Richard Stockton’s 9^th Annual Day of Service, held on September 8^th, assisted in connecting students with local organizations and volunteer opportunities. The function was run by the Office of Service-Learning, which “encourages relationship growth across faculty, students, and community partners”. The program began in the Campus Center event room, which was instantly occupied by over 300 volunteers and additional staff. A total of 25 community organizations participated in the event and offered assistance to volunteers. The impressive attendance contributed to the overall success of Day of Service, and marked a record in the school’s history.

Examples of the participating community partners were Circle K, Lake Fred Cleanup, South Shore Thrift Shop, Community Emergency Response Team, Books Without Borders, and more. These organizations challenged students to step out of their comfort zones. For instance, several students were asked to clean Lake Fred and remove mounting garbage. Others volunteered their time in thrift stores, sorting through and cleaning inventory. These activities may have been unusual and surprising to students. However, the experiences held countless benefits to both society as well as volunteers.

During registration for Day of Service, I indicated that my preferences were working with children and the environment. Those in charge compiled this information and placed me in the Girl Scouts of America. I had assumed that I would be learning about the organization and assisting young scouts in their attainment of badges. To my surprise, we were asked to compile paper work. Paper work? Wasn’t this Girl Scouts? Weren’t we supposed to be outside, identifying insects and leaves? It took a few moments for my mind to become adjusted to the idea of organizing folders, badges, and papers. To my surprise, this volunteering project challenged my ability to process information and quickly respond to directions.  I learned to compute incoming information quicker, and stay focused on one single task.

I am grateful for my experience at Day of Service, and plan to volunteer with Girl Scouts in the near future. I was able to make connections with the scout leaders, who were more than willing to assist me in my forthcoming efforts. Along with other honors students, I plan on attending the 9^th Annual MLK Day of Service on Monday, January 21, 2013. With our unified efforts, we can give back to society while simultaneously reaping countless rewards.

Read the Spring 2011 edition of Honorable Mention, the Honors Program newsletter. Many thanks to editor Matthew Widjaja and his talented team of writers and editors.

The Ninth Annual S.O.A.R. trip was destined to be great because all the planning from the previous year slowed over into this year. Due to an unfortunate accident, the weather decided to downpour as a hurricane passed through our area, last year’s S.O.A.R. trip was cancelled, but it was full speed ahead this year. As excitement built, the freshman started arriving on campus to unload their things and to load the buses. Energy hit its peak as we pulled into camp and the experience began. The trip was intended so the freshmen could make friends, and I believe that those of us who succeeded had the time of our lives. The trip began with unloading our bags, heading to the cabins, claiming bunks, and then meeting for dinner and icebreakers. The icebreakers become a staple part of every freshman’s diet as each new club or activity decides that the ice has not been broken enough. However, these icebreakers became bonding moments and although I groan when I hear the word, I am excited to relive the memories I made while playing icebreakers with my fellow classmates. Also while on the trip we learned to respect our differences and find common ground, even when far above it. The ropes course was a terrifying, but exhilarating test of will. When you are up on the ropes and all that you see is the ground, you learned that there were people routing for you. As anyone crossed the rickety bridge or ran up the uneven log, there was a network of people cheering from the ground. The positive motivation and the collective will for the person to succeed carried on into our classes where we help one another and cheer for them to do well. The entire trip built teamwork between the tribes and promoted ingenuity and creativity in problem solving. At the end of the day, the memories I have with the friends I made, will not go away, and I encourage all freshman to attend the event, even if you do not like camping. The friends, fun, and early check-in make the entire trip worth the time and money.

As I walked out of my final class of the day into h-wing, I was greeted by a swarm of people stationed at tables throughout the halls, hailing to people as they passed. I found myself wondering, “So this is the Get Involved Fair. Why isn’t in the gym?” I’m not sure if I am just used to fairs or events involving a lot of tables being in gyms because of high school but I found the whole situation quite chaotic. I’m pretty sure even if I wasn’t used to the whole gym idea I’d still find the scene quite chaotic. However, amongst all the chaos there was a sense of order to be found. The tables were not just thrown willy-nilly around the hall; they were spread as two long rows pushed to either side of the hallway. There was an obvious section for the Greek Life clubs, and you could eventually see that the services Stockton offered was to one side of the hall, and actual clubs were to the other side of the hall near j-l wing. While the Greek Life and the Stockton services looked decorated and had some thought in them, I felt as if some of the clubs could have added a bit more pizzazz to try to get members. One club that really got to me in the way of “pizzazz” was the Buddhism club. They had a flashy poster, freebees and other enticing ways of getting people interested. The Ultimate Frisbee club incorporated music and a dance routine as another way to entice possible members. I should also realize though that a lot of people probably had an idea of what club or clubs they wanted to join. It’s just for the person who is looking around for clubs that interest him…such as myself. Their welcoming nature was quite comforting though.

There were a fair amount of interesting clubs that were open for joining this year at the fair and are still open to joining. “E.D.I.B.L” is probably the leader in the pack of most interesting clubs as it is basically about using bugs as alternative source of protein. Some other clubs that I joined were the Asian Student Alliance, the Music Union Club, the 91.7 FM Radio, Circle K, Ultimate Frisbee, the Photography club, and the Fencing Club. These are but a few of the possible clubs you can join if you are a person who somehow missed the entire fair, (which would be kind of hard to believe since it was on for two days).

One of the things I enjoyed about the fair was how convenient and how long it ran for. The fair was on my way to my dorm and to my classes, so I never felt as if I’d have to go out of my way to visit it. It also ran on reasonable hours, (10am-7pm and 10am-4pm). I just feel that the fair is an important part of making sure the Stockton students know what is available to you and I hope you all had the chance to take it. If there is a reason that you couldn’t make it though, don’t fret. The Stockton website has a pretty clear list of most of the clubs and also there are still a lot of fliers still hanging around.