I have always been involved in countless things. Being that I am striving to be a physical therapist one day, I decided I’d join the Health Science Club. When I went to the first meeting, I found out that this club is a brand new club, and that this is the first semester that they are even holding meetings. I am involved in a couple of clubs on campus, but none of them have been in the middle of their founding semester.

Being that this is a new club, there are a bunch of things that need to be done before you can officially call it a “club”. First, a budget needs to be created. There needs to be a budget created so that if you were to hold special events or bring in certain speakers, you would be able to have the funds from Stockton to be able to do so. Also, a structure needs to be set up within the club that will make sure that all of the jobs are being done within the club. From there, we need to work together to get our name out there amongst the student body. This semester, we need to do little fundraisers or hold relatively cheap events (because we do not yet have a budget) so that we can inform the general public that this is a club worth joining.

There are a great number of students at Stockton that are going to be working within the health field one day. This club is a great way to get those students involved.  I can foresee this club being very large one day, but for right now there is only about 15 people actively participating. We have to start somewhere, right?

Every day when the temperature is higher than 65 degrees reminds me of why I love the spring. And in my opinion, Stockton College in the spring is ten times better than the spring at home. Everyone walks around campus with smiles on their faces as their seasonal depression ends.Students are fully garbed in flip flops, shorts and sunglasses. As you enter the residential life areas, there are people everywhere; people playing Frisbee, basketball, volleyball, sunbathing, doing homework, and taking in every single ray that the sun is beaming.

In this gorgeous weather, some of the professors hold class outside. I have not experienced this personally, however my Plant Ecology lab in my Biodiversity and Evolution required that we go outside on one of the most gorgeous days of the semester. It was more than enjoyable, even though we were doing work. I can’t wait for the rest of the semester to be flip flop weather. This weather makes the atmosphere at Stockton a million times better because everyone is happy and smiling. And the beach is only 15 minutes away!

I am a member of Stockton’s field hockey team. Being that I am a part of the team, I was required to run an indoor tournament that was held in Big Blue on Sunday February 24^th. The tournament was all day long and we were in charge of setting up, running the tournament, and cleaning up. The tournament was broken down into two sessions, the morning and the afternoon. The team was then split into each session so that no one had to be there for the duration of the day, unless they wanted to. Some of us were “ball girls”, timers, score keepers, DJ’s, and some ran the snack stand.

What was unanimous amongst all of us players was that we all wanted to put our sneakers on, grab our stick and get on that court. Because we were in charge of running the tournament, we were watching our season opponents play and were dying to get in the game. Considering our season ended in the end of October and most of us haven’t played since, we were itching to get our hands on a stick again. Unfortunately, we were unable to. Maybe next year, we can play in the session that we are not running! For example, if I worked the morning session, I would play in the afternoon, or vice versa. I guess we will wait and see!

Every so often, being that I am a residential student living in a dorm room, there are mandatory floor meetings that every person that is living on the floor must attend. They are run by that floor’s residential assistant, or RA, and generally have some kind of exciting draw that hopefully makes the students want to attend.

We got word of our floor program for February by means of posters hung on our dorm room doors. This meeting was called “Perks of Being a Cupcake” and we were going to eat cupcakes and watch the movie “Perks of Being a Wallflower”. I, along with many of the girls on my floor, was thrilled! I love cupcakes and I have been dying to see that movie.

 I went, and the first thing my RA told us was to dig in to the cupcakes. We decorated them with icing and sprinkles and devoured the cupcakes. As we are biting into the cupcakes, my RA is explaining what the organization “To Write Love on Her Arms” is. She is explaining how a decent amount of people are struggling with depression at a young age and don’t show it on the outside, nor do they tell people. They keep it inside. As she is explaining this, one of the girls on my floor bites into her delicious looking cupcake to find a blob of toothpaste in the middle. My RA was trying to discuss about how people can be significantly different on the inside than one may assume, as she demonstrated with the cupcakes.

After the cupcake with toothpaste incident, I realized how brilliant and accurate that analogy was. No one was expecting to bite into a toothpaste-filled cupcake. No one expects that certain people struggle immensely with depression either. This floor meeting was definitely one of my favorites because of the exceptional meaning that was behind it, and because we got cupcakes and watched a movie!

Between the ages of 3 and 13, I was a competitive dancer. I practically lived at the studio; I ate dinner there, did my homework there, and took naps in between dance classes. In 8^th grade, I quit dance and started playing field hockey. Even though I am an athlete now, I will always have dance in my bones.

When I came to Stockton and found out that there were Zumba classes being offered to students for free twice a week, I was ecstatic. I love working out and I love dancing; Zumba was the perfect combination of the two. What is so great about these Zumba classes is the amount of people that attend each class. There are easily 100 people at each class, each of them dancing like there is no tomorrow! These students are having a fun time while getting a great workout. The instructors say that you can burn up to 500 calories each workout! It is so hard to not get into the blasting music and the contagious dance moves!

It doesn’t matter whether you are a girl or a boy, coordinated or not, Zumba is a great way to spend your Monday and Wednesday nights, especially as a freshman. The classes are located in I wing gym which is not a far walk from the freshman dorms, and are only an hour long. Zumba is definitely worth attending! I highly advise any Stockton student who enjoys loud music, dancing, and working out to give it a shot! You will not regret it!