On the 1st of December, I attended a play at the PAC. Tom Dugan’s, Simon Wiesenthal
: Nazi Hunter is a historical play that attempts to depict Wiesenthal in the
most accurate manner possible. The play is constructed in an educational but
creative way. The story is told by Wiesenthal (played by Dugan) through direct
conversation with the audience with segments that consist of vivid flashbacks.
It is a one man play so every character is played by Dugan which makes it both
humorous and also gives the flashbacks a sense of authenticity since it is told
from the point of view of Wiesenthal.

The play opens with Wiesenthal walking into his office for the last time. This is
his final day working at the office in which he has worked for most of his
career. Wiesenthal tracked down numerous Nazi officials who either escaped
capture during the allied liberation, or were slippery enough to evade trial.
There is a main focus of the play which Dugan makes clear early on. Although
this is a play about the life of Wiesenthal, Dugan has constructed the play to
make certain aspects about his life that he thinks are important, more
apparent. Wiesenthal tells the audience that in all his time as a Nazi Hunter,
he has yet to ask one very important question, which he does not get to until
the very end of the play.

About half way through the performance, Wiesenthal tells a story of how he was going
through documents found in an old Austrian church when a small not fell out of
a book. He picked it up and discovered that the note was a farewell letter to
whoever might find it. The little boy who wrote the note, Albert, stated that
he was the “last one” and that they were coming for him. He wanted to
be remembered and said that he was bestowing his trust upon the person who
would find this letter. The line “I trust you” had a big impact on
Wiesenthal and it was this that drove him through many of his endeavors. By bringing
Nazi’s to justice he kept Albert alive.

The play ends with Wiesenthal about to leave, but not before he discusses the
question that he forgot to ask himself throughout his whole career. Since he is
now retiring, “who will remember Albert?” Then, he entrusts the
audience with his memory of Albert, repeating the line “I trust you.”

The play is very touching and informative. I think that although there is a lot of
information about the holocaust that is currently out there, this is a play
which takes the isolated endeavors of one man and relates them to everyone
else. We need to band together and spread information in order to ensure that
genocide will not occur.

On April 3, the Annual Multicultural Dinner, sponsored by Multicultural Connection, occurred in the Campus Center Event Room.  This event was free, though donations for the KONY 2012 campaign for Invisible Children were taken.  While I had not initially been planning to go, I’m happy I did, for it was a very fun night full of different foods and entertainment!

At the tables a few little things from different cultures.  There was Japanese Pocky, German Merci chocolate, a Dutch coffee candy, and fortune cookies.  The real food for dinner was also just as diverse!  There was some Chinese beef, a Spanish rice dish, and more!

Once our food had been happily eaten, the entertainment began!  The entertainment consisted of dances from a variety of cultural.  An Asian club at another school did a Chinese New Year (Dragon) dance complete with dragon costumes and a beating drum.  They also did a dance to an American song and a waltz to a Chinese one.  There was some hip hop by an African-American dance company, some various Spanish dances including one used for zumba, one girl belly-danced, and more!

Also, prizes were given away at a raffle.  They were little banks shaped like globes, so that really brought the theme together!  The event ran for 2 hours with all of these things going on, and it really was amazing!

This experience was like no other.  I saw dances and heard music from other cultures that I may not normally have seen and heard.  While I listen to Japanese music, I don’t usually listen to much Chinese or Spanish music, so this was a great time to expand my music base. I would definitely recommend this for anyone looking for a fun, free night!  I will definitely return next year.

The Day of Scholarship was held on March 22nd, 2012 and it held a variety of presentations by students and faulty.  The presentation I attended was called People’s Court: Too Much Mickey or Not Enough Mickey?  The presentation was run by Professor Beverly “Bev” Vaughn and some of her students from her choir class.  In the presentation she was the moderator and she had three students on the side of “pro-Mickey” and three students on the side of “against-Mickey.”  The three students presented their arguments that varied from Disney makes us happy and has us express ourselves to Disney has women dependent on men and leads to domestic abuse.  Professor Bev had us jump up and cheer “Go Mickey!” if we agreed with the point or point our thumbs down and yell “Donald Duck!” if we disagreed.  We discussed if the over abundance of Disney in our childhood made us happier or just drain our parents of money.  At the end the audience could give their points.  The whole presentation was loud and lively and was a lot of fun.  The entire time I was laughing at the antics of the room, while also seeing the different sides of a cultural argument.

On March 22, 2012 Stockton held its 12^th Annual Day of Scholarship. This day is dedicated to the presentations of both students and faculty alike. To begin the day, the Provost’s Welcome by Harvey Kesselman was held in the Campus Center Event Room. Afterwards, presentations were held throughout the campus at locations including the Campus Center Event Room, Campus Center Theater, multiple Campus Center meeting rooms, and several classrooms in the F wing.

While some of the presentations were presented in the form of speakers and power points, many were poster sessions. It was the poster session in the Campus Center Event Room that I had the privilege of viewing. Some of the posters represented local organizations. These included: The Atlantic County Department of Public Safety and Office of Emergency Preparedness (focused on the safety and education of the public on disasters and necessary responses), Arc Angels (hopping to improve the lives of intellectual and developmental disabilities in Atlantic County), South Jersey Field of Dreams (a non-profit org. based out of Absecon, NJ allowing physically and cognitively challenged children enjoy baseball), The Atlantic City Rescue Mission (advertising their Family Fun Run/Walk and their goal of ending homelessness), and many others.

Other posters featured current studies being done. These included: The Effects of Physical Activity on Achievement in School-aged Children, Interactive Instructional Technology Utilizing Mobi Pads, Sediment Characterization of New Jersey’s Coastline, and much more. Two displays that I found particularly interesting were Investigation of Underwater Hearing and the display of Ornithischia: Ankylosauridea. The first was a study based on human hearing under water. The goal was to investigate how the solidity of the human skull and the path of pressure waves to electrical stimulus in the brain would affect human hearing under water when compared to hearing in air. The latter was an interesting poster on new finds and discoveries of the dinosaur Ankylosaurous. Along with the informative poster was a display of several fossils of the creature.

Throughout the day, many interesting exhibits, sessions, and presentations were held exhibiting the talent and efforts of the many faculty and students of Richard Stockton. The Day of Scholarship allowed these individuals to show others what they have been doing, and spread the word on many interesting topics. I hope that this day continues to be part of the Richard Stockton calendar, for its beneficial opportunities are quite noticeable, and the impact on the college community quite intellectual.

“GO OSPREYS!” I was so excited to finally be able to scream those words at the top of my lungs at Friday’s basketball game. It was my first game of the year, well, actually my first basketball game ever, and it was an exhilarating experience. I know many people are upset over the fact that Stockton does not have a football team, but seriously, who needs football? The other sport’s teams are just as wonderful and provide great college bonding, as well as entertainment.

My friends and I were lounging around the common room on a Friday night trying to think of interesting things to do. We went on Stockton’s website to scope out something different than our traditional weekend movie in the Campus Center Theater, when we came across the event: Men’s Basketball – Stockton vs. Penn State Abington.  I am not that into sports as much as I would like to be, but I do not mind observing a little competition now and then, so we decided to attend.

The event was free as long as our Stockton ID’s were presented. That was extremely convenient since we were all broke. We proceeded to enter Big Blue’s gymnasium and located a spot in the bleachers to watch the tall men on the team warm up. They all seemed to be very talented, so I knew this game was going to be exciting to spectate.

Once the game started, I found myself yelling along with the rest of the crowd. It seemed as though the goal was to make the opposing team uncomfortable and to get our team pumped up. I think it worked quite well. Stockton was on a roll, successfully performing with outstanding agility. They sure can move quickly. I was completely in awe at how well the team worked together and I would like to think that my yelling at them helped.

Halftime quickly approached and it was time for the cheerleaders to be showcased. The cheerleaders from my high school were absolutely terrible. They were more sluggish than peppy and put me to sleep rather than wake me up. From my experience with boring cheerleaders, I was not sure what to expect. But as soon as Stockton’s cheerleaders started to dance, I became flabbergasted. They all moved perfectly in sync with one another and all sorts of flips and neat tricks were happening on the court. They put on a great show and most definitely psyched up the audience for the rest of the game.

The remaining half of the basketball game was filled with high intensity. The teams were back and forth on scoring points as I continued to bite my nails. Stockton always seemed to be about 10 points ahead of Abington, but anything could have happened with three minutes remaining on the clock. The crowd was screaming at the players, trying to get them to focus on winning the game. The team must have been terribly worn down, but they did a great job at hiding their exhaustion. They continued to score points and prevent the other team from doing so. All the people in the audience were on their toes until the last seconds of the game. Finally 00:00 hit the clock and…… we won!

I think my friends and I will make basketball games a regular event to attend. It was so fun to see Stockton students come together and cheer for our school. I cannot wait until the next game and I hope everyone that reads this blog entry chooses to attend. You will not be disappointed. Once again, “GO OSPREYS!”

The 12th Annual Day of Scholarship is being held today, March 22, 2012, in the Campus Center Event Room and elsewhere around the college to showcase the projects of several students and faculty members.  This is done through the Grants Office.

Though there were several presentations going on, I could only attend the poster displays (for I had to run due to my trip).  There would even be a Disney presentation by Beverly Vaughn around 2pm, but I have to miss it!  Luckily for me, however, when I first walked into the event room and saw all the posters, a grad student I have been acquainted with through his dealings with Stockata caught my attention.  I was swept into the world of Doug Lykes’s project on ‘Investigation of Underwater Acoustics.’  Now I am no Computer Science major or grad student, but what he did have to say was very interesting, for there was a lot of it that I understood.

The main point of the project was to see if the human skull was rigid or flexible.  A way to do this was to see how the skull reacted to sound waves under water and above it.  Doug talked about doing research in Connecticut for this project with machines Woo and John the Baptist.  It was very interesting to see just the wacky names they gave the machines.  As he said, scientists are definitely a little strange.  Especially when they name things!

Doug also talked about bone vibrators that were used to see that when sound vibrated the the bone if the skull was rigid or flexible.  Interestingly enough, he said that when viewed from above, a low sound was able to make the head of a person contract forwards and backwards.  At a bit of a higher tone, it contracts and expands along the sides.  Then when a very high sound his heard, the skull contracts forwards and backwards, then contracts and expands along the sides.  However, this was only observed from the top looking down on a person’s head, so it’s also interesting to wonder if the skull contracts up and down as well.

Doug also had some interesting little fun facts besides those about the machines’ names.  For instance, he told me about how ants secret a little bubble of sugar on each of their feet in order to climb up walls.  He also told me how a gecko climbs up things by making a large amount of force between the hairs on its feet and a wall.  He even told me how when he and the scientists were in Connecticut, they made Da Vinci’s bridge in the middle of a Home Depot with two by fours.  Now while this does not relate to his project, it was all very interesting and taught me a few interesting facts.

Though I did not go to a scheduled presentation, I did get one.  I found it very interesting, especially when we started talking about the ear and vibrations of sound on the bone to make someone hear.  I actually knew a little about that from Psychology.  I would definitely recommend this to anyone, for even though it may seem dull at first, you will actually come out with some interesting knowledge under your belt!

Over the weekend I went to the Pets Smart in Mays Landing and helped out with a Beagle Rescue. There were all sorts of personalities of dogs up for adoption. Each beagle was a sweetheart in their very own way. I truly enjoyed helping them out and playing and petting all of the dogs. Each dog had their own little story of how they got there, but those didn’t even matter because each dog was such a sweetie. I wanted to take each dog home with me and just cuddle with them all the time.

This was community service, and it was probably my favorite community service ever. I got to play with physically disabled dogs and see how they were some of the prettiest and sweetest dogs I’ve ever met, and that the fully functional dogs were crazy hyperactive. I realized that no matter what a dog will love you if you give them attention, and if you don’t give them your attention they’ll try to get a hold of it. I am a dog owner myself, but my dog is an Irish Setter so seeing Beagles were very different. I was covered in dog hair at the end of the day but it was really worth it.

There was a dog that had three legs and bowel problems, her name was Trinity. When my friends and I first got there she was crying a lot and having a lot of problems. As soon as she was put into her wheelchair she was so much happier and ran about happily, if she could skip, she would have. There was also another dog named Bonnie. I have no idea what was fully wrong with her legs but she would army crawl over to you and then lay her head down in your lap and gave this look begging to be petted. I gave into her each time, her puppy dog eyes were just killer, I personally loved her. Each and every dog up for adoption just wanted a little of your time and attention to feel loved for just a moment. I wish I could have been there all day because each and every Beagle was sweet as can be and are all more than worthy of a good forever home.

On March 21, Stockton’s Entertainment Team aka S.E.T. hosted a local food competition.  The event was very successful because there were students hanging out outside of the campus center event room patiently waiting for the food’s arrival. If there is free food at an event it is almost guaranteed that the host will have a good turnout because most college students are tired of eating N-Wing, Primo’s, Johnny Rockets, and Mondo’s. The local competitors all brought food in order for Stockton’s students to judge. Chartwells brought pieces of hoagie like turkey and Italian, and Papa John’s pizzas. Jo-Jo’s pizza brought chicken wings, buffalo chicken pizza and barbeque chicken pizza. Napoli Pizza Grill brought pieces of their Napoli chicken sandwich, mild chicken wings and tomato pie. The Napoli chicken sandwich was delicious it had juicy grilled chicken breast strips, red bell peppers, ripe tomatoes, all under a blanket of melted cheese. After the students were allowed to sample all of these various food groups they had to vote on a slip of paper and nominate best pizza, best signature sandwich and best wings. Once all the votes were in there were plaques for the winners in order to give them some recognition for their efforts at the event. It was a really nice atmosphere and a nice night for a little change in your daily routine. If S.E.T. ever hosts another one I would strongly recommend going, you won’t regret it.

March 20, 2012 was Wellness Day, a day to promote health and wellness put on by the Wellness Center in the Campus Center!  Various events and vendors were present to promote health and wellness for students, faculty, and anyone else who wanted to come!

There were various ‘fun’ vendors to draw students, like jewelry, clothes, purses, etc. However, there were also some interesting places.  There was a place to try vitamin C to get students to get their vitamins and show them they weren’t to bad to eat either.  Another station showed how much sugar was in some drinks (which I’ll never drink a certain one ever again), and another even gave blood pressure readings.  Mine was a little low, and that’s when it finally hit me that I had forgotten breakfast.

There were healthy snacks to eat while there.  Fruit salad, grilled chicken, cucumber sandwiches, pita chips with salsa, and spinach dip with bread were some of the healthy snacks to eat while there.  Of course, however, there was more to it than food and vendors. What better way to sooth the soul and cheer you up than listening to some music?

One man played happy tunes on the piano.  I was asked by Gospel Choir to sing an uplifting solo, so I sand Lost Get Found, a song about being yourself, standing out, and helping others through showing your faith.  Then a few members of Gospel Choir, including myself, sang a selection of three songs, one of which I was fortunate enough to have another solo in. We sang Hallelujah Anyhow, a song about praising God even when times were rough, Peace Like A River, a song about having peace because we have God, and God is Great, a song about God’s wonderful love for us.  Being able to participate in this event by doing one of my favorite things, singing, was really a great experience!

I definitely learned a little bit from Wellness Day.  Some of it was a little gross, but it was very informative.  I do feel, however, that if this had been publicized to the students more (many I spoke to did not know it was happening but came to support Gospel Choir and myself), the turnout would have been even better!