The bleachers in Big Blue on February 17^th, 2015 were filled with spirited students adorning their black Stockton apparel. It was a Friday night, and the energy in the room was high. The school mascot danced around the basketball court, feeding off of the cheers from the stands, eager for the NJAC game to begin.

The buzzer sounded, and the game began. The game was intense. It was very fast moving. The score stayed close the whole time. There was never a time in the game where either team had a strong lead. The score only stayed about 5 points apart throughout the game. Most of the players that started stayed in the game the whole time; there were not many substitutions. There were a lot of fouls, though.

The stands were completely packed. The team planned for the game to be a “black-out”, so everyone supporting Stockton was wearing black. Across the court, the supporters for the opposing team, William Patterson, were all wearing orange. Their stands were filled, too. At half time, both sides cheered back and forth. Also at half time, the mascot danced around to loud music. The cheerleaders and the dance team did a routine as well.

After half time, the game resumed. The second half was just as action packed as the first. The score remained very close throughout the second half, too. The game moved very quickly. In the last few seconds of the game, a Stockton player got a foul shot. The player made the shot, keeping Stockton in the lead. With only a few seconds left, there was not enough time for the other team to score again. The buzzer sounded, and Stockton University’s men’s basketball team became NJAC champions.

On Wednesday February 18^th at 5:00, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey students gathered in the campus center eagerly awaiting the announcement of university status and the reveal of the new logo. It was so crowded that there was hardly room to move around. Cupcakes, cookies, tea and coffee were available for consumption. There was a camera crew shooting clips of the students and the College Board. The students gathered on the main floor of the campus center. A level above was the president and others looking down at the students.

The ceremony started off with some speeches. The speeches were short, probably because the speakers knew why all of the students were actually there: to see the logo. There was a rolled-up banner hanging along the railing that the speeches were given in front of. After the speeches, the banner was untied and the crowd went crazy.

Confetti was shooting out in every direction, people were cheering, and cell phone cameras shot up as the banner rolled down. It was an iconic moment filled with school spirit and pride. Free hats were distributed, and pictures were posed for. Conversations about the new logo and university status were happening in every section of the room. Osprey pride was at an all time high.

After the initial excitement, students filtered out. The event was short-lived, but the stories about it definitely weren’t. Becoming a university bonded the students because we would be the only group of people to have walked into the campus center as Richard Stockton College of New Jersey students and left as Stockton University students.

On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the first day of the Spring 2015 semester, I participated in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of service. We were given breakfast and t-shirts in the morning, and then brought into a large room. Students and community members were instructed to choose a table that was associated with the project that they wanted to be a part of that day. My friends and I sat at the Circle K table. We listened to many short speeches and a song. After that, people participating in off campus projects left the room. Circle K participants were then able to spread out because we were staying in that room.

The Circle K supervisors prepared various projects for people to help out with. My table put together craft kits for children in the hospital. They were craft kits to make rainbows with a cloud on the end. We cut out colored strips of construction paper, selected three crayons, grabbed a handful of cotton balls, cut cloud shapes out of paper plates, and put all of that in a plastic bag. We included directions on how to assemble the cloud and rainbow craft, too.

When we ran out of supplies to construct the craft kits, we moved on to making friendship bracelets. The friendship bracelets were also for children in the hospital. We were given string in multiple colors and the freedom to make any type of bracelet that we wanted to make. Making bracelets friendship bracelets was something I grew up doing, so it was fun to make them. It brought back a lot of nice memories for me and is sure to make a child smile now. The 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service was a great day.

On February 28^th, 2015 I went to the animal shelter. I went with other members of the honors program. It was a one time organized event. I was looking forward to going to the animal shelter, because I really like animals. In high school, I volunteered at an animal hospital every Saturday morning. This service opportunity really appealed to me. The small group of us that were going met in the arts and sciences building at 9:15 in the morning. We took three cars to get there. The drive was short, and the shelter was easy to get there.

When we got to the animal shelter, we were given our assignments. There were three options: cleaning, laundry, or phone calls. I chose to clean with some friends. We swept, mopped, and vacuumed. The front of the shelter looked very clean and presentable when we were done. The cleaning that we did was helpful to the shelter because the front room is the first impression people get of the place. They spend time in that room before they see the animals. If they think the place is not in good condition, they might choose to leave and go to a different facility that looks more presentable.

After we cleaned, we were allowed to play with the cats. The cats were so sweet. They were very happy to be held and paid attention to. Playing with the cats was my favorite part of the morning. After we played with the cats, we had a reflection session. At the reflection session, most people agreed that interacting with the cats was the best part. It was nice to spend a morning with animals. Overall, the service project was a success. I am glad that I participated.

On February 24^th, I attended a D200 floor program run by my RA, Julie Eller. This was a Service Learning program titled Express Empowerment. The program began with food, which is important for any great program. As we ate our mozzarella sticks and vegetables, Julie explained to us the point of the program. We have so many social media platforms that we can be using to change the world. She wanted us to start doing something about that.

Julie showed us pictures of people with protest signs addressing all sorts of issues. Our instructions were to create a protest sign dealing with an issue that we feel passionate about. Then she would take our picture holding our sign. Once she put the pictures on the Internet, it would be our job to share ours and explain what our sign was talking about. She wanted us to take over social media with issues that really matter.

For my sign, I knew I wanted to do something that addresses the way college-aged girls are treated. A few months back I was extremely moved by the #yesallwomen conversation on Twitter. This conversation was created after a boy went on a shooting rampage on a college campus targeting sorority girls on a college campus. After the Twitter world exploded with women pointing out that that boy’s though process stems from our society’s idea that men have entitlement to women, men shot back with #notallmen. This conversation said that not all men have those thoughts. Women fired back with #yesallwomen saying that while not all men feel entitled to women, all women have to live their lives worrying about the men who do.

That conversation is what created my feminist side; however, there was a problem that I noticed throughout many of the tweets on that page. In many of the tweets talking about how slut shaming is wrong, women would say things that could be taken as offensive towards girls who choose to wait to have sex until they are married. I strongly believe that what you choose to do with your body is nobody’s business but your own. If you want to have sex go out and have as much sex as you want. I hope you make safe choices and you have a great time. If you want to wait to have sex, then go out and have fun without having sex. Nobody has any right to say anything to you about either choice.

In order to figure out what to put on my protest sign, I consulted the #yesallwomen conversation. Then I found a quote from the breakfast club, “If you haven’t you’re a prude. If you have, you’re a slut. It’s a trap.” This quote is from 1985, and it automatically made me think of a line from a 2013 Kacey Musgraves song, “If you save yourself for marriage you’re a bore. If you don’t save yourself for marriage you’re a whore…ible person.” These quotes, almost thirty years apart, show that this issue is nothing new and also that it has yet to be fixed. This is what gave me the idea for my sign, which is shown here:

Once Julie put the pictures online, I made a Facebook post detailing where my ideas for the sign came from and why this was the quote I chose to present on my sign. I was shocked by the reaction that I got on the post. There were people who I rarely talk to commenting positively on the post. One girl who I am Facebook friends with only because we go to Stockton even shared my post. Julie also hung our pictures up in the library and one girl from our floor caught someone who we do not know looking at the pictures of us with our signs. This program was amazing and it really makes me want to do more to get my voice heard.

On February 20^th, I attended the Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society induction for new members. This event honored the freshman that had been accepted, and accepted their acceptance into ALD this year.

When I walked into the event, I saw that it was set up as a formal, buffet-style dinner. The ceremony started with Stockapella singing the National Anthem, which was beautiful. Then some of the officers of ALD spoke about the program. Dr. Rosner also spoke, explaining how Stockton’s chapter of ALD came to be what it is today. The program is rather young at Stockton, but the students who make up ALD have been working hard and are rapidly increasing the reach of ALD activities.

After the opening remarks, the induction began. For the ceremony, the officer speaking would read the names of new members. Whenever a new member’s name was said, they would stand up and turn on an electric candle. I am happy that we used electric candles rather than real ones. I have been to plenty of ceremonies where real candles are used, and I do not feel safe with hundreds of people holding lit candles. Especially not if any of those people are as clumsy as me. After the induction, the Provost spoke as this year’s honorary ALD member. Then to end the ceremony, Stockapella sang Stockton’s Alma Mater.

After the ceremony, dinner was served. Once again, Chartwells did a great job with the food for an event. I still do not understand why we can have good tasting food at events, but N-Wing food continues to be full of disappointment. My favorite thing was the chicken tenders, and I really do not think that it is too much to ask that those chicken tenders be served in N-Wing.

Anyway, the food was great and I had fun talking to the people at my table. At the end of the event, I received my member certificate and pin. I am excited to be a part of this great organization.

On February 5^th I attended Life Size Monopoly, which was a part of the Up to Us campaign at Stockton. Up to Us is a campaign run by college students for college students to make them aware of the national debt. With this event, they intended to attract students in order to get them to find out more about the campaign.

Before Life Size Monopoly, I had to set up a team of two to four people. I had trouble finding people who wanted to participate, so I put a post on the Facebook event page saying if anyone wanted to play but did not have a team, I would be happy to help. After posting that, I found a friend who would participate with me, but when I went back to my room after that conversation I discovered that someone had replied to my post. Because of this, I was able to have a three-person team when we arrived.

For the game, we had to create a game piece and pick a team name. We knew there would be a prize for the best piece, so we tried to get creative. I have a giant teddy bear that is the size of a person. We decided to dress is up in a Stockton hat, sweatshirt, and lanyard. We also decided to call the team “Bear With Us”, which made me really happy.

When we arrived at the event, every table had a board game on it. We decided to sit down at the table that had Life. While we waited for our turn at Life Size Monopoly, we played Life in the hopes of winning a $5 Wawa gift card. While we played, a fourth girl was added to our Life Size Monopoly team. We were called up to play Monopoly before our Life game ended, so we did not win the gift card.

Before we began playing, our game pieces were judged. The guy in charge seemed pretty excited about our giant dressed up bear, but we were not the winners of that contest. Instead of using the entire bear as our game piece, which would have been extremely difficult, we decided to just use the lanyard that I had put around its neck.

The rules were a bit unclear at the beginning of Life Size Monopoly. Several new rules seemed to appear as the game went on and there certainly could have been a better way to inform us of how the game was working. However, that was not too big of a deal because my team finished as one of the top teams of the first round. There were two groups that were playing. After each group finished their first game, there was a final game between the three top teams of each group.

In the final game my team did not do very well. I am not certain what place we came in, but I would not be surprised if it was last. In the course of the night we did not win anything. However, we had a good time and we learned about the national debt. And that’s what really counts.