisis is currently being handled and how people are attempting to stop it. The documentary was followed by a brief question-and-answer period with a representative from the Defenders of Wildlife organization. The question-and-answer session was informative and truly got the audience engaged with the subject matter of the documentary. It also helped us gain a better understanding of the small changes we could make in our lives in order to help reverse climate change. I knew that I would enjoy this documentary, as one of my favorite things to do is watch documentaries on humanitarian issues. I was surprised, though, at how much the documentary really impacted me. As a result of this experience, I have stopped eating beef and am limiting my consumption of dairy products in order to reduce my impact on the planet.

By Emily Calhoun

     On September 28th at 5:30pm, the Animal Friendly Organization held its first meeting for the fall semester.  By the time I arrived, around 5:25pm, the classroom the meeting was held in was already filled to capacity, with some people already sitting on the floor.  The group of students standing in the hallway continued to grow, so much so the president decided to take those of us in the hallway into the classroom next door, which we proceeded to fill.  Each student who went to the meeting was given a survey on a half-piece of paper when they arrived; its questions asked our opinions on where the trip this semester should be, our preference on the main service project, as well as any other ideas we had for the club.

     At 5:30, the president of the AFO began to explain the mission of the club and what membership entails.  She presented a short powerpoint that outlined some of the organizations the AFO is affiliated with and the many projects they lead and are involved in throughout the year.  These projects included bake sales, service projects, and volunteer opportunities.  The volunteer opportunities especially piqued my interest, as the club’s main focus is volunteering at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter.  The first opportunity to volunteer is on Monday, and I hope that I will be able to attend and be an active member of this club.  Finally, the president explained the options for the trip this semester.  We all filled out our preferences on our surveys and the meeting ended.  The meeting was very brief, only fifteen minutes from beginning to end; she explained that meetings are typically short since most of the important information and events are discussed by email and in the Facebook group.