On Thursday September 12, 2013, the Stockton Office of Student Development sponsored its annual event called “Meet the Greeks.” Upon arrival, I waited in a long line that curved out of the doors of Big Blue. The door attendant who swiped my card was excited about how big the turn out was. When I first walked in I was greeted by three rows of decorated tables, each representing one of the Greek organizations. Before attending the event I already had a couple of sororities in mind, so this set-up made it easy to locate each. The representatives for each of the three sororities I visited were extremely friendly and informative. Although I am a freshman and cannot rush until next semester, the representatives handed me flyers and suggested I attend their information sessions to get a head start.

After visiting my interested tables, I took a seat with a couple of my friends to enjoy the Greek introductions. This part of the event was very lively and upbeat. I found myself, amongst others, laughing and smiling throughout the majority of the performances. Many of the Greeks showed videos to give the audience a taste of what their organizations are all about. Most of the sororities performed their chants while most of the fraternities performed dances. It was very enjoyable to see how much fun each group was having; everyone got along so well.

I found attending this event was very helpful. At first I wondered whether Greek life was for me, but now I am excited to join a sorority next semester. This event also helped me narrow down my interests and focus on one sorority I feel is right for me. I learned that Greek life is a great opportunity to meet new friends that will last a lifetime. I highly recommend attending this event for anyone interested in Greek life here on Stockton campus.

Macie McCallion

Recently, I decided to join the American Sign Language Club here at Stockton University.  I had joined multiple other clubs before making the decision to join American Sign Language Club.  I am currently a member of the Marine Science Club, C.L.A.W.S. (Collaborative Leaders Advocating Wellness at Stockton), Ping Pong Club, the Disney Association and now the American Sign Language Club.

I decided to join each of these organizations because I had a genuine interest in all of them.  However, there was more to the reason of why I joined the American Sign Language Club than just having an interest in the subject matter.  This past year, my grandfather developed a benign tumor on the cochlea of his good ear and he is now fully deaf.  I joined the American Sign Language club because I now understand what it’s like to have a communication barrier.  My ultimate goal is to become fluent in Sign Language.  This goal was inspired by my grandfather, but I wish to follow through with it because I think it is a huge asset to be able to speak through sign language.  I hope to inspire others in my family to learn how to use sign language and hopefully I will be able to teach my grandfather as well so it could ease the communication barrier between us.

I hope no one else in my family develops complete hearing loss but if they do I am confident that I will be more prepared. I believe sign language is a beautiful form of communication that should be more widely taught throughout our education systems.

When Hurricane Sandy hit about this time last year, nearly everyone in New Jersey was effected in one way or another. I remember it was just around the time of the USSBA marching band state championships. Many schools dropped out that competition because their schools and the students attending the schools suffered greatly from the storm. The damage covered South to North Jersey. But, the coastal areas suffered the most. I realized the extent of coastal damage when I went to visit Ortley Beach near Toms River in April of this year. More than six months later, the town was still torn to shreds. Houses were collapsed in on each other and debris still littered the streets. Now, almost a year later in Atlantic City, I got to see more damage first hand with the Stockton Day of Service. Our mission in this year’s day of service was to rebuild the dunes along Maine Street in Atlantic City. And, the damage was not pretty. There were empty lots surrounding the washed away dunes where high end houses were previously standing. Where the houses were still standing, the garage doors were covered over with plywood. Townhouses right on the water’s edge were brick shells, and many other bricks littered the sand around them. But what really struck me was the concrete skeleton of the collapsed and missing boardwalk. This area was hit hard.

During the course of our day, forty-some students and I planted 2,000 dune grass plants, cleared the sand of big chunks of debris, and removed sand from the street. This would hopefully rebuild the sand dune ecosystem in that area and help keep sand in place next to the bulkhead lining the shore. This was the first small step to reviving that area. But, the impact was immediate. We were greeted by the security officers working in the resort next to where we were working. They thanked us profusely and said that what we were doing meant so much to them. Hearing those words made everyone appreciate what we were doing so much more. Later in the day, I had the privilege of talking to an AC municipal worker who was assigned to supervise us. He had grown up in Atlantic City and seen it go through many storms. Hurricane Sandy seemed to effect him the most. He told that when the storm hit, the street we were on was flooded six feet high with mattresses and wood floating by. Houses were completely washed out. He said he saw the boardwalk floating by. This man had to watch his home be torn apart. And, here we are nearly a year later trying to sort through the mess. Things like these do not go away overnight, though they may fade from our thoughts when we are not presented with the problem everyday. Doing a small thing like rebuilding a dune really opened my eyes to see the bigger problem, but it also showed me that that small thing can make a big difference to someone living with this problem everyday.

The Stockton 10^th annual Day of Service certainly was an interesting experience for me.  I was a member of the voting registration team; our job was to get people to fill out forms so they could have the right to vote.  We also had the job of getting people in the know about an upcoming election for the New Jersey state Senator.  When our initial location had too few people, we moved to the Atlantic City boardwalk.  I had the job of both monitoring the table we set up, and walking along the boardwalk to ask passers to register.

There were plenty of good things that came out of the experience.  Getting to see Atlantic City for the first time in my life was exiting, and the weather was bearable for the most part.  The best part of the whole trip was the positive responses from some people.  Many people stated that they were already registered, and I knew that they were telling the truth.  Several people stopped to complement our college for what it was doing.  Some people even got into lengthy conversations about different subject matters.  (I, sadly, was not one of these people.)  We also did get several people to register on the spot, and handed out a good couple of forms.  But with the good must also come the bad.

There were plenty people who were downright rude.  These people either brushed us off like we were nothing, said they were already registered but were clearly lying, and even straight up ignored us.  These responses were kind of painful.  I was putting effort into this project and they couldn’t care less!  Even worse than the people who ignored us were the people who gave us looks of anger or disgust as we asked them or as they passed by.  They looked utterly disgusted at what we were doing, it was pretty uncomfortable.   The other major problem with our day was in organization; or lack thereof.   The voter registration group not only had to relocate, but it took us at least half an hour before we finally got a table, and we never got any chairs.  These problems made looking serious quite difficult.

The main thing I take away from the day of service is a lesson in tolerance.  I now know not to be rude or brash to people who are trying to advertise or sell stuff from stands like the one we were in.  People honestly put effort into these things, and I think it’s disrespectful to ignore them.  I think that the Day of Service could’ve gone better for my group, but I still view it as a success and a positive experience overall.

Nube Airiana Munoz

The Honors Experience was an amazing event that was held on June 21^st of 2015 at Stockton University. It was hosted by students of the Honors Program. The Honors Experience was an overnight event in which newcomers to the Honors Program could experience a glimpse of what it feels like to be a part of the Honors Program. New Honors students including myself arrived at Stockton on a Sunday morning excited to begin a day that promised to be worthwhile and would ultimately mark the beginning of a new chapter in our lives. After check-in parents and students had lunch together and listened to upperclassmen members of the Honors Program introduce themselves and speak about the different variety of clubs and organizations that they were currently involved with on campus. It was fantastic to find out about the countless clubs and organizations that Stockton had to offer so that students could participate in something they truly enjoyed while at the same time being able to get involved outside the classroom.

Then, it was time to say goodbye to our parents and head over to the first activity of the day, which was none other than Irish dancing. It was now time to meet other incoming Honors students and start to bond and get to know one another. Everyone sat in a circle, and we went around introducing ourselves and where we were from. Moments later an instructor showed us some steps of Irish dancing. We all were confused and without a doubt everyone or most of us messed up the steps, but we did it together and had some real fun. As the day went on we had some more fun when we started playing some icebreakers. One of the icebreakers we played was Ships and Sailors. It was a good time and so was playing volleyball together.

The night would eventually have to come to an end, but not before eating dinner together and participating in some service learning projects. All students helped make dog toys and care packages for kids that were less fortunate in the area. This provided Honors students with a sense of what it feels like to serve the community. Upon completion of the service projects there was a reflection session. During the session everybody discussed why we did those particular service projects and what we learned as a result of completing them. Everyone learned that they made a difference just by doing simple things. The event was now officially over, and everyone would have orientation in the morning, but the Honors Experience turned out to be a special day that would not be forgotten. The Honors Experience didn’t just introduce us to the program and new members; it introduced and welcomed us to our family away from home.

On Monday September 23, 2013 the Stockton Theatre Club hosted a free show based off of the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway?  This new adaptation of the popular TV show was amazing.  The show started off with a handful of the on-stage actors getting up and preforming a pantomime slideshow for an imaginary trip to the Niagara Falls. Two other actors narrated what was happening in the scene.  One actress named Kate was described as the one who goes over the falls and dies. She remained in the show, but the “death” stuck around as a running joke throughout the show.  This was followed by a game called The Alphabet Game.  In this game, two actors, Dan and Kate, are given a scenario of how the first time they meet. The scenario they were given involved them getting lost in a corn maze.  Alternating lines, Dan and Kate had a conversation. However, the catch was that each line had to start with the letters of the alphabet in order.  Once the dialogue got to the letter “Z” the game was over and the team moved on to Space Jump.  In Space Jump, two actors start on stage. New actors enter and the scene changes until every actor who is participating is on stage. Then they begin leaving making the actors go backwards through scenes until the original two actors remain on stage.  This game had the actors start out wrestling an alligator, to celebrating Thanksgiving, to talking again about poor Kate’s death at Niagara Falls.  Then the party began!  Seriously, the next game was called Party Quirks. There was a host for an imaginary party and three guests.  These guests were given quirks that the host did not know.  Once the party began the guests were not permitted to leave until the host discovered their quirks.  One girl had to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” while another danced to “Oppa Gangnam Style” whenever the host looked at her, and the final guest had to pretend he was turning into a werewolf.  This game is always a hilarious one to watch.  Party Quirks was followed by the Rhyming Game.  In this game, three audience members are selected and set in a line of the actors.  Two at a time, those on center stage have a conversation where the lines must rhyme. If the lines didn’t rhyme, the person who failed to rhyme went to the back of the line.  Next were monologues, in this game a panel of actors are on the stage and an event is selected.  The selected event was Black Friday at Walmart.  Then with this information each actor picks a character and scenario they will monologue about.  In this scenario a poor little girl was trampled while looking at a 12-inch TV she longed to buy while a hobo took the TV.  The Dating Game was the next endeavor for the actors to experience.  One man, Josh leaves the room while three girls are the potential dates for him, but they are given famous personas.  One girl was Fat Amy, one was Luke Skywalker, and the third was the Tooth Fairy. Josh had to ask a few questions in the dating game until he could guess whom the three contestants were.  The final game was Survivor.  This game holds true to the game of survivor. A scenario is set, like this one where the actors were stranded on a desert island.  After the scene was enacted, the weakest actor was voted off and the whole scene was repeated with that actor now missing.  This continued until only one actor remained. Taylor was left alone to act the part that seven other actors had not been able to do.  She yelled at herself and fought with herself.  At one point she even became some sort of animal and chased herself.  This show was very entertaining and full of laughs.  The humor throughout the show was consistent.  I cannot wait for the next Whose Line put on by the Stockton Theatre Club!

On September 24th 2015, Stockton University held its annual Convocation for the new freshmen. The speaker this year was Dr. Valerie Purdie-Vaughns. Upon arriving to this event, many of the freshmen filled up the entire Performing Arts Center. Many of the students did not even know what to expect coming from the event because professors told everyone to go due to its importance. After a short introduction by the Student Senate President and Professor Lenard, Dr. Purdie-Vaughns appeared on the stage in front of the large audience.
Dr. Purdie-Vaughns then began to talk about many different aspects included in the book Whistling Vivaldi by Claude Steele, which was the required reading material for all freshmen. Therefore, everyone would be able to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts mention in the book. Dr. Purdie-Vaughns began her discussion by explaining how everyone in the room can be stereotyped in some way. This means that every person can have a stereotype thrust upon to them. Furthermore, Dr. Purdie-Vaughns showed how people with the same birthdays feel a special connection even though they do not have anything else truly in common. She then related this to stereotypes and how people with a common stereotype can feel a deeper connection just because they are faced with the same stereotype as them.
Additionally, Dr. Purdie-Vaughns’ presentation also explained the concept of stereotype threat. In fact, she explained how stereotype threat is can be subconscious, as well as conscious. Therefore, people do not always have to be completely aware that they are undergoing some sort of stereotype threat. Lastly, Dr. Purdie-Vaughns also described how stereotypes can be local to a certain area. This means that a stereotype present in North America might not exist in a different part of the world.
Overall, Convocation provided a lot of insight on the topics presented in Whistling Vivaldi and stereotypes in general. Dr. Purdie-Vaughns gave an excellent presentation that intrigued the audience. I am glad I was able to attend this presentation because it was very insightful and made me even more aware about the stereotypes in our society and how they affect people.

On September 7th, 2013, I participated in the 10th Annual Day of Service. This day is focused on volunteer community service in some area of New Jersey. This year was located in Atlantic City with over 20 organizations involved in helping this wonderful city. I was extremely excited to participate in this event because community service has always been a favorite thing of mine.
When I arrived at the Campus Center that morning I was given a T-shirt, unfortunately an XL because all the smalls were taken, and I was given breakfast. When breakfast was done, we were shown into the Event Room where there were signs with different community service projects I could choose from. My friends and I had no idea what group we wanted to join, so we asked around to see what all the organizations were about. We had gone to the Peace Keepers group but they were all full, but then we found the Stanley Holmes organization. Stanley Holmes is a community center for a neighborhood in Atlantic City. The directors for Stanley Holmes wanted to use the Day of Service to get the children of this neighborhood excited to go back to school. I was very happy to be a part of this organization because I love working with children and making them happy and pumped for their first days of school. And that is just what we did. The activities that we had at the community center were pizza, an ice cream sundae bar, face paint, and many many board games for the children to play with. I was working the pizza station with some of my friends, and it was such a great experience. All the kids who came to this event were so sweet and just had the biggest smiles on their faces. It really warmed my heart to see all these children of different ages coming together and enjoying a fun day and getting excited for school. My absolute favorite part of that day was creating a bond with some of the children. One girl named Maria really has a special place in my heart. She was just such a vibrant girl and could light up a room with her smile. Seeing her and the other kids enjoying their pizza and ice cream, getting their faces painted, and participating in vigorous games of Spongebob Operation really made me realize the importance of education and friendship.
I must say that the 10th Annual Day of Service changed my views of life and opened up a special place in my heart. I will most definitely be back next year for the 11th Annual Day of Service.

On September 26th 2015, Stockton hosted its first and last home cross country meet of the 2015 season. Many spectators came to watch this event because it was the Osprey men’s and women’s only home meet this year. The match took place on the athletic fields on the north side of campus off of Pomona Road. When we arrived, many teams were warming up to prepare for the run. In total, fifteen men’s teams and seventeen women’s teams competed in the race.
The women’s teams ran first. At the start of the race, all seventeen of the women’s teams began the run across the field. The spectators stood close by to cheer on all of the teams. After the initial start of the race, the teams continued running the course. However, the spectators could not see the runners for most of the race because the course goes through the woods that surround Stockton. After about ten minutes, the women reappeared across the field for the middle section of the course. Once again, the spectators cheered on the runners as they then ran back into the woods. Then, another fifteen minutes passed before the runners sprinted to the finish line. One by one, all of the runners crossed the finish line with all of the spectators and coaches cheering on their teams. After the women’s race ceased, the men’s race then followed. The fifteen men’s teams ran through the same exact course with an equal level of enthusiasm from the spectators.
After the two races, it was time to announce the awards. Unfortunately, Stockton did not receive first place for either team. However, they still displayed an enormous amount of effort. The women’s team ended up placing in third, finishing only behind two schools, one from Pennsylvania and one from New York. Furthermore, two of the Stockton women runners placed in the top ten. The men’s team placed second, following only behind the school from Pennsylvania. Three of the runners on the Stockton men’s team received top ten finishes.
Overall, the Osprey Open was a great event showcasing the talents of the cross country athletes here at Stockton University. Even though our teams did not receive first place, there was still very impressive finishes for both the men and the women. All of the runners that participated in the race exhibited vast amounts of effort and showed how great the athletics here at Stockton can be.

As a continuation of Stockton’s seven year tradition, Stockton had Mary Roach, the author of Spook : Science Tackles the Afterlife, come speak.  After thoroughly reading Spook, I was a little apprehensive to listen to the author speak; I wasn’t a fan or necessarily interested in hearing what she had to say.  Spook went very in depth to a level that forced the idea of a dry presentation into my head.  However, when Mary Roach walked out onto the stage and admitted that she had never spoken in a place with the conventional seating of the PAC, the idea that Roach might not be boring slowly started to creep into my head.

Roach isn’t a woman with wild hair and thick glass that make her seem as crazy as her book may portray her as.  The light-hearted author was very down to earth, snarky, and not cocky about her fame.  After seeing authors speak, I figured that Roach would follow the same pattern, but I was wrong.  As a scientific author, she blatantly admitted “I don’t like science, I find it boring.”  Even though I like science, admitting something like that as a science writer made me really like Mary Roach.  Roach wanted things to be interesting in her book, and she seemed to push finding things interesting.

After the typical speech that college students get (to explore and discover), Roach explained that the only way her books got written were by her state of mind.  Mary Roach explained that, “I ask whatever questions come to mind.”  Roach followed up with an explanation of her investigation on what happens to oysters after people ate them, and explained, “Curiosity opens doors.”  When I heard this, I realized that even though Stockton has a lot to offer, there might be more hidden things around here that I have to find on my own.  My own curiosity is the only thing I have that will push me to be as successful as I hope here.

After Mrs. Roach gave her small speech, she opened up a question and answer session where she literally answered any question that a student would pose.  Listening to her talk completely changed my perspective on her.  She willingly acknowledged that the ending of the book wasn’t the best way to end it.  She had tried “to make a point about knowing and believing.”  Instead of a definite ending, Roach wanted the readers to be able to think about what really happens; she didn’t take the information and form an opinion for the reader.  I plan on reading her other books in the future because I think that I have a better understanding of her writing after hearing her speak.

If Stockton has more authors like Mary Roach come to speak, I’ll definitely frequent the events.  I think that sitting with almost the entire freshman class was a great way to help exchange some ideas about the book, and throw in some ideas from other freshman seminars.  After seeing this event, I’m really excited to start exploring RSC’s other events and can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester will hold.  Hopefully they’re as interesting as this one was!