Almost every student who attends Stockton can admit that they spend a lot of their time in the Campus Center regardless of whether they live on campus or not. Some like to go to the Dunkin Donuts located inside before class to grab breakfast, while others simply like to bring their laptops and use it as a place to work. When I usually go to the campus center, I find myself spending most of my time playing pool or ping pong in the game room with my friends. Since many students also enjoy spending time in the game room, the Stockton Entertainment Team decided to host the SET Game Room Tournament on the night of November 11 to help students get to know each other better and to have fun.

The Game Room Tournament actually consisted of three small tournaments that allowed its participants to compete to see who was the best ping pong, pool, or shuffle board player. While participants were waiting to be called to compete in their game, SET also provided everyone with free refreshments and music in the background. Each participant was allowed to sign up for as many tournaments as they wanted. In fact, they could have competed in all three if they really wanted too. Since I knew that I was not very good at ping pong or shuffle board, I decided to only compete in the pool tournament since that was a game I was very comfortable with. Unfortunately for me, I had to play against a tough opponent in the first round and lost by not hitting the eight ball hard enough and giving her an easy shot for the win.

Even though I was only able to play one game of pool, I still had a very good time watching my friends play and enjoying the atmosphere. From what I could tell, it seemed like everyone was enjoying themselves too. It was cool to see how good some of my peers around me are at some of the games, and more importantly everyone was a good sport. Whenever someone was struggling, their opponent or a more experienced player watching would offer advice to help them learn and improve. I felt that SET did a very good job organizing and setting up the event because there was almost no confusion despite the large group of people participating and they had enough refreshments and activities to keep us busy even if we were not currently playing. The Game Room Tournament was a big success in my opinion and I hope that they have another tournament again next semester!

On Friday, October 10, 2014, Stockton held its annual Spirit Day in honor of Homecoming Weekend 2014. The event was organized by the Office of Student Development and it encouraged students to show their school spirit by participating in various Stockton related activities.

One of these activities included a college t-shirt exchange. If you had any t-shirts or other clothing that came from another college or university, you were able to exchange them in the campus center and receive a new Stockton t-shirt in return. All of the items that were exchanged were donated to the Atlantic City Rescue Mission. Along with the t-shirt exchange, later that night Stockton held its annual Homecoming Ceremony at Big Blue. The purpose for the ceremony was to celebrate and honor all of Stockton’s student-athletes, as well as crown the 2014 Homecoming King and Queen, Mat Greer and Laura Groh. Students who stuck around to see SET’s One Night Stand Up comedy show later on were served free pizza and drinks, and were also given a free Stockton Homecoming 2014 t-shirt.

Based on the amount of people that went to and participated in each activity, it seemed very clear to me that there was no shortage of school spirit at Stockton. Almost every student I saw was wearing at least one article of clothing that represented Stockton, and everyone was having a great time during the ceremony and comedy show. Back in high school, Homecoming always seemed centered around the school’s football team and Homecoming Court, and excluded everyone else. As a Stockton student-athlete, I was pleasantly surprised to see that every Stockton sport was recognized in some shape or form and no one was forgotten about. It’s small things like this that help bring the Stockton student body even closer together instead of separating us by focusing on only certain groups or individuals. Overall, Stockton Homecoming 2014 was a major success and I cannot wait to see what’s in store next year for Homecoming 2015!

My friends and I just recently had the pleasure in participating in the Stockton Glow Walk and 5K on the evening of September 23, 2014. The purpose of the event was to try to draw out as many members of Stockton’s student body as possible to come out and walk or run for a good cause. Members of the Delta Zeta sorority and Alpha Chi Rho fraternity were responsible for coordinating the event and all of the proceeds went to The New Jersey Hearing Aid Campaign and the American Cancer Society.

The event began at 8pm at Big Blue, and by the time we arrived the place was already packed with hundreds of people. Despite the fact that the sun had already set and it was completely dark out, Big Blue’s track was completely lit up thanks to the hundreds of glow sticks decorated around it. After paying the $5.00 participation fee we were immediately each given a glow stick accessory and told that we would receive an additional accessory for each lap we completed. We ended up jogging/walking 8 laps around the track by the end of the night and received an additional 8 glow stick accessories to show for it.

It seemed like everyone I saw and spoke to was having a great time while I was there. Some groups of friends were trying to compete against one another to see who could get the most glow sticks by the end of the night while others simply just enjoyed being out there and getting the opportunity to meet other members of the Stockton community.  For this being the first ever Glow Walk and 5K, I would say that the event was a major success. Delta Zeta and Alpha Chi Rho should be really happy with themselves for doing such a good job planning and coordinating such a successful event and I really hope that they plan to do it again in the near future!