On November 14, about 15-20 classmates in the Honors freshman seminar joined President Harvey Kesselman and his wife for dinner at the N-Wing Cafeteria.  Since we were all uncomfortable at first, nobody said anything until President Kesselman broke the ice with a joke about how quiet we all are.  He introduced himself and made all of us introduce ourselves and give a general background about ourselves.  Although the instructions were quite clear, it was hilarious how many people couldn’t remember what to say for their background.  Everyone made fools of themselves and made this meeting much less formal than it started off as.  We had many discussion sessions relating to the recently concluded election.  He asked the general audience questions such as; why do you think Trump won, are you surprised with this outcome, and what are your feelings toward the outcome?  Thankfully everyone who shared their input stayed tranquil, especially because it is such a heated topic.  President Kesselman seemed to be very impressed with the knowledge and thoughts the students shared with him.  After we got off the topic of politics he shared with us information about the expansion and construction of Stockton University.  He compared modern day Stockton to the school that he was a part of its first year as a college.  It was outstanding how much this school has grown and how much change could occur in such a small time.  At the end of the dinner as we were wrapping up Kesselman asked the students for ideas and thoughts that he could help implement or aid the students with.  This experience was a great opportunity to get close to such important people and be introduced to a more formal scene.

In early October my friend Christina and I volunteered to work concessions at Stockton Entertainment Team’s Hypnotic Intoxication event.  The event was a great turnout, over 200 students attended to see a professional hypnotist makes fools out of willing volunteers.

He started off by explaining the science and history of hypnotizing.  He told us when and why he started and explained that he is not only an entertainer but an educator.  The crowd looked at him puzzled but he said at the end of the event he would explain how he was an educator.  Once he taught us the basis of hypnosis he warned the audience that he would be safely manipulating our minds.  He told us that only a few of us would genuinely be effected by the process.  He started off with a simple mind trick to see who was a viable volunteer for the show.  We were told to clear our minds and convince us that our feet were stuck to the floor.  It had honestly worked on me so I went up on stage with other people that were extremely effected by it.  My friend Christina and about 2/3 of the audience sat down because there was no effect on them.  Next he did a much more intense and detailed trick which, because it worked on me, I have no recollection of what it was about.  However, at the end of the trick I regained complete consciousness so I sat went off the stage and back into the crowd.  I was the first of many people to back out, some because it had minor effect and other because the people were freaked out and did not like having their brain tampered with.  The hypnotist played many tricks on the students on stage like making them think they were celebrities, making them pass out on command, and of course, making them think they were drunk.  The last trick was the water bottle intoxication trick.  This involved every given a water bottle filled with whatever alcoholic drink they wanted to imagine.  During this skit the hypnotists took two girls drinks unknowingly and then gave them back a minute later.  Then he woke up all the hypnotized volunteers and told us the dangers of parties.  He showed us all that it doesn’t take much time for someone to drug a drink if it is not watched at all times.  We all learned that you can never be too careful at a party by being cautious of your surroundings. This event was a great time and we all learned a great lesson from it.