Toys for Tots Shopping Spree

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!

Stockton Democrats vs. Stockton Republicans Debate

On Thursday October 19th, I went to the Stockton Student Senate’s first annual Stockton Democrats vs. Stockton Republicans Debate. Three students from each party debated current and New Jersey related topics, ranging from local energy sources, to gun control, and minimum wage. The debate was mediated by two senate members and had a very strict time form. Each side was given two minutes to address the topic, and then was allowed to converse back and forth in one-minute intervals, before the mediators called for the two-minute concluding statements.

The sides that debated held beliefs that were very similar and in line with the political parties that they represented. The Democrat side promoted liberal and humanitarian views while the Republicans often voiced conservative and traditional views. These views were quite apparent in each of the topics, as the Democrats often advised for options that would primarily help the people, and were best for the society, while the republicans often cited opinions that would benefit the economy or international structure.

The topics, though applicable to the state of the entire country, were presented through the eye piece of the State of New Jersey. This was incredibly poignant, especially for a non-New Jersey native such as I, to understand the political climate of the state as they pertain to the specific topics. The issue of New Jerseys power dependency, and the origin of the power were discussed, the minimum wage and its impact on NJ were explored, gun control laws in the state in the wake of yet another tragedy, and the possibilities of free community college were all discussed as well.

These topics and discussions, especially in accessible and public forms, such as this debate are important to understand the view of our political equals, and form a more educated and grounded personally philosophy in the bipartisan arena that we all influence. It is even more important for these events to be held for the young adults of the nation, for our generation is the one that will inherit the system in just a few short years.

The regimented formats of the debates kept the discussion civil, informative and constructive. When the debaters became more excited than was preferable the mediators were able to step in and provide an unbiased middle man to bring the discussion back to an informative tone. This happened a few times, and while, the mediator stepped in, the debaters responded in kind, keeping a passionate, but respectful tone of the topic at hand.

I really enjoyed the debate, and was happy that the student senate chose to hold such an event. Such discussions can influence individual philosophies, and strengthen the understanding of our peer’s views as well. Political discourse needs not be disrespectful and angry, they can very well be civil and informative, as was seen with the first Stockton Democrat vs. Stockton Republican debate.

Constitution Day

On September 19th, 2017, I went to the Constitution Day celebration to hear Julian E. Zelizer, CNN Political analysis and political author. The main focus of his discussion was the state of the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump, and how the disapproval and controversy of the current office compares to other offices of presidents past.

First, Zelizer touched on the current issues surrounding the presidency, such as Russia’s involvement with the election, the boundaries of Freedom, and controversial executive orders, such as nuclear deals with Iran and the Refugee camp. I appreciated that the speaker first addressed the current issues of the political climate, so that we had a solid base of knowledge to build off of and compare the rest of the talk and the past presidencies to.

Zelizer then continued to talk of the Trump administration in correlation of past administrations. He focused mostly on the FDR and LBJ administrations. Both of these presidents, were similar to the Trump administration in a particular way. They attacked and disapproved of others in their own party. Zelizer focused on the power that Congress has to stop and control the presidency. Trump has a unique rhetoric that Zelizer predicted could be his own undoing. He addressed that if Trump uses his aggressive rhetoric unduly, he could box himself into a corner, just as LBJ did with the Vietnam war and G.W. Bush did with the Iraqi and Afghan Wars. Also addressed is the topic of Impeachment. Zelizer stressed that this is used only as a last resort by Congress, and is only used if Trump would try to do something incredibly drastic, or if Trump would excessively abuse his power.

Zelizer finished the talk with ways that Congress is already fighting back for what is right, publicly speaking out against Trump and some even going against the party majority to vote for their personal beliefs instead of the beliefs of the party they belong to.

I really liked this event, and came out of it feeling like I had a better understanding of the current political climate. I really liked how Zelizer compared the current Presidency to ones that have passed and gave a nuanced and comparative opinion of the current state of American Politics instead of shoehorning in his personal opinions. I was a tad disappointed though, in the lack of Constitutional reference in the talk. As the talk was for Constitution Day itself, I feel that more emphasis should have been focused on the actual constitutional repercussions of the Trump administration, in lieu of historical comparison. That said, I really enjoyed this talk, and appreciate the politically engaging activities on campus.

Intramural Volleyball

This semester, I decided to try something new with some friends: joining a volleyball team. Throughout my high school years I had played soccer and softball, and was a part of the swim team. I had always thought that volleyball was a cool sport, but never had time to try out or play. I would play in the backyard with some friends once in a while, but never play competitively. Once I found out there was an intramural league at Stockton University, I was excited to join.

After talking to a few friends, I found a team of six people who were interested in playing with me. Once November came around, we paid the bursar’s office and got t shirts made as our uniform. One of the kids on my team designed the logo himself, and we only had to pay five dollars for the shirt! We were all set to go, and everyone was looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, it didn’t go as smoothly as we had all hoped. We only had two boys on the team, and in order to play games each team needed two boys and two girls on the court at a time. That meant that we couldn’t afford for one of the boys to miss a game. However, one of the boys on our team started having personal issues, and couldn’t make any of the volleyball games. He had to go home almost every night, and all of our games were at night. We had to email the leaders of volleyball multiple times and ask if we could replace him with a different boy. After a lot of running around and stressing out, the people responded and told us they understood and that we could have a replacement. We were all excited and grateful that they were so understanding.

After that fiasco, however, our struggles were not over. Two of the girls on the team did not put the volleyball games on their priority list at all, so they rarely came. We played every game except one with only four players, and as a result lost every single one. One of my best friends on the team is a commuter, and she still made every single game. She would stay at my dorm overnight to avoid driving home at midnight. The other two girls lived on campus and simply chose not to come to the games because they didn’t feel like it. It was a little disappointing because we were all counting on each other to show up and play, but it was still really fun to be playing with friends, when they did all show up.

Even though the season caused my team a lot of stress, the games were really fun. It was a great way to get a group of friends together and take a break from our school work. I feel like I have become closer to the people on my team, and I have definitely strengthened friendships. It was also great that the people who run volleyball were so understanding with our predicament. Intramural sports is a great way to put yourself out there and try new things while having fun and goofing off with friends. I recommend intramural sports to anyone looking for something to do. I am upset that the season is ending soon, and cannot wait for next season.

Humans Vs. Zombies On Campus

HVZ is the acronym for a game that I played for the entire first week of November. The game is called Humans Vs. Zombies and was sponsored by the Live Action Games Club here on campus. Overall it was a positive experience and made me consider leadership positions in the club. The event itself was fun, but the most important take away was a great ice breaker/networking event with both students like me and chair members of the LAG club.

The game consisted of two teams of players: the humans and the zombies. The humans had a green armband on always and usually carried nerf guns or socks to use against their “attackers.” The zombie team had their headbands on their head and attempted to tag human players to turn them into zombies. The goal was for the humans to survive the week without being tagged, and the zombies had to try and stop them. Anywhere and anytime outside was fair play area, which made the event incredibly nerve racking. A threat could be right around the corner wherever. With nerf guns and socks, however, humans had the obvious advantage in both numbers and range to start. Starting Monday, there was a nightly mission that all humans had to attend where they had to perform various tasks under the pressure of zombies who had their own intentions. I stayed a human through Thursday night (the last night) and thus mostly got to see things from the perspective of the humans. Missions consisted of defending people, finding things, or walking through dark areas of campus.  Even in the face of looming danger, I met several new friends that I am now connected with, and while we walked, we sang songs and shot zombies. As a freshman, getting involved with clubs is hard for me, but this event made breaking the ice incredibly easy for me. Nothing bonds people like walking in the dark with people jumping out of nowhere. I also met Josh and Ryan, the President and Vice President of the club, who gave me their contact information to stay engaged throughout next semester and run for the Public Relations position in the club. This will not only look good on a resume, but will also further prepare me for PR work in the Communication fields I plan to go into. Running from zombies is also a major work out. Between shivering in the cold and running, I feel like I am ten pounds lighter!

Overall my experience was amazing, and I would recommend it to anyone who needs help feeling included and active. This club is very laid back, and I plan to join in on their game of Assassin that should be starting sometime next February. Of course, I will also be taking part in the second semester session of HVZ.

 

Stockton Spaceflight Experiments Program

This fall I participated in the Stockton Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). This is not a one day event, but took place over several weeks. Once a part of the program, you can work alone or team up with other students and develop a research proposal to send an experiment of your own design up to the International Space Station. The program is a competition against other teams from Stockton, and once the time is complete, the proposals are collected and three semifinalists are sent to Washington DC for further critique. If then chosen against dozens of other experiment proposals from across the country, you’ll actually get the opportunity to build and send your experiment to space.

This program is definitely not for those who don’t have a passion for science and space, but if you do it is a fun, challenging way to get involved in the research process. You get thrown right into the mix, but if you choose not to take the program for credits, you aren’t even going to receive a grade for it. You can do it for fun, and do it more than once as well. It is a rewarding experience that gives you hands on knowledge in the world of science and research, and bragging rights to say that you had an experiment that was sent to outer space isn’t too bad either.

The program was a lot of fun, but a lot of work as well. I recommend it to anybody who has an interest in the sciences and space research projects. You learn a lot and get to work in groups with people and a mentor professor, and it’s a competitive environment where you have to not only beat the other teams, but beat the clock and make sure everything gets done right and on time. I would definitely recommend trying it next fall, make sure to look for flyers in the USC in September.

More Food For Thought

Though I wrote in my previous blog about Stockton’s newly founded Food for Thought group in an attempt to garner awareness for the newly formed discussion group, I am writing this blog post as an update on the progress of this group as it has undergone major developments since my last blog post and seems a topic worth revisiting. While there are a lot of discussion based events that Stockton University offers to its students, Food For Thought is one of the few events that meet more than once, giving students multiple chances to enjoy the learning experience and broadening of viewpoints that it offers.

Food for Thought was founded by a Stockton University senior psychology major with the intent of garnering an understanding of student’s experiences with various aspects of the Stockton University experience while allowing students to benefit from this experience by having a chance to listen and learn from the viewpoints of students from differing backgrounds and origins. I reported in my previous blog post that I thought this organization had a great deal to contribute to the environment of Stockton University, as unlike many similar presentations it offers students the chance to talk to other students with different viewpoints. Unfortunately, the organization did not have many students taking advantage of this opportunity at its beginning, and I was worried the event would dissolve as a result.

Luckily, however, more students have taken an interest in Food for Thought since the last time I wrote, and the last two events were regularly attended by over 20 individuals. We spent the last meeting largely talking about how the town’s, schools, and backgrounds differed from the current environment that Stockton University offers to its students, and I learned a great deal from this experience. Compared to the small town I was born in I have always found Stockton University to be a diverse and accepting environment, though I have learned that in some instances that is not the case. One member present at the event who suffered from a physical disability and was wheelchair bound, explained that while Stockton did attempt to make accommodations for its students there were still many areas of campus that she has trouble accessing, and that it made her upset that she could never visit her friends in certain housing situations on campus due to the lack of elevators.

Another aspect the group ended up discussing in length was the extracurricular clubs on campus, specifically those with a cultural aspect. Many explained from experience their fear of trying to join a club that represented a culture in which they were interested in learning about but had not been born into. These students feared that because they were not a part of the club’s culture the other club members would never truly accept them, and therefore they would never be able to enjoy and learn from the club to the best of their ability. While this fear had kept many in attendance from joining these types of clubs, those that had overcome this fear and joined in spite of it felt that the cultural clubs on campus had in general been very inviting and accepting, often eager to educate others on their culture.

Food for Thought caused me to think in depth on a lot of issues I had not previously considered, and opened my mind to the opinion of others. It is an event I think others would largely benefit from, and hope that they will attend in the future.

Toys for Tots Shopping

On Sunday I met with other students from the Stockton Honors Program in the Campus Center to shop for toys to donate to the Toys for Tots program. The Honors Program had collected money from selling t-shirts in the previous week and putting the profits towards shopping. When I arrived, I was surprised to see that there was already a substantial amount of students there. I had not been expecting such a high turnout since most students are not yet back on campus on Sunday afternoons. After assembling in the campus center, everyone headed to the local Toys R Us in order to shop. There, everyone divided into groups in order to ensure that different age groups and genders were represented. My group ended up shopping for younger girls around the elementary school to middle school age group. We picked out gifts such as Uno cards, adult coloring books and pencils, crafts, and Disney Princess action figure sets.

Overall, I am extremely grateful for this opportunity that being a part of the Honors Program presented to me. I had not previously put much thought into how much money goes into shopping gifts during the holiday season, so it was eye-opening to experience how expensive even simple toys can be and what it must be like to shop as parents. Toys for Tots is an amazing organization that helps so many children each holiday season and I’m glad that I was able to be a part of how Stockton contributed their donations. Organizations such as Toys for Tots highlight exactly how easy it is to get involved and give back, something that is often forgotten during the holiday season. All anyone needs to do is pick up a single inexpensive toy while at the store and by doing that they could make such a large impact on a child’s life. I also had a great time shopping and talking with my group during the outing. After, a reflection session was held to talk about the experience overall and reflect on what could be done similarly or differently in the upcoming years. I was extremely thankful for not only be able to participate in this event but also that it counted towards the Honors Program requirements.

Connections and Shared Humanity

 

My roommate and I are both in the honors program and were looking for an event that we could attend and fulfill our last discussion requirement. As we were discussing where to find information on events such as these, our RA, Kristen, sent us a text in GroupMe. Kristen is also a member of Honors at Stockton and just happened to send us a flyer for an event that would be happening the next day. Sophia and I then contacted the other honors students we knew to see if anyone else wanted to make the trek out to the lodge at 7 p.m. Our friend Sydney decided to join in. We all walked for 20 minutes across campus in the freezing cold, thinking that the presentation would be a packed room with a speaker that we would barely be able to hear, but what we found instead was exceedingly better.

We walked into the lodge to find a small group of 15 people, warm pizza, drinks, and a professor named Richard Miller. Professor Miller has been teaching for over 5 years at Stockton and mainly educates students on religion. The presentation was titled Connections and Shared Humanity and was advertised to focus on social justice topics, human freedom, and personal and social responsibility. But when the Professor Miller introduced his presentation, he made it clear that the main point of this discussion was listening. He had us do multiple listening activities, such as listening and staring at the person sitting next to us, as they talked for two minutes, then summarizing back as much as we could. At first, this “icebreaker” exercise made Sophia and I feel awkward mainly because although we are friendly as roommates, what friends hold eye contact for two minutes straight? Sophia talked mostly about her classes that day and her upcoming honors work, such as the essay on Gulliver’s Travels. I told Sophia about some movies that I wanted to see over the weekend, mainly Thor: Ragnarok and Call Me By Your Name. When we were done discussing what each other spoke about, Professor Miller brought up an interesting point. The more we were able to connect with the person next to us, the easier it was to listen. For example, I was able to understand what Sophia was talking about more because I share classes with her and I have a similar workload. Professor Miller explained that it will always be easier to connect, listen, understand and therefore help a person if you can stand yourself in their shoes.

As the presentation continued on Professor Miller examined why being an attentive listener can impact the people around you every day and his own personal stories where he helped his students through problems in their personal and academic life. At this point in the presentation it was clear that it was no longer a discussion on just simple listening skills and leadership skills, but on how one person with kind intentions can change multiple people’s lives. He explained the different struggles he has seen his students go through such as drugs, drinking, depression, and mental health problems; and how he helped his students overcome these difficulties through patience and understanding.

Professor Miller’s presentation really did feel like the kind of discussion our honors professors recommended we attend. It was a conversation between him and the audience, with personal stories and attentive listening on both sides. The advice and stories that Professor Miller told were very inspirational and I feel his ability to share his experiences with my friends and I will change the way we look at the people around us.

 

From Hospital to Home

On November 21, 2017, an event called “From Hospital to Home” was held in G137. This event was created to be able to share the holiday season with those who can’t enjoy it in the comfort of their home. I know what it is like to be in a hospital for the holiday season, for around this time last year my mom was in the hospital. It is really hard to enjoy any kind of holiday spirit in an environment like this. It is sad in a hospital, with all of the medical equipment everywhere and the worry of hearing bad news. If someone were to have sent in some Christmas decorations to brighten up the hospital, well that might’ve just made the time spent there a bit more bearable! It is very nice to know that the students of Stockton got to send some spirit to people like me last year and also those who are actually sick in the hospital! The students of Stockton made decorations with paper, tissue boxes, and also wrote out cards for hospital patients. It was great to see so many of my friends taking time out of their day to help those who they don’t even know or see! In my opinion, that is one of the most selfless things a person can do. To help someone that you can’t even see or know. Helping someone just because you know, whoever it may be, their day got a little brighter because of what you did. As great as it was to be able to spread some Holiday cheer to those who can’t quite enjoy it as well as we all can, it was also a fun time for all those who volunteered. We enjoyed some hot chocolate, candy, and also Christmas music playing throughout the classroom. We enjoyed each other’s company and shared a lot of laughs. It made the whole experience even better than it already was. I hope I can do something like this again soon! Another thing that made the experience so enjoyable was how adamant I am about the Christmas season (for example, my dorm has been equipped with a tree, multiple strings of lights, and a stocking on my door since early November!) I saw so many great creations from brilliantly decorated tissue boxes, to marvelous paper snowflakes! I personally created a paper snowflake, but a very large one as seen below. I learned how to make this in about 5th grade and never forgot how to make it! It too a very long time to make, about 45 minutes, but it was worth it! I also enjoyed teaching some of my friends how to make it too! This experience helped me bond with people I haven’t had a chance to previously. Nothing but good things came from this experience and I wouldn’t hesitate to bring a few friends next time to share in the fun! My creation and the ones made by my fellow Ospreys will be donated to the Atlanticare Cape Regional Medical Center.