On Sunday I met with other students from the Stockton Honors Program in the Campus Center to shop for toys to donate to the Toys for Tots program. The Honors Program had collected money from selling t-shirts in the previous week and putting the profits towards shopping. When I arrived, I was surprised to see that there was already a substantial amount of students there. I had not been expecting such a high turnout since most students are not yet back on campus on Sunday afternoons. After assembling in the campus center, everyone headed to the local Toys R Us in order to shop. There, everyone divided into groups in order to ensure that different age groups and genders were represented. My group ended up shopping for younger girls around the elementary school to middle school age group. We picked out gifts such as Uno cards, adult coloring books and pencils, crafts, and Disney Princess action figure sets.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity that being a part of the Honors Program presented to me. I had not previously put much thought into how much money goes into shopping gifts during the holiday season, so it was eye-opening to experience how expensive even simple toys can be and what it must be like to shop as parents. Toys for Tots is an amazing organization that helps so many children each holiday season and I’m glad that I was able to be a part of how Stockton contributed their donations. Organizations such as Toys for Tots highlight exactly how easy it is to get involved and give back, something that is often forgotten during the holiday season. All anyone needs to do is pick up a single inexpensive toy while at the store and by doing that they could make such a large impact on a child’s life. I also had a great time shopping and talking with my group during the outing. After, a reflection session was held to talk about the experience overall and reflect on what could be done similarly or differently in the upcoming years. I was extremely thankful for not only be able to participate in this event but also that it counted towards the Honors Program requirements.

Back in September, I reluctantly attended the Meet the Greeks event along with a few other girls on my floor. I was hesitant to attend because I did not know much about Greek life in general or at Stockton specifically. I had, of course, heard many of the stereotypes surrounding members of Greek life but was interested in finding out for myself what it was about.
Upon arriving, there was a long line just to enter the campus center event room. I was surprised to see how many people attended. The room was packed with people, which made it hard to walk from one spot to another. There were also so many different tables to stop at that it was hard to tell which tables I would be interested in. It was easy to differentiate the sorority and fraternities members based on either their formal attire or matching shirts. I surprised to see that there were so many different sorority and fraternity organizations at Stockton. I had not previously realized that Greek life was so prominent on campus. I was glad to have a large variety of choices if I ever decided to become a part of Greek life on campus.
I soon realized that there did not appear to be enough members of each sorority to accommodate the large crowd that the event had attracted. There were long lines to talk to most of the sorority members, and it was hard to hear what they were saying once you finally had a chance. Due to the large crowd, there were often lines at different tables to talk to the sorority members. This did not leave a lot of time to spend at the different tables since there were many people waiting, which resulted in not getting a lot of information.
Despite these circumstances, I was still able to learn a lot about Greek life at Stockton. Most sororities had a large focus on community service, which is a large part of being in the honors program at Stockton. Meet the Greeks definitely made me check the misconceptions due to societal stereotyping of those often involved in greek life. I was able to learn how to get involved and what the sororities dedicate their time to doing and their mission goals. While I am still not sure whether I will join in the future, I am still glad that I went to this event so I have this information in case I become interested in the future.

Volunteering at Habitat for Humanity

For the past few years I have volunteered off and on at my local Habitat for Humanity Restore. The Restore takes donations of household items such as furniture, appliances, and even decorations from the public. The store then sells those items at low rates to others in the community who could not otherwise afford those items. The profits made at the store are then used to construct houses through the Habitat for Humanity for low income families.

Before I began volunteering there in high school, I was unaware that the Habitat for Humanity Restore existed. I knew friends who had worked with Habitat for Humanity to build houses, but had not heard of anyone volunteering in their Restore. Physically building the houses with the Habitat for Humanity was not exactly a form of volunteering that appealed to me, so I was excited to find another way to help out the organization.

While volunteering there, I helped unload donations from the back of trucks, organize furniture and shelves, place prices on items, as well as help customers locate items that they were looking for. My shifts there were never dull because there was always something to do and new shipments of donations arriving multiple times a day. I made so many friends there who were volunteering alongside me who I would not normally have a chance to interact with otherwise.

Overall it was an amazing experience being able to be a volunteer there. It was amazing to see how many people were impacted by being able to buy essentials for their houses at a lower cost. Since many families could not afford to buy new items at the store, shopping at the restore was their only resort. I’m extremely thankful that my community has a resources like this since most second hand shops do not sell hardware and appliances for house. I loved being able to meet the people I was helping as well as the idea that the patrons who were shopping there were also helping since their money spent there was going towards building houses for low income families. I was thrilled to find out that volunteering there would fill my service requirement for the Honors Program at Stockton since it’s already a part of my life. It’s amazing to be able to continue to volunteer there and be able to see the progress I help make there over time.