On Sunday, November 26th, I went to Toys R Us with other students in the Honors Program to shop for toys for the Toys for Tots drive. We were supposed to meet everyone in the Campus Center lobby at 2:00 before heading to the store. To my surprise, there were already a bunch of people waiting by the time I got there. Kate Volpe, the coordinator of the event, walked in a few minutes after I arrived, and we left soon after. One thing I really liked about this event was that we were able to drive ourselves to the location, rather than commuting all together on a shuttle bus. I’m not sure why I enjoyed driving myself so much, probably because I gained a sense of freedom from being able to play whatever music I wanted.
When we got to Toys R Us, we all met up outside the store and went over the game plan. Kate explained that we would be split up into groups of three with a $45.00 spending budget, and that we would receive certain age groups to shop for. After my group and I were asked to shop for 12 to 13 year olds, we quickly grabbed a shopping cart and headed into the store.
It was a lot more challenging to shop for 12 to 13 year olds than I thought it would be, mainly because it was difficult to find toys that weren’t too babyish. I called my 12 year old sister to get ideas about what her age group likes to do and she suggested art supplies, which I thought was a really good idea. We headed over to the arts and crafts section where we found a $10.00 beading set to make necklaces and bracelets. We also found a cute little ukulele for $21.00 that I thought would be perfect for our target age group. With about $10.00 left in our budget, we found a Nerf gun and proceeded to the check-out line.
Afterwards at our reflection session, the group discussed how eye-opening it was to shop for disadvantaged kids. A lot of people, including myself, were surprised by how expensive many of the toys were; With $45.00, my group was only able to purchase three gifts! The experience showed me how difficult this time of year can be for struggling parents who only want to give their kids a memorable holiday.
All in all, I enjoyed my Toys for Tots experience and look forward to participating again next year!

On Saturday, October 21st, I went to the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia with the Honors Program. I was looking forward to this trip for weeks; I never miss an opportunity to visit Philly and I love learning about history. So I really didn’t mind waking up at 8:00 AM on a Saturday morning to make the bus at 9:15. When I got to the Arts and Sciences building, I was pleased to see that we would be taking a charter bus (since I had assumed we would be driving into Philly on a regular school bus). I got a whole two-seater to myself and slept for the entire 45 minute drive. I woke up when we reached what I thought was our destination, but the driver actually made a mistake and we ended up at a different museum. Slightly annoyed but also glad to that I could return to resting my eyes, I fell back asleep until we reached our actual destination less than ten minutes later.
I could tell from the moment the bus pulled in front of the museum that this would be a good trip. Even the museum entrance looked impressive with an engraved granite sign reading “Museum of the American Revolution” topped with decorative 18th century canons seemingly guarding the doors. The cherry on top, though, was that each student gained admission free of charge since the Honors Program paid for each $19.00 ticket in advance. This may not seem like a lot of money, but to a broke college student $19.00 is a lot of money. Even though we didn’t have a tour guide to show us around, the museum was easy to navigate. Looking through the exhibits, it was refreshing to learn about more than just white men, who are quite often the main focus of American history textbooks. African Americans, Native Americans, and women had whole exhibits to themselves. One of my favorites was an exhibit that played a short film about the Native American struggle on a large screen behind life-like Native American mannequins. I also enjoyed learning about women who contributed to the British war effort, such as Baroness von Riedesel who joined her husband, a ranking army general, in America during the war and helped to care for injured soldiers. But the very last exhibit was my favorite. I was told prior to the trip that Washington’s tent was on display, but I never realized how historically significant his tent was. The museum showed a documentary on Washington’s role in the Revolutionary war before showcasing his tent to the audience, which I think made a big impact on both myself and the people around me. It was really eye-opening to see such a symbolic artifact of American freedom in person.
After the museum, we were free to walk around Old City. The bus left to return to Stockton at 3:30, but I stayed behind and explored more of Philly with my family. We visited the Second Bank of the United States, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. I’m thankful for the experience the Honors Program provided and I look forward to going on more trips in the future.

My roommate and I laughing at each other

On Saturday, September 23rd, I decided to embark on a canoeing and kayaking trip hosted  by Stockton’s Get Centered office of student programming. I had seen the advertising poster on the wall outside of my dorm about a week prior to the event, but I was hesitant to go until my roommate pointed to the poster and expressed her interest in the trip. Relieved that I would have someone familiar to hang out with, I decided to hand in my $5.00 to the campus center information desk and reserve my spot. By this point, I was excited because I had always wanted to go canoeing and I had also been looking for other ways to get involved around campus.

The good thing about the trip was that the buses didn’t leave until 1:00 in the afternoon, which ensured that I’d be able to catch up on my Saturday beauty sleep (this girl does not like to get up early on the weekends). Despite having ample time to get ready, my roommate and I still found ourselves sprinting towards the campus center at 12:55, hoping desperately that the bus hadn’t left without us. It hadn’t. We climbed aboard just in time and the buses pulled out of the parking lot.

The poster had said that the canoeing trip would last from 1:00 to 5:00, so silly me, assuming we would not be canoeing for almost five hours, had brought along earbuds and a snack for the expected long bus ride. But to my surprise, around only 20 minutes into the trip, the bus pulled into the parking lot of Palace Restaurant and Outfitters, a canoeing center in my hometown of Mays Landing. Stunned at the fact that I had never been to nor heard of this place, I google mapped my location and realized that we were only eight minutes away from my house! This news excited yet also annoyed me, as I had always wanted to go canoeing but never knew that the means to do so were easily accessible.

After getting off of the bus, our group made its way to the big vans parked in front of the restaurant. The employees explained that they would drive us to the beginning of Weymouth Furnace, where we would start our journey. Hesitantly, my roommate and I boarded our two-person kayak and started paddling down the furnace. I was in charge of paddling, while she handled the steering part. We were doing a pretty good job for the most part, only running into problems when we accidentally hit low-hanging branches or veered off course. And even during those times, we laughed at our amatuer kayaking skills and at how ridiculous we looked. We got a lot of great pictures as well. I especially enjoyed listening to calming music as we paddled and viewing the river-side properties as we sped by. By the time we reached the end of the furnace, our arms were tired but our hearts were full.

I now have so many great memories of that day that I wouldn’t trade for the world. I look forward to participating in more weekend events sponsored by Get Centered in the future.