Samuel Connery

Life of the Mind

Professor Lenard

30 September 2015

Blog Post #2

Over the summer we had to read “Whistling Vivaldi” which is a book that discusses stereotypes felt throughout society.  One of the contributors to the book was Valerie Purdie-Vaughns, who was also a student of the author Claude Steele.  The speaker was Valerie Purdie-Vaughns and I heard from a majority of professors that she was going to be a very entertaining speaker and provide  interesting topics to cover.

Valerie Purdie-Vaughns had started off the convocation in a very exciting way.  She told the audience to participate in an activity where you would turn to the person sitting next to you and discuss what you wanted to do for a living after you got out of college.  I enjoyed this activity because I got to meet two new people and since this was at the beginning of the year it had helped me introduce myself to some new friends.  After the opener Valerie Purdie-Vaughns began to go over statistics.  One of these was the difference between math scores of men and women and how the stereotype affects women in a learning setting.  Although this information was pertinent to the discussion it was very similar to examples that we had read throughout “Whistling Vivaldi”.    It seemed like a general overview of tests throughout the book which in some ways could be helpful since the majority of students had to do an assignment concerning the book.  I was hoping that we would hear about different tests or different findings not mentioned in the book that she could provide for us .  Although I didn’t find the information she presented very interesting Valerie Purdie-Vaughns was a very good speaker and knew how to keep her audience interested   throughout the whole presentation.  I definitely recommend the convocation to any incoming freshmen in the future.

During the days of October 9-13, the Stockton Theatre Club put on Walter Wykes’ tragicomedy, The Profession in the experimental theatre. It was directed by Dan Cerullo, and featured three actors, Jeremy Rotolo, Taylor Cawley, and Ryan Gorman. The second night of the show I helped sell concessions as well as watching the show. The fifth night I went again, but solely as an audience member. The first night was fun and I saw a lot of the comedy and laughed.

Moments were absolutely hysterical, Taylor’s facial expressions were beyond compare, and Jeremy’s timid sense of being was always there for a laugh, while Ryan’s intimidating nature only increased the comedy with him and Jeremy. While the show had its serious moments it was on an overall, funny and quite enjoyable. I found myself laughing as Taylor, portraying the character of Ibid, would creepily smile her way through lines. I couldn’t take Jeremy too seriously as I watched his character of Eugene fumble over words in the beginning, laughing the whole time. Ryan too, had a smile on my face as he played Schäffer, found a way to always get just a little too close to Eugene, and had the audience laughing. The first night I saw the show was full of smiles and laughter, while the second night of seeing the show brought me something entirely different.

The second night of the show brought about a whole new set of emotions. Instead of seeing the comedy I found a more disturbing show. I found Ryan’s booming voice chilling, Taylor’s eerie smile and constant reactions that were just too quick, Jeremy’s questioning of power and society. The show and the plot continually brought my mind to darker places, as the motives behind actions switched from comical to tragic. The monologues became disturbing and unnerving, as the cruel side of humanity was revealed.

The longer I watched the show the more disturbed and moved I felt. Instead of comedy I found a deeper meaning. It was amazing how much a show can change in your mind as you view it more than once. I wish I could have gone all of the nights to see a greater progression in my views of the show. Theatre is an amazing thing, and the change and progression in a show is even more amazing. I cannot wait for the upcoming show, Hello Herman. 

Anthony Gingerelli
Event Blog 3
11/19/15
Book without Borders is a fun community service based club. This club is very active at Stockton University and impacts people all over the world. The purpose behind Books without Borders is to supply books to those less fortunate, allowing them to further their education by supplying them with books. The meetings are very relaxed as there is a lot of brainstorming and planning occurring during the entire time. Students will plan events, review future “days of service” and collect any books people have brought in to store in the trailer. These events they plan are called “days of service.” These days are scheduled on their own or in conjunction with Stockton’s day of service. There are several steps involved in this community based service from planning to shipping. At these events students move the books from the storage and bring them into the school. They then organize the books into the categories and genre. After reorganizing them, we repack them so they are ready to be shipped. Then the books get shipped out to a variety of locations, depending on the need at the time. We send them to local Stockton communities, to other New Jersey locations as well as across the country and world, where people are desperate for books.
In addition to the meetings and days of service, they will have club meetings which take place in the actual warehouse. Here students are proactive and get a head start to reorganize the books so when the scheduled days of arrive, all the books will be packed and ready be carried out and sent to the shipping location. This makes the process much faster and efficient for the club and everyone in it.
Books without Borders is one of the most active clubs on the Stockton campus. Not only being one of the most vigorous clubs, it is one of the most prominent clubs. They have a significant impact for people not only in our local area but across the globe. Joining Books without Borders would be a great way to impact others who are less fortunate but choose to be educated and make a better life for themselves.

Samuel Connery

Life of the Mind

Professor Lenard

13 October 2015

As high school came to an end I was upset over the possibility that my sports career was coming to a close.  I was only average when it came to the single sport I played which was track and field and knew it would be extremely difficult for me to make the team.  In order to make up for the lack of physical activity I got while playing sports in high school, I knew that I had to find an activity to keep me active.  After discussing club possibilities with my one friend Klaudia, she had suggested that I sign up for Jiu-Jitsu club.  I was reluctant at first due to the problem that I had no prior fighting experience; however, I knew that I should learn some form of self-defense in case I was ever to put in a situation where I needed to protect myself.

As I arrived in the racquetball court room where jiu-jitsu meets, I was nervous to encounter what the club had in store for me.  As I got down and began to stretch, I scoped out the competition.  They all appeared very strong and each one looked as if they had prior training in jiu-jitsu.  Luckily for me the first hour of jiu-jitsu practice involved no one v. one situations.  It was just practicing moves for different positions that someone may find himself in when rolling with an opponent.  The practicing was helpful since it gave me some basic moves to practice.  The sensei was also walking around observing the groups and giving tips on how to properly perform the moves.  The hour passed quickly, and it was then time for the sensei to leave us.  This was not the end of practice for the club.  After the hour of learning the techniques, most members stay behind to learn to roll with another opponent and apply the techniques previously learned.  Particularly on my first day of rolling, I was destroyed by my opponents.  They were able to have me tap out in a matter of seconds.  Luckily for me, all the experience fighters recognized my lack of ability for the sport and began to teach me techniques as we were rolling.  They would stop as we were in the middle of rolling and give me tips such as how to break a hold or how to perform offensive moves like an arm bar.  I found this teach method a lot easier since it was a real fighting situation.  I feel that I’m improving more and more each lesson.  The club meetings have become the highlights of my Tuesdays and Thursdays and although I’m still in the early stages of training, I believe that I’m going to stick with this club throughout the rest of my years at Stockton.

On Wednesday, October 9^th, the Stockton Entertainment Team held a Multicultural Music Festival in the Campus Center Coffee House. The festival included musical acts by several clubs and organizations as well as a buffet of foods from various countries such as pierogies, lo mein, and even popsicles.

Over the course of the event’s two hour run, many groups participated, and the tables were filled with interested students, showing their support for a more accepting and well-informed society. Some of the highlights of the evening include a step team routine, a hip hop quiz, a signed song, and an acapella performance. The step routine, presented by the Caribbean Student Association, was a rhythmic and entertaining display by three talented students who were met by loud applause at the end. After this routine, the United Black Student Society came up on stage to test the viewers’ knowledge of the hip hop genre. The UBSS representatives read lyrics to various songs, then gave a list of possible artists, asking the audience to guess which of the artists were responsible for the lyrics. Participants from the audience seemed excited as they successfully guessed each answer and were rewarded with bracelets. Next, the American Sign Language Club gave a performance to the song “Roar” by Katy Perry. As the music played in the background, eight of the club’s members stood on stage, signing the words to the song in a mesmerizing display of hands in motion. When the acapella group came on stage, everyone, even people from the Gaming Club meeting upstairs, gathered around to listen to their two songs.

All in all, the Multicultural Music Festival was a successful event, spreading awareness of other cultures and traditions through fun music and delicious food. I would definitely recommend watching (or even participating in) this festival if it is held again next year.

Samuel Connery                                                                                                                                               Blog Post #1

Professor Lenard                                                                                                                                             9/14/15

The day of service was quite the interesting experience.  When I had first signed up for it back in the summer I had assumed that the day was going to be filled with working on small projects throughout the day to give to the people who are less fortunate.  Rather the day was mostly filled with sitting through presentations on different services that are offered as clubs at the school or the surrounding area.  This provided an interesting opportunity to find a service club that was best suited for me.

Out of all the presentations that I saw, I believe Green Dot was the most intriguing to me.  Green Dot in an organization that encourages people to stop potentially dangerous situations, known as red dots, by having someone intervene in some form either through words or actions.  The people who were intervening and trying to help the situation were known as the green dots.  The speaker had helped me realize that there were situations that I’ve encountered in my own life that I could have helped make better through stepping in.  In order to help in these situations, the organization needs more people to become aware of how to become a green dot so that there’s a better chance that they will be there to stop a red dot.  This group teaches people the proper way to intervene in dangerous situations so they can help defuse the situations.

Although the day was mainly filled with presentations, there was one activity during the day that actually made me feel like I was actively helping others.  The name of the group was Books without Borders, which is an organization that collects books to give to people in other areas that have a hard time accessing books.  The organization had us actively work by unloading boxes of books from their vans and then categorize them into subjects and from there repackage the books in other boxes.  The process made me feel that I was putting my time to good use at the day of service, and it was also the kind of thing that I was expecting the day of service to be.  Since there was a large amount of people that had signed up for the Day of Service the club was able to get many hours of hard work which they wouldn’t have if they had just worked with the members of their club.  I felt this Day of Service was extremely valuable to this club just because of the amount of work that we were able to help them finish in such a short amount of time.

Above all, I believe that the Day of Service was a valuable source of information to learn about different community service groups around the school.  Next year I hope that the Day of Service has more active projects, such as making care packages.  I do now feel that I have a better understanding of the community service opportunities here at Stockton and hope to get involved with at least on sometime soon.

On September 26, the freshman of Stockton piled into the Performing Arts Center to hear Mary Roach speak about the freshman common reading, Spook.  Some students came because their seminar required it, others wanted the ULTRA credit, and still others just wanted to be at the event.  Nearly every seat both in the auditorium and orchestra pit were filled with students waiting for the event to begin.

The event started a little after 4:30 with opening remarks from President Herman Saatkamp, Professor G.T. Lenard, and Student Senate President Maribeth Capelli.  Then, it was time for Mary Roach herself to take the stage.

Mary Roach spoke much in the same way that she wrote.  She always had one idea in mind, but she always went off on tangents that in some way related to the main topic she was speaking about.  She spoke mainly about the importance of being curious.  Aside from Spook, she mentioned her books Stiff and Bonk.  At times, she even got a roar of laughter from the audience.

During the question and answer session, Mary Roach kept the ball rolling with quick answers and jests at the audience.  No question was too bizarre for her to answer.  She spoke of everything from her strangest instance with sexual research to her own experience with ghosts.  Her ghost story was a bit of a let down to the audience.  People were expecting a bit more of a gripping story instead of hearing about finding a candy heart on the table, but not everyone can have a gripping ghost story.  Everyone has their own personal experience, exciting or not.

Some people had to leave early due to conflicts in their schedule, but others were able to stay the entire time.  All in all, it was an enjoyable event.

Macie McCallion

Homecoming weekend at Stockton University is a jubilant time for everyone. Families and their Stockton students are reunited and there are plenty of festivities for each person to enjoy. A momentous occasion for the students in particular is the Osprey Ball. This year was the 20^th annual Osprey Ball and we could feel the anticipation of each person attending as the women curled each other’s hair and the men put on their nicest shirts. Groups of friends would meet up before the ball to take pictures to have something to remember these moments by. College is only a short time in our lives and we need to appreciate every minute of it.

Some couples went together as dates and others went with groups of friends; it didn’t matter because everyone was going to have a great time. The ball started at nine and when students walked into the room the first thing they saw was an elegant balloon arch at the opening of the door. Other remarkable amenities of the evening included a photo booth with fun props, delicious dinner, dessert and an amazing DJ. Some of the best moments of the night were when the DJ played songs like the cupid shuffle, the cotton eye Joe, the wobble, the electric slide and more because that’s really when all of the people in the room were up on the dance floor having the time of their lives.

The party went all night long, when the ball was officially over at one in the morning, the individuals who stayed the entire time were sad to leave. My friends and I in particular stayed until the very end. Since the ball was one of the first official Stockton events that freshmen were able to attend, I was happy to be spending it with all of my new friends here at Stockton.

The night was a huge success. Any student who showed up would have had a great time, and all of the ones who did proved it. The students and faculty who worked together to create this event deserve to be commended on their spectacular efforts.

               On September 26^th, Stockton hosted a golf outing at the Seaview Golf Resort. As part of the softball team, I was asked to volunteer for the day. This involved selling raffle tickets, helping golfers on the holes, and being advocates for the college to persuade the attendees into spending more money that will eventually fund various scholarships offered by the school. As a recipient of a Stockton scholarship, I was happy to volunteer and offer my time to such a great cause.

               My day started off eating lunch and selling raffle tickets and other tickets for a Chinese auction. The main purchasers of our tickets were golfers who would later play on one of Seaview’s two top of the line golf courses. After we sold tickets, we were assigned in partners a hole to sit at and assist the golfers with anything they might have needed help with. For my specific hole, the goal was to get the ball as close to the hole as possible on the first stroke. Once the golfer hit his or her ball, we would go out with a tape measure and measure out the distance. When this was determined, we wrote their name on a board for their specific gender. The golfer with the closest stroke of the day would win a prize at the end of the tournament. On one of the courses, golfers had the chance to play against a professional golfer and try to shoot closer to the hole than the pro. It was similar to the rest of the holes but with the added pressure of shooting with a professional.

               Overall, it was a rather successful day for the school. Although I am not sure how much money was raised, I do know that each golfer paid a significant amount of money to play and hundreds of golfers came out. In addition to the entrance fee, each golfer also spent money on various raffle tickets and other fundraisers. It was good for me to see where the money that funds my education comes from. I never really thought about where the money comes from for schools’ scholarships but thanks to the generous people at Seaview that day, thousands of Stockton students, including myself, can afford to go school.

Macie McCallion

SOAR is an exhilarating experience for all incoming freshmen. It stands for the Stockton Outdoor Adventure Retreat. It serves as a way for freshmen to get to know each other and build lasting connections before beginning this new chapter of our lives at Stockton University.

As we moved in on August 25^th 2015, there were so many emotions running through the minds of every parent, family member, and student. We felt fear, excitement, worry, thrill, eagerness and more. After we said goodbye to our parents and headed off to SOAR, all of the worry and fear began to disappear; we started to feel more comfortable around one another. We were split up into tribes. The tribes were orange, navy, pink, yellow, red, green, purple and sky. I was a member of sky tribe (the best tribe out of them all). There were about 30 people per tribe and by the end of SOAR we were all each other’s second family. This aspect of SOAR really makes Stockton truly feel like our home away from home.

The activities that we participated in are really what contributed to all of the bonds that we made. We contemplated several mind games and were elated when we understood when no one else did. We sang, danced, played cards, went kayaking, climbed rock walls and chased some metaphorical lions. On top of all the fun activities, we also participated in some activities that educated us on topics like diversity, acceptance and trust.

SOAR may have only been three short days. However, they were 3 of the best days I have had in a long time. By the end of it we all had bug bites and dirty shoes and sweaty shirts but none of us cared because we had such a great time. Thanks to SOAR I feel so much more comfortable assimilating into this new environment and being the outgoing, confident person that I have always been.