On Saturday September 10, 2011 I attended my first Stockton Day of Service.  The experience thrust me into an unfamiliar environment and challenged me to do new things.  I was assigned to help out the ESWA, or Eastern Service Worker’s Association.  The organization offers aid to local low income workers and seeks to help them in any way possible.  The ESWA fights for the lowering of costs of utilities like electricity and gas.  The ESWA allows workers to join their cause for only an optional cost of 62 cents per month for dues.  The organization meets often and discusses other ways it can help its members.

I arrived at the headquarters of the ESWA having no idea of what I would be doing for the day.  I learned my task would be to go door to door in a neighborhood and spread the word of the ESWA to those who may be in need of its services.  Everyone broke off into teams of 3-4 to accomplish the task quicker and with more efficiency.  My team’s leader had previously done a door to door scenario and guided us along.  Many houses we stopped at had no one home or nobody answered the door.   We were however successful in getting information out to several people who seemed to be interested.  While others flat out said no, we were not discouraged and managed to cover a large area in such a short time.  The experience was definitely good for me and helped me to get a look into the lives of those who are not as fortunate as me.  The service project which I was assigned was not really what I was used to or expected after filling out the short survey online for pre-registration.  Thought, at the end of the day I was just glad that I could be of assistance to an organization that fights for the people who need help the most.

The Stockton Day of Service on Saturday September 10, 2011 was sponsored by the Get Involved Club on campus.  This was a campus-wide event that occurs once every year as a Day of Service with a Reflection Barbeque afterwards.  Students are assigned to various service projects based on their interests, some of which include cleaning the Absecon Lighthouse or Lake Fred.

Some students, including Honors students, were assigned to the Absecon Lighthouse project.  This project consisted of weeding the grounds around the lighthouse, which were heavily covered.  Students also cleaned the lighthouse’s insides.  All of the stairs and landings were covered in a fine dirt layer, and the cleaning was very meticulous, for the paint and brick had to be preserved from deteriorating during the cleaning process.  The cleaning consisted of gently wiping a spot with a wet paper towel, then wiping it with a small amount of cleaner fluid, and letting it air dry.

The History majors were also given a treat.  The curator of the lighthouse’s museum inside gave History majors a special opportunity to look at and inventory a historical object.  The object was a pressed glass paperweight with a 1930s print of the lighthouse inside of it.  The student was taught how to inventory, what to look for when doing inventory, and what certain parts of the object were called.  This aspect of the Absecon Lighthouse project was used to open History majors up to the idea of museum work and internships.

All in all, I found this experience to truly amazing, for I was the only History major in my group to experience what a curator must do on a daily basis.  It also fills one with a sense of satisfaction when they can look out at those patches of ground without any weeds and know that the grounds are beautiful again.  This project opened up new doors to different service projects, different internship opportunities, and different jobs that I can have a career in with my history degree.  I definitely recommend the Day of Service to any other students in order to broaden their horizons and open their minds to new career and service opportunities.

I went to the Get Involved Fair this week. It was very exciting. There were tables everywhere and tons off music and brightly colored posters decorating every table. Everyone wanted you to join their club whether or not you were good at whatever they were advertising.

The first say was inside because of “inclement weather” but it was sunny pretty much all day. But the second day was outside and there was chalk writings advertising for clubs all along the sidewalk from my housing building to the fair. They were really colorful and eye catching, you couldn’t help but watch the ground as you walked.

I personally think the fair was much better outside, the tables went in spirals and lined the path and really made the circle feel alive. I had never seen so many people all out on campus at once. I joined two clubs, and I’m happy with that. My friends joined three or more just because they could. I am happy that they found interesting things to join, but it’s hard not to when you see how many clubs and organizations there were out there. Every table was decorated just to advertise what their club was like, and it was gorgeous. The Chemistry Society had a picture of an atom and their banner that read “Chemistry Society” and they had bismuth crystals on their table (which by the way and GORGEOUS!). The Gaming Club on the other hand had an game cube out on the first day since they were indoors, but the second day they had a chess board out. The Anime Club had drawing and shirts out on their table, Student Senate was registering people to vote, and EDIBL had candy bugs on their table.

I really look forward to seeing this again next year, and maybe I’ll be sitting at a table advertising for some new club that I’ve founded. There were so many clubs to join, and some didn’t even have tables out but you could hear people talking about them and wondering why there were no tables. I really enjoyed the Get Involved Fair, and I think it was a pretty good start to this semester. Hopefully it will continue to be as awesome as it was this year.

Being accepted into the Honors Program I was invited to stay overnight on campus during the summer for the Honors Experience and orientation the following day. So on July 10^th I arrived on campus early and was instantly greeted by students and staff directing me where to go. There was a whole day planned with different events for my parents and I to enjoy. After dropping my belongings off in the dorm I would be staying at that night we made our way to the new Campus Center where they held breakfast and a short introduction to start the day. After breakfast we attended an informational meeting and then were separated from our parents. We were then split into groups and current honors students led icebreakers and other information sessions. There was a time we were able to ask the current students any questions we had and they gave the best answer they could or found us help if they could not provide the answer. Before we went to lunch we had a volleyball game going on, which was the most fun we had all day. Also, throughout the day we took pictures for our student id and got information on how to pick classes. Later that night the current honors students held a murder mystery, which was entertaining and you could tell they put a lot of working into it. After this we got to go back to the dorms and use our free time how we wished. I spent a lot of time outside talking to the upperclassmen that night about their experiences on campus. The next day, July 11^th, other students arrived and we went on to our regular orientation. We went to more informational meetings and got to pick our classes. Overall I enjoyed getting to have this overnight experience. Everyone participating was helpful and answered all my questions.

Tuesday September 20, 2011, I volunteered at the Blood Drive being held at Stockton’s Sport’s Center (Big Blue). This blood drive was headed by the Red Cross in a continuing effort to spread aid to those in need. During the drive, students, faculty, and residents alike all came to show their support and donate blood for this great cause. It was encouraging to see how many people came out and took the time to donate. So much so, that the future planned blood drives to be held at Stockton can already expect a large turnout of students and others (who could not be fit into the donation schedule this week).
During the blood drive, I spent most of my time helping those who had just given blood. Once one has donated, it is common for reactions such as light headedness, dizziness, and nausea to ensue, along with the possibility of more severe reactions such as syncope (passing out) or convulsions. To attempt to prevent or lessen these reactions as much as possible, myself and several other volunteers provided water, juice, and food to those who donated blood. A close eye was also kept on the donators to ensure they were not bleeding, and were well enough to leave when ready. While there were several cases of new donators passing out, we were lucky to avoid any consequential injuries, or more harmful reactions.
I myself very much enjoyed being able to help at this blood drive. I was happy to be able to help those who donated, especially knowing how much help their blood would be giving others. Knowing how much of a difference this will be making to those in need is very reassuring, and makes the time and effort put forth completely worthwhile. I hope that all of the future events hosted by Stockton can have the same results and further our positive impact on our surrounding and distance communities.

On September 10, 2011, The Office of Student Development held its Eighth Annual Day
of Service. More than three-hundred students came to volunteer, exceeding the
maximum capacity of the event. Everyone was able to sign up for a specific area
of volunteer work, even though there were more students than expected. Most of
the events ended very early. Some students were pleased with this because they
had other things to do, however others were disappointed they could not help
longer. After everyone came back from their separate events, there was a
reflection barbeque. Although most people knew that there was a barbeque, few
people realized that they were supposed to be reflecting on what they had done.
There were blue cards with questions on the table, but they were not read
because people were too busy eating and socializing.

Along with experimenting in a different
field of community service, students were able to meet upperclassmen and learn
about an organization that they would not have appreciated otherwise. My field
of community service was the Lake Fred Cleanup. The leaders of that group told
us all about the Water Watch club and the Internship opportunities with
AmeriCorps. I enjoyed walking around outside with other students, cleaning up
the lake. After Stockton’s Day of Service, I decided I wanted to join Water
Watch, and I am sure that was the case with many other participants. Overall,
Stockton’s Day of Service was very helpful to both the community and the
volunteers.

Megan Cohalan

A few weeks ago on September eighteenth I, along with a group of friends, went to the second girls’ volleyball game of season in which our Stockton Ospreys were facing the Rutgers-Camden volleyball team. In all going to the game was fun; the Ospreys won and we got free Stockton memorabilia out of it.

We walked into Big Blue, the Stockton gymnasium, at about seven at night, as the game was about to begin. We were pretty excited because they were giving away free tee-shirts sometime during the game. We, as well as the other Stockton students, were pretty enthusiastic about the game, cheering for each player as she ran onto the court after being announced. The girls got ready and began. At first, our, or at least my, faith in our team was a little shaky since in the first set of the game the Rutgers-Camden team won in a close match of twenty-five to twenty seven. Even though it was a loss, Stockton, both players and fans, retained their good spirits for the second set and it payed off. The girls pulled out a solid win in their second set, much to the joy of the players and crowd. The fact that this was the set in which they gave away the tee-shirts also helped with crowd moral. The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves since, even though most of the friends I came with came for the free shirt, they decided to stick around for the rest of the game because they were having fun. Continuing with their phenomenal playing, the girls on the team came out with a win in the third and then the fourth sets of the game, giving them an overall victory in the game.

I personally had fun at the game and it seemed like the rest of the crowd did as well. I would suggest that everyone should consider going to the volleyball games; they are exciting and enthralling for all who attend.