On Tuesday, September 8, 2015, many Honors students gathered for the first Honors meeting of the 2015-2016 academic year. Many returning students were involved in the planning of the meeting as well as attending the meeting. Siena Stucki and Professor Rosner shared the responsibility of running the meeting. It was held in room F207 from about 4:30 until 5:00. Free pizza was offered before the meeting began and after it ended. There were several kinds including peperoni, veggie and plain. Drinks such as lemonade, iced tea and water were also provided. All new freshman and transfer member of the honors program were invited. The e-board was present at the meeting. Questions about Service Learning were discussed as well as information about the blog posts. The honors yearly requirements were reviewed. Zeal checked in with everyone attending to make sure all mentors had heard from their mentees and all mentees heard from their mentors.

The popular events of the year hosted by Honors were explained and given approximate dates for. Some new projects were proposed, such as going to a concert together. Other events that occurred in previous years and are being planned again are pizza and pong and a trip for Honors freshman. Pizza and pong will be held in Event Room 5 in the Campus Center on a night Friday in October. We are encouraged to wear costumes to this event if it lands near Halloween. The Honors Program is celebrating its tenth year here at Stockton and will be offering a small reception and a presentation discussing Stockton many years ago. Our program will be getting evaluated by an outside evaluator this year. He will give suggestions on how we can improve our program to reach its full potential. He will also meet with some of the Honors students on an individual basis. We were encouraged to discuss any changes or additions we would like to see to our program to him. For example, a larger honors room may be necessary due to the increase in Honors students admitted into the program, or an extra faculty member to help guide activities and give more support to our growing program. Freshman are also invited to talk to the evaluator about their experiences so far with Honors. We had a wonderful meeting and many topics were addressed. The next meeting is sure to provide many new ideas and events to look forward to!

On Wednesday September 16, 2015, the CARE program offered a free workshop for all students. It was on goal setting and planning ahead. This is a good topic because so many college students do not know how to effectively set a goal and achieve it.

When students arrived they were greeted and swiped into the event. After being swiped in, a student could enter the room and select a seat. Shortly after arrival, the program started. A PowerPoint was passed out to each participant. There was room to take notes on it, and all participants were allowed to take their PowerPoint home, to refer to later and remember what they learned. One of the topics included in this discussion was motivation. If a student motivates himself or herself, they are more inclined to complete the task than someone who is only motivated by an external source.

We also discussed our opinions on who controls are life. We learned that one does better if she believes she controls her own life than that external forces control her life. Then we discussed goal setting. A long-term goal takes one to five years to accomplish and should contain several short-term goals. A short-term goal should be completed in one or two months. Next we discussed SMART goals. These goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. If a goal does not meet this criteria, one must alter her goal so it has a chance of being achieved. After we were done with our discussion, pizza and drinks arrived. All participants were invited to enjoy free pizza and drinks and talk to staff in the CARE program. The pizza varieties included were plain, peperoni, and veggie and the drink choices were water, Brisk, and other sodas. Plenty of food was available; only five people attended the dinner and we had four pizza pies.

I would highly recommend adding completing this workshop to a short-term goal list because goal setting is a very important skill for any leader to acquire.

On Wednesday September 16, 2015, Stockton University kicked off the Constitution Day Series 2015. The event began at 6:30 and lasted over an hour. Bryan Stevenson was the keynote speaker. He was phenomenal! So many people were present; people were watching the event from the theater in the Campus Center. Many of the people at the event were not Stockton students, but older people in the community. This surprised me because I was not aware that so many people knew this speaker and came out to see him. I was also impressed by the dress of the people at this event. I was expecting people to come in clothing that students would wear in the classroom; however, many of the participants, especially adults, were dressed formally in professional business entire.

Stevenson’s stories about his experience with clients on death row were so interesting. I was uneducated on the fact that children could be convicted like adults in a trial; even if the child was as young as thirteen or fourteen. I was moved by the story of the young teenage boy crying in his arms. I was so upset by this because I know children who are that age, and I could imagine how scared and upset this little boy must have been. I was also surprised to learn that one in every three black male babies is expected to be incarcerated at some point in their lives. Volunteering in a school, I find it horrible to believe that so many of these children will be charged with crimes as they grow older. I was also interested in his working with people with disabilities and that they do not always receive the care that the laws entitle them to receive.

I feel that it was very important for Stockton to bring educated and successful people into the school to speak because so many students, like me, are uneducated on what is really going on in our communities.

On Thursday, September 10, 2015, the Noyes Museum of Art at Stockton University offered a wonderful program. It was entitled “Frozen Earth Climate Change: A panel Disscusion”.

Five panelists came in to discuss their information on global warming and their standpoint on it. They discussed how they believe it will affect the world in the future. The moderator was Diane Burko. The panelists included Michael Limonick, Amy Lipton, Dr. Jeff Niemitz, Andrew Revekin, and Aaron T. O’Connor. Each one has a unique exciting background. From artists to scientists, we learned about different ways people of every occupation can be involved in helping planet Earth. Many of the panelists had experience working for some of the most well-known and well-respected magazines published today, including the New York Times, National Geographic, The Washington Post and TIME. It was very interesting to hear these people presenting with one another because often they worked together on past projects causing their stories to overlap. Amy Lipton is a co-founder of a large group where of people from all different careers interact to help raise awareness of climate change and the effects of climate change. This organization ran a very successful project in New York City showing where the flood lines would be if the oceans were to rise. The point of this project was to educate people. These lines were accurate in informing people what could happen if a storm such as Super Storm Sandy were to hit again. Many cities such as Philadelphia will be having this project completed in their city to help raise awareness. O’Connor is the founder of The Arctic Circle. This program allows people to go by ship to High Arctic to study and learn. It is open to people of all different occupations who feel this experience would help themselves or others in some way. Laura Petrovich-Cheney coordinated this panelist discussion and made sure it would occur smoothly.

The program was very informative, although longer than expected. I enjoyed it and hope that similar programs will be available throughout the semester.

On Friday, September 11, 2015 Stockton offered a bingo night for all of its students. The event began at 8:00 PM and lasted until 10:00 PM. Nearly fifty participants strolled into the large Coffeehouse in the Campus Center to join in the festivities.

Upon arrival students swiped in and were welcomed by a young woman running the event. Students were welcome to take a snack and drink. The snack offered was Rice Crispy Treats and the drinks were sodas and waters. Students then took their Bingo cards. Each player receives three Bingo cards to play with. Although having three cards does not increase the probability of one winning, they do make the game move a lot faster. The speed of the games makes it much more intense and enjoyable. Students could be heard whispering, chanting and giggling with excitement from across the room as the students came closer to getting Bingo. The entire room was buzzing by the end of the night. The event was a wonderful opportunity for students of all ages to enjoy and interact, as well as make new friends and visit among old ones.

The bingo numbers were announced loudly and players could mark their boards. The numbers were repeated two times and then put up on a large electronic display for all players to be able to see. All boards had a free space on them, in the center. We played many different forms of Bingo including The Number 7, a Straight Line, Black Out, Four Corners, a T, and an X. When a player got Bingo, he loudly announced it and moved to the front of the room to get his card checked. When the Bingo was verified, he received a raffle ticket to be in the running to get a prize. Often we would have several winners for one round of Bingo. Two raffles took place over the night, one at 9:00 and one at 10:00. There were a total of twenty prizes given out, ten movie tickets and ten Wawa gift cards.