I live in D100, the first floor of the honors residence halls. Although I sleep there, I am usually found spending time with my friends in D200. Due to the fact that I am always in D200, I am involved when they have their floor programs. These programs are ran by the RA, the resident assistant, of the floor and is meant to boost morale and raise the sense of community. Julie Eller, the D200 RA, had a floor program that was meant to boost self-esteem. This program took place on Tuesday and was very successful.
The point of the program was to draw yourself as a Barbie doll. This meant drawing your imperfections and your favorite characteristics. Some people colored their dolls in with crayons or colored pencils while others cut paper and pasted it to the naked Barbie. My doll included larger hips, a larger waist, darker skin, and a thicker bone structure and had construction paper apparel. Julie then made us take pictures with these drawings and posted them on the board outside of the bathroom.
Around March 6th, 2015, Julie will send the pictures of us with our dolls to the Barbie headquarters or at dosomething.org. As part of a “realistic Barbie” movement, she hopes the head of Barbie will finally get the hint and make realistic dolls. The date is very important, it will be Barbie’s 56th birthday. There are many other organizations and volunteers doing similar projects. The unrealistic nature of Barbie has become a worldwide concern in recent years. The public see the perfect plastic mini-me as a catalyst for self-esteem issues. I could not agree more.
Pre-teenage girls are the main Barbie doll consumers. During those years, girls are going through a lot of different changes. The onset of puberty causes her to question her motives, her friends, her decisions, and her body. She begins to compare herself to those around her. Her perfections are inflated and her successes are deflated. Having the image of this perfect, yet unattainable, woman’s body is unfair to the girls. It will only exacerbate her feelings toward her own body.
I think it was such a great program idea because in college, there are still recurring feelings of doubt and unhappiness regarding body image. Freshmen can experience the weight gain, the comparison of themselves to older or more beautiful women, and the stress of new prettier friends. Boosting self-esteem is a great way to increase the morale of the floor and the general happiness of the resident; this is the main job of an RA. Julie is the best RA on this campus. She cares about her girls and is always available for help to listen and talk.
This is just one of her many programs this semester, but it is my favorite. She read us the life-sized proportions of Barbie and it is ridiculous that the makers of Barbie thought this was a good idea in the first place. I saw how other people drew their dolls, and although we are not all art majors, our rendition of Barbie looked better than the original. With the addition of witty captions like, “Strong is the new skinny” there was a unanimous realization that we do not need to look like Barbie to be pretty. In fact, if we did look like her, we would be unhealthy and look very emaciated. I am very pleased with the way the program went and if I ever become and RA, I will think about doing something very similar.

On Saturday October 11th, as part of the homecoming festivities, comedians Nicole Byer and Kevin Barnett came to Stockton. They performed in the Big Blue gym from 8-10pm and gave a fantastic performance. The comedians are from MTV’s hit show “Girl Code” and “Guy Code.” Since my brother and I love watching this show together, I invited him to come with me. Unfortunately, by the time I got in touch with my brother, it was unfeasible for him to make it down here.
Realizing that what we had planned for over a month was no longer possible, I decided to have enough fun for the both of us. I see myself as someone very similar to Nicole Byer. Not only do we look alike, but we have the same sense of humor, and act in very similar ways. It truly was an honor to see her in person. I sat in the front row, centermost seat. It is safe to say that I had the best seat in the house.
When Nicole walked on stage, I cried. I was seeing my role model and a very big part of me wanted to hug her. However, I kept my composure and screamed until I lost my voice, which I got back a week later. Her jokes were hilarious and I definitely had enough fun for both my brother and myself. Not only did attending this event make me happy on the inside, but it also allowed me to see how little school spirit Stockton has. Maybe I was a little biased because I was more excited than anyone else I knew. But, there was not a lot of screaming, excitement, or audience participation at the show. I thought maybe it was because people did not like Nicole Byer. Not only is that impossible, but I have noticed this at other events that weekend as well. The lack of school spirit is ultimately an issue I wish to fix during my years here.

For the eleventh annual Day of Service I had every intention of joining the Galloway Thrift Shop group. I wanted to do a simple project that took place inside to shelter me from the ninety degree weather. When it was time to go to the table of the group we wanted to work with another student took the remaining position. I then went to the group my friend signed up for, the Eastern Service Workers Association. I asked my group leader, Kiyle, what activities we would be doing. He told me that we  would be going from door to door in the desolate areas of Atlantic City talking to those in need. This was exactly what I did not want to do so, needless to say, I was very unhappy.

After a fifteen minute ride to our location we were given pitches to say to the people that actually opened their doors. Our main goal was to notify them of the resources available to them and their family if they became a member of the ESWA. They could receive clothing, food, shelter, legal representation, and medical care for a voluntary due of $0.62 a month. We encountered many types of people while on our trek. Some people refused to open their door, others seemed utterly uninterested, but most had a gaze of hope when we spoke about the help available to them.

Recently, four casinos in Atlantic City have closed, leaving thousands of people unemployed. This, with the lingering effects of Hurricane Sandy, caused a lot of the residents to feel helpless and lost. One of the people we spoke to was a homeless man on a bike, yet we saw at least two abandoned houses on every street. Another woman we interviewed had two young children and little food in her refrigerator. It was horrifying to see the way some people lived, but it felt amazing to be able to provide a glimmer of hope.

On our way back to the college we had a reflection session and the first topic Kiyle brought up was whether or not anyone has experienced this kind of poverty before. I spoke up and told my story of how I was homeless twice in my high school years and went to bed hungry more nights than I can count. I can relate to the way most of those people lived. Between my brother’s murder and my unstable living conditions it was hard for my family to get by. We had no knowledge of the resources available to us, so we had to rely on ourselves to make it. It was nice to be on the other side of the door.

I started my Day of Service project with grief and regret. After walking around for about an hour in the heat, rejection after rejection, I was losing interest in the project as a whole. Then, after signing up a few members and hearing the stories of the residents, I realized just how vital my being there with the ESWA was to their standard of living. Had we not knocked on their door and gave them flyers and information, they would not know how to help themselves out of the downward spiral of homelessness, unemployment, and hunger. I finished the day with happiness and gratification. It felt like I was giving back and helping those who aren’t strong minded enough to get through this alone, I could not have asked for a better organization to help.