On Thursday November 17^th, I had the opportunity to table for the first annual Run Run Rudolph 5k race.  Organized and planned by Kate Volpe, this race was taking place in order to raise money to support one or more families during the holiday season.  However, while not enough money was raised to completely support an entire family’s holiday needs, we were able to raise enough money to buy many gifts for several families’ gifts.  While this wasn’t our exact goal, it was a tremendous first step for the first ever Run Run Rudolph and is a joy to be able to help out those in need a little, even if we did not reach our goal.  During my shift we raised around $50 dollars in order to help people during the holiday season receive gifts and aid when it is often needed most.

There is a deeper meaning than just buying gifts for people though.  The holidays represent a time of helping others, and really extending the olive branch to those less fortunate or more in need.  Whenever given the chance to help, I’ve learned to jump on it.  The enriching nature of just knowing others are feeling joy they might not have felt without our help makes all the difference in the world to both them and us.  By helping out someone in need now, hopefully this inspires them to help others in need when they become able to.  If everyone just took the time to help just one person, the world would be a more thoughtful and caring place.  The world is so full of hate, disagreement, and hostility, that it is more important now than ever to lend a helping hand in making just one person’s life just that much better however you can.  It will reward not only yourself, but the entire population as the domino effect takes place in a positive and helping fashion

I participated at the Commuters on the Go Afternoon of Service on October 13^th, 2016.  Commuters on the Go sponsored the event in the Board of Trustees’ room with a great turnout of honors and non-honors students.  The environment was warm and friendly as we all sat at round tables and were instructed on different crafts by my honors mentor, Zeal Kamdar.  In my group we were instructed to make birthday cards to give out to less fortunate people who couldn’t afford cards for loved ones.  Other tables made stuffed animals to handout to others in similar situations as well.  While this was only a one-time event, the event felt like it will make a difference when the time comes for the items to be given out to the people they were made for.

After the event, we participated in a reflection session where tones became much more serious.  We discussed the effects that reaching out to disenfranchised populations can have.  The situation is often more serious than it seems and is less the fault of the people who are in those situations, but the situations they were thrown into.  One example that hit particularly hard and really drove home the point that my group and myself discussed after was the example of a veteran who returns home from war with either mental or physical trauma, or perhaps both.  Too often these brave individuals lack resources to get them back on their feet.  Sometimes they come back with hardly any money to afford a place to live, food, and clothes.  Perhaps a person in this position might have trouble getting a job too, making it even harder for them to become a normal civilian with all necessities taken care of.  However, if we could improve situations like this that someone might be in, why wouldn’t we?  That is what this outreach event was all about, the underlying ways in which even a little empathy and compassion will go a long way in order to help those in need.  I really enjoyed the event and look forward to participating in more of the same or similar events to make a difference in the community around me.

Recently I attended a Presidential Debate on Monday, September 26^th.  The event was held in the Board of Trustees’ meeting room and was packed with what seemed to be well over 100 students.  Since as how this is one of the most polarizing and controversial elections in US history, I was not surprised to find out that roughly 84 million people had tuned in to watch it.  This number was just on television alone, not counting all the live streams on social media platforms, and other services like YouTube or similar websites.  In addition to just watching the debate, the organization provided a large screen with a real time feed of popular tweets that were related to the debate from regular people and celebrities and other famous people as well.  In addition, they provided refreshments and played “Debate Bingo”, using many key words as board spaces.  Overall the event was well put together and smoothly functioning for all who were in attendance.  I highly look forward to returning to the future debates being held on the live screenings.

The debate started off fittingly, with Clinton telling Trump how “nice” it was to be there on the same stage with him.  The debate continued on just as all the campaigns have to this point, with plenty of untrue statements, mudslinging insults, and heated arguments.  It’s quite interesting to see two people with similar goals and objectives, who seemingly have so much hatred for each other.  Nonetheless, both Trump and Clinton proceeded to push their ideas while still trying to answer some of the question asked by the moderator Lester Holt.  Overall, looking back makes me question the stability of our future with leaders so unpredictable, scandalous, and controversial as these two.  The next four years will certainly be quite interesting (and possibly terrifying) to watch unfold. For this event itself, all that can be said is that the debate hosted in the Board of Trustees’ room went much smoother than the debate itself, unsurprisingly