Author Archives: devitof

Honors Field Trip to the Mummers Museum and the Italian Market

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November 1st 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.

11th Annual Day of Service

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On September 6th I attended the 11th annual Day of Service. The Day of Service hosts a variety of different charities and other groups that are committed to helping the community. You were able to choose if you wanted to get involved with a service project that was either on or off campus. There was over five-hundred students who volunteered their time for the Day of Service. It was so great to see how many college students want to be involved in their community and help out, even if they only do service one day a semester.

The service project my friends and I chose was the Shore Ministries Thrift Shops, one in Galloway and one in Northfield. My roommate and I were separated from our three other friends and we went to help out at the Galloway site. We helped out from 9 am to about 1 pm and it felt really good to help the lady out. She was the only person who was working at that site so not only did we help her organize and clean the store, but we also helped her sell items to customers. I could tell that running the store alone was most likely very overwhelming and that is probably why it was so unorganized.

The thrift shops are owned by the Shore Ministries which is a church group. The thrift shops began first as a place to store items that were donated to the church until the church decided that selling the donations was a good way to raise money. The people who ran the Northfield store had shared this information with the other members of our group. I think that thrift stores are a great idea because you can sell clothes and other items to less privileged people at a much lower price, especially for items in such good quality.

Working at the thrift shop for the 11th Annual Day of Service felt very rewarding. It was a very unusual service project but it was very interesting and we found a lot of interesting items in the store. There were many more service projects to pick from and I definitely think I will attend the Day of Service every time it’s held for the next four years that I will be attending Stockton. If you haven’t attended a Day of Service yet, you should, because it’s very rewarding and a good way to volunteer for your community. The event is held by the Office of Student Development and they hold them once every semester. There are also many different types of Days of Service that are held throughout the year and those are always good to attend as well. Any way to make contribution to your community through volunteering is a good one.

Get Involved!

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Stockton puts together lots of events throughout the beginning of the year to try to get the students, especially incoming freshmen, involved with activities. One of the multiple events to try and get the students involved that I attended was actually named “The Get Involved Fair”. The Office of Student Development and the Office of Service Learning were the two organizations that held this event. It was a huge event, held on the 16th and 17th of September, that succumbed the whole academic building and tons of groups and clubs were there basically advertising themselves to be joined. I thought that this was a great idea because it was a great place to see all of the many clubs Stockton has to offer and you could even leave your name and contact information so that the clubs could contact you with meeting information.

While I was at the fair, I signed up for a lot of clubs and groups. One group that I liked in particular was the Disney Association. I plan on attending their second meeting that’s coming up this Tuesday, September 30th. With the Disney Association, you can sign up to intern in Disney World for a semester and it seems like a great experience. I would love to work at Disney because it’s my favorite place in the United States. Without the Get Involved Fair, I may have never known when the meetings would take place and may have never actually gotten involved with that group like I wanted to.

Along with the Disney Association, I also found many other clubs like the Italian Heritage Club, the Admission Ambassadors, and Greek Life interesting. I’m very excited to get involved on campus and hopefully meet lots of new people with common interests as me. I also hope that joining these clubs that interest me will help me build skills that I can use for the rest of my life. If you missed the Get Involved Fair this semester, they hold them every semester so you will still have another chance to get involved. Even without the fair, it’s very easy to find out about clubs and groups on campus and if you contact them they’d most likely gladly give you information about when and where their meetings are held.