On November 6^th, Stockton hosted its first annual Sleep Out to raise funds for Covenant House. Covenant house is a nonprofit organization that provides care and services for homeless, abandoned, and abused youth who have no other place to go. Last month, I visited Covenant House for a class project and saw what an amazing place it was. When I heard about the sleep out I was more than willing to join. Sleep outs are hosted all over the US annually. They raise money to help combat homelessness and they help to show its participants what it is like to homeless by sleeping outside on a cold night.

Before attending the event, I heard horror stories of participants huddled together in their sleeping bags on a freezing, rainy night. Luckily for us, it was beautiful out all night. Most of the night, people were wearing jeans and t-shirts. I kind of felt like I was cheating because most nights aren’t this beautiful and people have to combat freezing cold weather. For the first half of the night, we played games and did other cheerful activities to get to know each other better. I almost forgot what we were doing it for. Around midnight, we went inside and there was a presentation. We were shown videos about people our own age who were struggling with homelessness and the positive impact Covenant House made in their lives. After the video, people I knew started getting up and sharing their own personal struggle with homelessness. After that, we went back outside and it was time to sleep. Most of us ended up pulling all-nighters because even though it was beautiful out it was much less comfortable then we were used to.

Before then, I always looked at homelessness as a faraway concept that affects people that I would never know. Now I know how prevalent homelessness is in my own community. The Sleep Out helped to open my eyes and now I am much more aware of a very important issue. About 20-30 people participated and we raised almost $1,000. I am excited to participate next year even though it might not be as beautiful out.

Every Tuesday at 8 pm in room f111, American Sign Language club holds a meeting. I first found out about the club at the get involved fair three weeks ago but I went to my first meeting just last Tuesday. I really wanted to go to the meetings because I am a social work major and sign-language would be really useful in my future career. I have long been interested in learning sign-language, but I have never had the opportunity too.

The first half of the meeting was run like a lecture, where one person was in the front teaching and everyone was following along. It did not feel like a class though because after she showed us a motion we all did it too, so it was very interactive. We did not do anything too advanced. We learned words like friend and student.  We also learned all of the colors and the alphabet. After we learned all the new words, we broke off into groups so that we could practice. We asked simple questions like, “What is your name?” and “What year are you in?” It was amazing how much information I learned about people just by signing to them. At the end of the meeting they had sign-up sheets for all of the events that they were going to be doing for the rest of the year.

After the club, I felt really proud of everything that I had learned. I did not learn enough to have a full-fledged conversation with someone and I do not remember everything that we went over, but the club helped me to understand that learning basic sign-language is not that hard. When someone loses their hearing, they lose their primary form of communication. If everybody learned basic sign language, like the alphabet and simple greetings, then deaf people would have a much easier time communicating with rest of the world. I believe that ASL club is one of the most important clubs on campus because it helps students learn a skill that is very important, yet not very prevalent, in our society.

I attended a program for incoming freshman and transfer students called S.O.A.R. which stands for Stockton Outdoor Adventure Retreat. Three days before the official move-in day, the students who attended S.O.A.R. arrived on campus. When we arrived at Stockton, we were handed a beaded necklace. The color of the necklace indicated which tribe you were in. I was in navy tribe. When I walked out of the TRLC, I was greeted by an overwhelming amount of clapping and cheering. After I told the group what tribe I was assigned, one of the TALONS from my tribe grabbed me and helped me to put my stuff away in my new room. All of the TALONS I met throughout SOAR were enthusiastic and willing to help, but one of my TALONS Taryn was the most enthusiastic. We did not stay at Stockton for long. After our rooms were all set up and we said good-bye to our families, and we got on buses and drove to a camp that was not too far from Stockton.

Most of SOAR was a blur, but I remember having an amazing time. We played a lot of icebreakers, which made it easy to meet people and make friends. We went kayaking and swimming in the lake. We created and performed skits mocking our TALONS. We did so many fun things I can’t even remember them all.  My personal favorite activity at SOAR was the high ropes. Everyone was a little nervous going into it, but the nervous atmosphere quickly changed into one of encouragement once people stared going on the ropes. In order for someone to go onto one of the high ropes, they had to have five people help them. They were assigned different positions on the ground in order to make it safe for her to be suspended thirty feet in the air by ropes. Having friends on the ground made it much easier to complete the course. It felt really nice to have friends cheering me on.

We did a lot of amazing activities at SOAR. It allowed me to branch off and do things I never thought that I would ever do. The most important thing I got of SOAR were my friends. I met so many new people and I’m still close with a lot of them. When everyone else moved in on August 28^th, I felt really relaxed because I didn’t have to deal with the pressures of trying to move all my stuff in and meet a thousand new people at the same time. I recommend SOAR to all incoming students, because it made my transition to college very easy and even fun.