I traveled to the Barnes Museum in Philadelphia along with many other honors students on October 24^th, 2015. This was a great opportunity to see priceless works of art from some of the most notable artists in modern history. According to The Economist, “[The Barnes Museum] holds the greatest private collection of post-impressionist and early modern art in America.” Not only was it a great opportunity to see the art, but it was great to travel into the city and explore what it has to offer.

This visit to the Barnes Museum was a great educational experience. The museum offered commentary for a good portion of the pieces through a portable music player. We were given the opportunity to view the art with our own interpretations, as well as listen to the commentary and learn what the artist had achieved with their work. Many of the paintings were from groundbreaking artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Cézanne, and Van Gogh. To be in the presence of a works touched by such legends was pretty incredible. It was also a surreal experience to see works that date back to the 15^th century. It was hard to grasp that I was observing a painting that had lived in countless settings and had been touched by individuals that had passed away hundreds of years ago. I had a great time viewing the art in the museum.

The day managed to get even better when we went to Sabrina’s Café. After a short walk, we found a small restaurant with a crowd of people waiting outside. After some quick research, we found that it was one of the most famous brunch restaurants in Philadelphia. Luckily, we avoided the wait by grabbing seats at the bar. The food, music, and service were amazing. Overall, I had a great time on the honors trip to the Barnes Museum and I would love to go there again!

I attended the “Stockton Outdoor Adventure Retreat” this summer from August 25^th to August 27^th. This program (which is most commonly referred to as S.O.A.R.) is designed to help incoming freshmen adapt more easily to college life, and I found that it did just that. I had the opportunity to meet other incoming freshmen and talk one-on-one with professors and T.A.L.O.N.S. (student volunteers that helped run the trip), who were very insightful as to how to get involved and get as much as possible out of my time here at Stockton.

S.O.A.R. was filled with ice breakers and many other opportunities to get to know everyone. Before S.O.A.R. began, I was moving into my dorm with my mom and my stomach was in knots. I was really nervous about making new friends, but as soon as I got to Camp Ockanickon, everyone in my tribe bonded through different activities. We swam in the lake, climbed on the ropes course, collaborated in team building exercises, slept in tiny cabins together, and did a ton of ice breakers. These experiences brought us closer together and I made some great friends. I felt a great sense of community between all of the students by the end of the trip, and I could tell that everyone was relieved to feel so comfortable so quickly.

Looking back at S.O.A.R., I am very happy that I was able to go on this trip and I would recommend it to every freshman. Just the experience at Camp Ockanickan alone was amazing, but the ability to bond with other freshmen and receive advice from the upper classmen volunteers made it even better. I always receive a friendly wave when I see someone that I met at S.O.A.R, and I have taken advice from the upper classmen by getting involved on campus. I couldn’t be happier about my decision to attend S.O.A.R.

I attended “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” performance by the Aquila Theater Company at Stockton’s Performing Arts Center on October 2^nd, 2015. This performance brought three of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories about Sherlock Holmes to life: “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”, “The Adventure of the Yellow Face”, and “A Scandal in Bohemia”.

The Aquila Theater Company made the production fun and enjoyable to watch. In order to keep the lengthy production interesting, they embellished the performance with jokes and other twists while remaining true to the source material. One interesting twist was that the iconic character of Sherlock Holmes was played by a woman dressed in men’s clothing. Even more interestingly, the other characters referred to Sherlock with feminine pronouns. She did a great job portraying Holmes’s eccentric and sociopathic personality. It was especially impressive when she played the violin just like Holmes did in the original stories.

The actors did a great job, especially since they were entertaining for around three hours. The only negative side of the production was that there were a lot of details that the audience had to pay attention to in order to understand what was going on. Consequently, it was hard to keep that kind of attention for such a long period of time. This could be the source of negative feedback, even though I thought they did their best to keep the audience’s attention with comedic relief.

Overall, I really enjoyed this performance. I had read “A Scandal in Bohemia” a long time ago and I think they did a great job bringing it to life. I thought their jokes were pretty funny, and that it was even funnier how they performed stories where Holmes was unable to solve the case. I would recommend this production if the company decides to come back to Stockton and perform it again.