Yesterday, I attended a reflection session to provide input on the Honors Program at Stockton. By attending the session, I was able to learn more about the Honors Program and ultimately was reminded that my time in the program will provide me with innumerable skills for my future.

While one student inquired about the difficulty of the courses -concerned that they would not be challenging enough- an upperclassman of the program informed us that the Honors Program’s mandatory courses all sufficiently challenge the students. As a student who loves a good challenge, I felt more confident in my choice to continue in the Honors Program, as I contemplated how I felt about the program.

Some of the benefits I realized I was receiving from the project was predominantly the varied connections and opportunities. The Honors Program links to all kinds of different organizations and people that one can meet through the various things the program organizes in addition to the many service projects that I will be completing throughout my time here at Stockton.

The leadership, communication, and organizational skills that I will learn from being at Honors Student solidify my conviction to be a part of this fantastic community.

As I headed toward my 9:55am Honors Freshman Seminar today, dozens of clubs and extracurriculars were strewed about the halls. Although I was brought up to ignore the countless boardwalk stand attendees and New York City hagglers, I resisted the instinct to walk by. By doing so, I found myself signing up for clubs that I never even knew the school offered while finding the single club I was searching for.

Although I was the Managing Editor for my high school’s school newspaper, I had not considered continuing my amateur journalism career while at Stockton; however, after meeting some of the members of The Argo, I signed up for email notifications and have planned to become a regular writer. I have always been interested in submitting opinion articles to online publications, so I look forward to the criticisms from my peers at Stockton in order to develop my abilities as a writer in the field of journalism.

Outside of writing, my efforts in the vegan movement and my yoga practice consume a significant portion of my time. I had never heard of Stockton having a Holistic Health/Wellness Club and was pleasantly surprised to find a collection of people with my common interest. Upon first looking through the freshman seminars at orientation, I hoped to join a course on holistic health, but did not receive such an opportunity due to the mandatory Honors Freshman Seminar. After finding a extracurricular in the field of my interest, I am glad to be enrolled in a course outside of my comfort zone that is helping me participate in the Honors Program.

Unsure as to whether I would pursue environmental efforts as my service-learning projects in the Honors Program, I knew I wanted to be involved in the school’s garden when I first entered the Get Involved Fair’s halls. I was able to find the garden and sign up for the emailing list right before class started.

I now have new connections to my interests on campus that will hopefully connect me to new people and new opportunities.

This past Saturday, on September 12th, I participated in Stockton’s Day of Service. Although previous attendees of the event were disappointed at the many lectures going on throughout the day -due to their expectation of more hands-on service projects- I enjoyed gaining awareness of the many issues and now feel prepared to join with the charities whom presented to combat the problems of my society.

One of the foundations I was able to hear about discussed the importance of educating the incarcerated citizens of the state. The percentage of people who return back to prison within the year of their release is appalling. And education opens new opportunities for the inmates which will help keep them out of jail when their times come to depart. I look forward to meeting the various people involved in the program and using my skills in reading comprehension, grammar, and social studies to help others.

Although not a charity I will be directly contributing to, Join Together Atlantic County (JTAC), presented an intense presentation on prescription drug usage and abuse which radically shifted my perspective on the many substances circling the community. This lecture helped me to understand just how dangerous both the dealers and their product can be and helped solidify my aversion to substance usage. It additionally helped me understand why New Jersey’s heroin issue continues to grow and what can be done to slow down the epidemic.

Ultimately, the Day of Service facilitated my awareness for local issues and provided me with the resources to combat these issues. I look forward to the presentations of next year’s program.

Winter Break is a great time for relaxation. It’s perfect for spending time alone or for reconnecting with family and friends. I spent my winter break enjoying the holiday season, while using this time as an opportunity to plan for the upcoming semester. Adjusting my class schedule and ordering my books, I made sure that I would enter the 2016 school year with confidence.

After spending a few weeks home with my family for the winter break, I was eager to return to Stockton University for my Spring semester. Equipped with my Hyundai Elantra filled with clothes and books and my sidekicks –my parents– I headed down the parkway towards campus. Because I actually knew where I was going this time, my move-in experience was much more relaxed in comparison to the Fall. After carrying up a few bags, I was ready to get settled and prepare for my upcoming semester. Move-in is much easier in the Spring as a returning student because of the informality and familiarity of the experience. Because your remaining items from last semester are still in the room, there’s less stuff to move in and it feels like you’re just returning to your second home.

I spent the first few days meeting up with friends, talking about break, and preparing for classes that would be starting. When classes began, I was ready to face my new schedule and finish my freshman year strong. Although as a tip for the future returning freshman, don’t leave any dirty laundry over break –no matter how little. When everyone is settling in and making plans to catch up, you want to be able to enjoy your first few days back with friends and not worrying about keeping an eye on your laundry.

Dr. Melaku Lakew’s dialogue presentation on “Globalization and Migration, Income Inequalities” helped shed light on the economic disparagement that has only become a larger issue over time. He discussed the need to allow refugees to improve the populations in other parts of the world –a need which is restricted by many national policies. During this presentation I thought of my Honors course this semester, The Global Community, taught by Francisco Javier Sanchez. In class, we often discuss issues that occur around the world. The issue of restricted immigration has yet to come up in class; however, colonization has been a class discussion topic.

I noticed the juxtaposition between the presentation and our class discussion. Dr. Lakew represented the positive benefits of globalization and interspersing peoples while our class dwelled on the negative impacts that non-native peoples have had on the social, political, and economic structures of various societies. The people migrating, the scale of migration, the time period, and the destination all deeply influenced the conversations, but ultimately I saw a connection between the constant need for human migrationary patterns. No matter the time or the place, throughout history, humans have constant needs for relocation. This dialogue prompted me to analyze various components and allowed me to make connections to the other dialogue I attended –in addition to the connections I made with my Global Community course.

Today I completed by formal recruitment experience and was offered a bid for Stockton University’s chapter, Zeta Tau Alpha. I recommend anyone even slightly considering greek life to take part in this process. The first round let’s you meet all five of the panhellenic sororities and each round both you and the sororities rank one another and are matched up in a computer system. You may not get called back and have your recruitment end if none of the sororities see you as a potential member or you can always drop and end the process if you don’t see yourself in greek life.

The first round is to meet all of the sororities and talk about your interests and academics while you also ask the sorority questions so you get to know each other. The second round is dedicated to the philanthropies so you can learn about the organization that the sororities are dedicated to funding. Preference night allows you to see your top two sororities and make the decision of which one you want to receive a bid from. And Bid Day is the final step in which you finally find out which sorority has requested you to join. The process of formal recruitment allows you to open yourself up to an friendly environment and meet a lot of amazing people that you may one day be able to call your sisters.

While media depictions of sorority and fraternity life are amusing –at best– they are obviously hyperbolic exaggerations that do not reflect the true qualities of sorority life. As someone who deeply cares about both academics and service, the panhellenic community offered me an opportunity to come together with young women to passionately stand for those values while being introduced to the individual cultures of each group and welcomed into a wide network of resources.

The panhellenic community –and each sorority– has a GPA requirement in order to join. While involved in greek life, students are encouraged by their chapters to maintain their academic life while introducing an additional educational element. Each chapter has its own history that each new pledge will have to learn. Each chapter also has its own philanthropy that it supports via fundraising and service efforts. The latter mentioned is what primarily motivated me to consider greek life.

In Formal Recruitment, the women who sign up get to meet each sorority throughout a series of rounds and each time, you interact with less chapters. Each round narrows your options until you’re left with two and in the final round, you’re offered the bid of the sorority that’s right for you! I couldn’t be more excited to wait to find out which chapter I will be a part of for the next three years!

Although the first semester hadn’t even ended, people were excitedly discussing the housing arrangements for next year! In order to be eligible, I had to attend a housing renewal session. During this session, I learned about how I can do every step to increase my chances of preferred housing next year at Stockton.

The main benefit I received from attending this session were the great tips I learned about the process. Planning early is a must! I didn’t understand why everyone was trying to get their groups together early, but the most credits that your group has total, the better your time slot is to sign up for your housing. I also know that my group leader has to be timely and organized because s/he has to complete each step of the progress on time or else the entire group will be punished with unpreferable housing. The session also warned us to make sure our group leader would listen to our preferences and accurately represent what the whole group agrees on.

In addition to the tips I learned, I also realized something during the session: to stay relaxed. It’s really a very simple process and if you follow the steps, you’re most likely going to get the housing that is most optimal for you!

In Stockton’s own Holocaust Research Center, I attended a Dialogue which identified the “forgotten Holocaust” of Roma and Sinti peoples post World War II. Like most people, I was relatively unaware of this mass minority population, commonly referred to by the –offensive and inaccurate– term, “gypsy.” The Roma –who live throughout Europe– and Sinti –who live in German and German-speaking countries of Europe– are both without a home country and are therefore minorities wherever they go.

Lacking a national identity, they remain persecuted throughout history and in contemporary European territories such as Poland. The most powerful example of historical disrespect that the guest speaker, Joanna Kwiatkowska, explained was in town, Lety. An area that used to be home to a concentration camp for Roma and Sinti people has not been preserved as a museum or center for remembrance, like many other sites that have seen tragedy. Lety is currently has a pig farm on the land of the camp.

Ms. Kwiatkowska even explained the challenges in her own life and a modern Roma person as she struggled to stay in her Polish school –regardless of academic potential, racial tensions cause most Roma children to be viewed as “incapable” of learning as quickly as the Polish children, causing them to often attend schools for the “slower” and often disabled children. This issue –to which I was previously blind– has opened my eyes to another culture in the world and another example of human injustice. After attending this dialogue, I feel confident in the future of developing awareness for the Roma people to end the hostilities against this minority culture that has already suffered enough.

As part of the Honors Program, I am required to take a few core classes of the program and this semester’s is Honors: The Global Community. Taught by Francisco Javier Sanchez, the course explore various global and history themes via a collection of photojournalistic pieces from a book titled, What Matters and literature of both poetry and prose to illustrate themes such as poverty, genocide, and race in society.

This class is driven by group discussion of articles and readings and ultimately encourages everyone to get involved. My favorite thing about the course, is its applicability to history. Because we are discussing themes and trends, many issues resurface throughout time. For example, while we read one piece about the conquistadors, a classmate made various parallels to the fascist movement in the nineteenth century. As an avid lover of history, I enjoy tracking these trends throughout the earth’s timeline to better understand their impact on the “global community.”

I can’t wait for the final project and presentation because I already have an idea of how I want to connect Transcendentalism to the unity of nature to display how perceptions of environment come into play in this same “global community” that we spend the semester discussing.