At 10 a.m. on Saturday, October 7th, I met my parents outside my dorm room for University Weekend. It was the first time I had seen my parents for a few weeks, so I was excited to spend some time with them and show them around campus now that I knew it pretty well, whereas last time none of us knew our way around very well. As we were walking around and I was explaining the different parts of campus center and the various parts of the freshman dorms, I realized that even though I had only been here for a month, I already knew the university so well and it hit me that Stockton was now my home.
First on the agenda was breakfast, where we ate a good meal and got ourselves ready for the day. We also used that time to catch up and they asked me how I was doing with college. Much to both of our delight, I could finally be excited about my schoolwork and be passionate about what I’m learning in the classroom.
After breakfast, the parade started and we stood on the side as we watched various groups and organizations pass by in their golf carts. Both my parents and I were impressed by how enthusiastic everyone was about their respective club. I enjoyed how the parade emphasized the true community that Stockton is. So many people were joining together and doing great things together, and I loved it.
The best part of the day happened after the parade, and that was walking around with my parents, browsing the diverse shops lining the walkways. As we walked around I continued to point out details about the campus and continued to amaze myself with how much I already knew about my new home. We pet some stingrays, pied some fraternity members, and shot on a hockey net. This part of University Weekend was very well executed and it did a great job of representing the diversity and community of Stockton. We finished the day off by watching the men’s soccer team face off against Rutgers-Newark. Although they couldn’t pull off a win, I could always appreciate sitting back and watching sports.
University Weekend was a fantastic opportunity to catch up with my parents and spend a meaningful day with them. I thought everything about the weekend was very well executed and my parents will definitely be back for the next one.

I woke up earlier than I had wanted my first Saturday morning at Stockton University, but I knew my day was going to have a lot of meaning to me, so I powered through my initial desire to fall back asleep and got ready for my day. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, but I hoped to leave feeling good about the work I’d done that day.

My first activity of the day was to sew pillows out of old fabric for AtlantiCare. My mom works for Children’s Specialized Hospital, so I knew she’d love what I was doing. Although I had never sewn anything in my life, an upperclassmen who had done this before was a huge help and taught me a simple sewing technique and so my service to my community started. That first girl who helped me really made me think that the Honors Program was one big community within the school. I wasn’t able to get an idea of that until she helped me learn how to sew. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish my pillow because of the time constraint mixed with my hardly amateur sewing skills. So, I moved on to my second activity of the day.

My next activity, which was my absolute favorite by far, was the meal packaging activity. My job was to refill the tubs of grain and rice while everyone else had various jobs of filling, weighing, and packaging the meals. The part of the activity I liked the best was hearing the coordinator yell out every 10,000 meals we packed. I was amazed how quickly we hit each 10,000 meal threshold and how many total meals we packaged: 10,000 in one hour! Although I hear the cliché saying, “Even a small number of people can make a huge difference!” a lot, this activity really made me live it out and I’m so proud that we could all make a huge impact on so many people.

My next activity was, honestly, the most underwhelming part of my day. I sat in the small theater in the campus center lobby and listened to a talk centered on New Jersey’s opioid epidemic and Chris Christie’s efforts to curb drug addiction in the state. It gave a lot of good information, but I craved real service and being active while sitting there. After the talk, I moved onto my last activity.

My last activity of the day was the Civic Service activity where we were able to “vote with our feet” and debate hot social issues. I liked this activity because I was able to hear different perspectives on issues that I had a very narrow perspective on. I actually changed my mind on one of the issues while people were debating, for which I was given praise by one of the people coordinating the activity. After we finished voting with our feet, I made a political poster that was posted on a wall with a lot of others. Some were funny, some were serious, but overall, I appreciated the wide variety of issues that Stockton students were passionate about. Can you guess which one was mine?

I’d give high ratings for the day as a whole. I learned a lot about how people can work together to make differences in the world, and it was a great first impression I had of the Honors Program at Stockton. Everyone was so helpful and so friendly, and I am so proud to be a part of the Honors Program.