Tuesday nights on campus are usually nights that you wouldn’t think are active. However, with so many clubs active at Stockton, the activity can be any night of the week. I particularly enjoy Tuesday evenings because of one club that I have become involved with. Classrooms turn into meeting grounds for people with the same interests. Nothing could make a freshman feel more accepted than being surrounded true equals.

Stockton is home to countless clubs and organizations run by students. The club that peaks my interest is the Animal Friendly Organization, or AFO. This club is just what it seems it would be, a club that is aware of animal endangerment and conservations. I came across this club during the Get Involved Fair in September. In my high school, there were the generic clubs like Bio Club and Theater Club, so the sheer volume of different clubs present at Stockton made my jaw drop. I could finally pick a club for myself that would make me happy to participate, rather than just for the extracurricular credit like in high school. I found real enjoyment in AFO because I have a passion for animal life. I have been fascinated by them since I was in the third grade, and in high school there was nothing offered to me that would give me any kind of involvement with animals. The AFO, however, is very highly focused on involvement and participation.

Club meetings are held every Tuesday night at 5:30 PM in B-0003 and there are discussions about volunteer trips to local shelters and animal rescue facilities, fund raisers, and other kind of possible activities for the club itself like a field trip to an aquarium. In early November, the AFO hosted its first bake sale of the year, and raised $119 to be donated to a local horse rescue facility. The AFO, in my life at Stockton, has not only been a place to get involved in my own interests, but also a place to find service projects for my requirement as an honors student that actually made me feel good.

I feel AFO is a club that has involved meetings and every one that you attend makes you more passionate about the cause than you were before. I strongly recommend it to all of my friends that I know care about animals like I do.

Stockton University has a very diverse group of clubs. There are religious clubs, club sports, major related clubs, and clubs you join just to have fun. Stockton Gaming club is one of the clubs you join to have a good time with people looking to do the same thing. The meetings are every Wednesday night and they start around 7 or 7:30 in the upper level of the Campus Center Coffee House. The longer you attend the meetings, the more you start to realize that the club meetings never really “end.” Everyone there is friends, so the meetings just end when everyone decides it’s time to go back to their dorms or go home. The environment reflects this friendly attitude as well. There are so many games going on at one time, it’s hard NOT to feel included! There are board games, card games, video games and PC games all sprawled out across the area. Even if there isn’t currently a game going on that you want to be a part of, the Gaming Club provides a rolling cart stacked with a multitude of board games that you can grab and start playing with your friends at any point during the night!

Not only is the club a really fun way to break up your week, but the people you meet there are really nice and helpful. If you need help connecting a controller to a console, or are playing the game for the first time, the people around you will always help and be friendly. Stockton Gaming Club has become a place where I go with my friends, but still look forward to making new ones every Wednesday that I go. It’s a place I know that I can go to and not feel self-conscious if I want to talk about a game I like, a TV show, some characters from a game or show, or anything really that might make me feel uncomfortable in other places. The environment that’s created and the surrounding people are wonderful and what truly makes this club stand out from the rest.

This club has become one of the highlights to my weekly routine, and I look forward to seeing the same people every Wednesday night. Yeah, the club has goals like all of the other clubs on campus, but in what other club can you  achieve your goals by hanging out with your friends, sitting around in a big group cheering on one of the players or playing yourself, making new friends with the same kind of interest that you have, and playing one of your favorite games?

The night of Tuesday, September 22, 2015, was truly a night to remember. Stockton Entertainment Team (SET) put together an event for students of all years and dorm rooms to enjoy and share together. There was a school of fish, decorations, snacks, and it was all free! Not only was it a good night to bond with my roommate, but I came back to my dorm with a new friend named Merlin.

The Campus Center Coffee House isn’t only a house for coffee, but it’s home to many events that SET puts together for the students of Stockton. The atmosphere of the room is warm and welcoming – a good place to hang out and relax. SET chose this spot for a really fun and exciting event, an event that was surprising for me to believe was real. I could go to the coffee hose, relax with my roommate, and make my own fish tank for my room. There was a long table set up with a big tank in the middle. It looked like hundreds of little goldfish were swimming around happily. Along the sides of the tank were the little plastic tanks – which would soon be the new homes of the goldfish – and bright colorful gravel, shells, and little palm trees to make the plastic tanks fun and exciting decorations for your dorm.

SET did a very good job of keeping the event organized. After swiping my ID into the event, the member of SET gave me a little blue fish card. Having this fish card meant that I would indeed receive a little fish to put in my tank. There could have been other people that didn’t receive a fish card, because the turn out for the event was quite extraordinary. However, if someone didn’t receive a fish, they were still able to decorate a tank and take it back to their dorm, and, if they so wish, could go to the PetSmart down the road and buy a ten cent fish of their very own.

Not only could I decorate a tank for my room, but SET also provided fish themed snacks for those attending the event! Fish tenders with cocktail and tartar dipping sauces were available, along with a refreshing ocean colored raspberry flavored jell-o for dessert; drinks like lemonade, water, and iced tea were also provided. And I didn’t have to swipe and use a meal from my meal plan to eat!

Altogether, building my own fish tank for my room, having some snacks, spending time with my roommate, and experiencing one of SET’s popular events made for a great night.