This is about being a Teacher’s Assistant and the process involved with that. First you have to have taken the class you will be TA-ing for and also the lecture that comes with the class and have a grade of A (ok, this part I don’t remember, it’s either A- and above or A alone) in both. Then I recommend getting your schedule for spring together before approaching the teachers because you want to make sure the lab you are planning on TA-ing for is going to fit into your schedule without any conflicts.
Next you want to approach the professor and ask them if they need a TA. In some cases, their sections might be full so you want to make sure that they are free and that they want you. Then when you get an OK from the professor there is some paper work involved and paper work is always annoying and never fun BUT keep in mind the end goal. The end goal is fun.
I TA for Dr.Wohlrab for chemistry 1 and it is a lot of fun. If you are prepared and know your stuff, this will be a stress-free job. You basically go around and help the students individually and make sure that they are doing ok. Sometimes you get to do cool things like throw really reactive metals into water and watch them blow up! I have to be honest and say that out of the two and something hours that I’m there, I’m laughing for 95% of the time. As the TA you kind of get to set the mood in the room. Wohlrab is awesome and kind of gives me my own space and lets me do my thing, but other teachers are good too, which brings me to my second TA job for Dr.Baranowski and Bio 1.
This lab is different only because it is a group setting. It’s more open and you’ll have to walk around less and you’ll be helping three people at once instead of 1 but its always fun. The biology labs I would say are a little easier because you get to work with other people and so you have three minds working at once, whereas in chem lab its just you. Either way, I suggest being a TA to anyone who is interested because it is a really FUN job. I also recommend Dr. Baranowski too because she’s super nice and organized and again lets you do your own thing and help out. It’s good when the teachers let you have some charge because you get more of an experience helping kids and you’re more involved.
one last thing: these go as zero credit courses on your transcript.

Magic, everyone knows it is an optical illusion, but no one can tell you how tricks are performed. Recently I went to see this comedian/magician/balloon artist, a lot of different professions I know, and it turned out to be a great time. His magic skills included a levitating girl, a card trick, and a reappearing trick done with someone’s phone which was put inside a balloon and then reappeared inside a series of boxes. All of these tricks were awe-inspiring to say the least. I knew how a few of the tricks were done, but the levitation was too farfetched for me to consider, and the only word I could use to explain was magic. Although magic was a part of the show, it was not the main attraction. The main attraction was his balloon artistry. He currently holds the world record for the fastest balloon sculptor and his work is actually amazing. When the show started he handed out giant flowers to some audience members, and then began his work. First he crafted an alien on a motorcycle, which I received, then Charlie Brown, then more and more. What I loved most about the show was his audience involvement. Throughout his show he would ask for volunteers that could come up on stage and help him with a trick. One trick was a card trick where he had the person pick a card and he would be able to retrieve that card. Not only did he pick out the correct card, as one would expect, he revealed a neon sign that had the same number and symbol on it as the card that was picked. There was no way of knowing for sure that he would pick the eight of hearts, but the volunteer did. When I got called onstage I had to throw a balloon into a laundry basket and he said that if I could, I would get a dollar. And I made it into the bin. The other person onstage at the time also had to throw a balloon into the bin, but he was told that he would get 19 tries and $100 if he made it into the bin. The balloon sailed up into the ceiling panels as he threw it, so he got a dollar for being a good sport. Here is where his speed with balloon sculpting came in handy; he asked each of us what we wanted made out of balloon. He chose to have a giraffe and I chose a moose for my friend, and he also made me a dog because I was giving away my balloon. While I waited onstage, with him having no prior knowledge of what I was going ask for, he crafted the balloon creature with incredible speed and precision so that I barely had to wait a minute for him to be finished. The show itself was great and I loved the interactive show, but most of all I liked the feeling of being a little kid again, in a world where magic and balloons were a simple reason to be happy.

Dr. Heather Boschey, a Stockton College Alumni, now works for the center of American Progress in Washington, D.C. She is a senior economist and her presentation was about the differences of men and women concerning the job world. She mentioned that over 50% of women make up workers in the U.S. and women are becoming breadwinners and co-breadwinners, but there is still a salary gap. A woman breadwinner by definition is a single working mom, or a married woman that is bringing in as much or more than her spouse. Women have been taking an advantage and gaining educational attainment over men, but are still getting paid more for the same job. Does that make sense? Two qualified individuals with their pay being different due to their gender. The career wage gap over a 40 year period causes women to make $400-$500 thousand dollars less than men over a lifetime. What would these women be able to do with that extra half a million dollars? Send their children to school? Live in better houses?

Then Dr. Boschey talked about the recession and recovery of the 2008 Recession. There was a $787 billion dollar recovery and reinvestment act set in place by the Obama administration. A lot of state and local government jobs were lost. The U.S. is starting to slowly see a rise in jobs and a decrease in unemployment, but that is only growing very slowly and should be increasing 300% more than what it is. This is a serious problem for the country because another recession in the next decade would be detrimental.

Boschey did an excellent job with her presentation. She was extremely clear in her speech, very organized, and did not read straight off of the PowerPoint. She did a Q and A session and had an answer to every question that came her way. She is very knowledgeable and that is important when you are presenting because you do not want to look uneducated. I am very glad I had the opportunity to attend this presentation because I learned a lot. She opened my eyes to see how effected the average U.S. citizen’s life was effected by the recession.

On the 1st of December, I attended a play at the PAC. Tom Dugan’s, Simon Wiesenthal
: Nazi Hunter is a historical play that attempts to depict Wiesenthal in the
most accurate manner possible. The play is constructed in an educational but
creative way. The story is told by Wiesenthal (played by Dugan) through direct
conversation with the audience with segments that consist of vivid flashbacks.
It is a one man play so every character is played by Dugan which makes it both
humorous and also gives the flashbacks a sense of authenticity since it is told
from the point of view of Wiesenthal.

The play opens with Wiesenthal walking into his office for the last time. This is
his final day working at the office in which he has worked for most of his
career. Wiesenthal tracked down numerous Nazi officials who either escaped
capture during the allied liberation, or were slippery enough to evade trial.
There is a main focus of the play which Dugan makes clear early on. Although
this is a play about the life of Wiesenthal, Dugan has constructed the play to
make certain aspects about his life that he thinks are important, more
apparent. Wiesenthal tells the audience that in all his time as a Nazi Hunter,
he has yet to ask one very important question, which he does not get to until
the very end of the play.

About half way through the performance, Wiesenthal tells a story of how he was going
through documents found in an old Austrian church when a small not fell out of
a book. He picked it up and discovered that the note was a farewell letter to
whoever might find it. The little boy who wrote the note, Albert, stated that
he was the “last one” and that they were coming for him. He wanted to
be remembered and said that he was bestowing his trust upon the person who
would find this letter. The line “I trust you” had a big impact on
Wiesenthal and it was this that drove him through many of his endeavors. By bringing
Nazi’s to justice he kept Albert alive.

The play ends with Wiesenthal about to leave, but not before he discusses the
question that he forgot to ask himself throughout his whole career. Since he is
now retiring, “who will remember Albert?” Then, he entrusts the
audience with his memory of Albert, repeating the line “I trust you.”

The play is very touching and informative. I think that although there is a lot of
information about the holocaust that is currently out there, this is a play
which takes the isolated endeavors of one man and relates them to everyone
else. We need to band together and spread information in order to ensure that
genocide will not occur.

On April 3, the Annual Multicultural Dinner, sponsored by Multicultural Connection, occurred in the Campus Center Event Room.  This event was free, though donations for the KONY 2012 campaign for Invisible Children were taken.  While I had not initially been planning to go, I’m happy I did, for it was a very fun night full of different foods and entertainment!

At the tables a few little things from different cultures.  There was Japanese Pocky, German Merci chocolate, a Dutch coffee candy, and fortune cookies.  The real food for dinner was also just as diverse!  There was some Chinese beef, a Spanish rice dish, and more!

Once our food had been happily eaten, the entertainment began!  The entertainment consisted of dances from a variety of cultural.  An Asian club at another school did a Chinese New Year (Dragon) dance complete with dragon costumes and a beating drum.  They also did a dance to an American song and a waltz to a Chinese one.  There was some hip hop by an African-American dance company, some various Spanish dances including one used for zumba, one girl belly-danced, and more!

Also, prizes were given away at a raffle.  They were little banks shaped like globes, so that really brought the theme together!  The event ran for 2 hours with all of these things going on, and it really was amazing!

This experience was like no other.  I saw dances and heard music from other cultures that I may not normally have seen and heard.  While I listen to Japanese music, I don’t usually listen to much Chinese or Spanish music, so this was a great time to expand my music base. I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a fun, free night!  I will definitely return next year.

The Day of Scholarship was held on March 22nd, 2012 and it held a variety of presentations by students and faulty.  The presentation I attended was called People’s Court: Too Much Mickey or Not Enough Mickey?  The presentation was run by Professor Beverly “Bev” Vaughn and some of her students from her choir class.  In the presentation she was the moderator and she had three students on the side of “pro-Mickey” and three students on the side of “against-Mickey.”  The three students presented their arguments that varied from Disney makes us happy and has us express ourselves to Disney has women dependent on men and leads to domestic abuse.  Professor Bev had us jump up and cheer “Go Mickey!” if we agreed with the point or point our thumbs down and yell “Donald Duck!” if we disagreed.  We discussed if the over abundance of Disney in our childhood made us happier or just drain our parents of money.  At the end the audience could give their points.  The whole presentation was loud and lively and was a lot of fun.  The entire time I was laughing at the antics of the room, while also seeing the different sides of a cultural argument.

On March 22, 2012 Stockton held its 12^th Annual Day of Scholarship. This day is dedicated to the presentations of both students and faculty alike. To begin the day, the Provost’s Welcome by Harvey Kesselman was held in the Campus Center Event Room. Afterwards, presentations were held throughout the campus at locations including the Campus Center Event Room, Campus Center Theater, multiple Campus Center meeting rooms, and several classrooms in the F wing.

While some of the presentations were presented in the form of speakers and power points, many were poster sessions. It was the poster session in the Campus Center Event Room that I had the privilege of viewing. Some of the posters represented local organizations. These included: The Atlantic County Department of Public Safety and Office of Emergency Preparedness (focused on the safety and education of the public on disasters and necessary responses), Arc Angels (hopping to improve the lives of intellectual and developmental disabilities in Atlantic County), South Jersey Field of Dreams (a non-profit org. based out of Absecon, NJ allowing physically and cognitively challenged children enjoy baseball), The Atlantic City Rescue Mission (advertising their Family Fun Run/Walk and their goal of ending homelessness), and many others.

Other posters featured current studies being done. These included: The Effects of Physical Activity on Achievement in School-aged Children, Interactive Instructional Technology Utilizing Mobi Pads, Sediment Characterization of New Jersey’s Coastline, and much more. Two displays that I found particularly interesting were Investigation of Underwater Hearing and the display of Ornithischia: Ankylosauridea. The first was a study based on human hearing under water. The goal was to investigate how the solidity of the human skull and the path of pressure waves to electrical stimulus in the brain would affect human hearing under water when compared to hearing in air. The latter was an interesting poster on new finds and discoveries of the dinosaur Ankylosaurous. Along with the informative poster was a display of several fossils of the creature.

Throughout the day, many interesting exhibits, sessions, and presentations were held exhibiting the talent and efforts of the many faculty and students of Richard Stockton. The Day of Scholarship allowed these individuals to show others what they have been doing, and spread the word on many interesting topics. I hope that this day continues to be part of the Richard Stockton calendar, for its beneficial opportunities are quite noticeable, and the impact on the college community quite intellectual.