Hunger Games Trivia

On Tuesday, November 17^th, I attended a trivia event held in the Campus Center Event Room based on the Hunger Games movies and books. The event was held by SET, and was one of many trivia events that are held about various topics.

The night began with forming teams of five, who then shuffled into the Event Room and spread out across the room. A SET member handed out six small lined sheets of paper and a pen to each of five groups. Once everyone was settled, the rules were explained. Each team had six sheets of paper because they needed one for each round. Only one member of the group was required to write the answers down and turn in an answer sheet. Each round had a different theme, and some questions were worth more than others. Round one was based on characters, in which a slide was shown with a picture of a character from one of the movies, and the participants had to write down the name of the character. Round two was quotes from the books and movies, and players had to write down who said them. There was no extra time at the end of each round to go over your answers, making it more challenging. All of the rounds took about an hour to get through.

At the end of Round 6, SET members took a few minutes to tally up the results of each team as a song from one of the movies played in the background. The team who won first prize received tickets to the new Hunger Games movie for this Friday. Second place received Stockton University winter hats, and my team, coming in third, received SET water bottles.

Overall, Hunger Games Trivia was a great event for anyone interested in the books and/or movies. The timing of the event was perfect, given that the new movie comes out in theatres this Friday.

I’m weird in a way that I like old things. I don’t mean vintage, or last month kind of old, I mean hundreds of years and counting old- I like history, but more than anything I like being in a place where history has happened. It’s a really cool feeling to be conscious of the fact that you’re walking the same road as someone who was influential and important enough hundreds of years ago, to become a household name today.

Being fascinated by history has also given me a peculiar enjoyment of going to museums. And so on the morning of Saturday, October 27, 2012, Stockton presented students with the opportunity of visiting the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Once the bus ride was over and we had arrived, we set off into the Center. The Constitution Center is massive and extraordinary in stature. I’ve always loved architecture, and like I mentioned, I’ve always loved dated things, but this white modern building in the middle of old city Philadelphia was no less than impressive.

Along with impressive architecture, the center had many attractions. We first attended a 3-D video show with a live voice actor who theatrically told the story of the Constitution. It was only for about 15 minutes, but it was enough to be awe-inspiring. The effects, video, and interaction of the actor along with the historic tale that was spun, gave me chills and we left the presentation a little more bleary-eyed than we came.

After, we explored the upstairs exhibits which featured life-size cutouts of Presidential Candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, a large room with life-size statues of almost all the signers of the Constitution, interactive touch-screen trivia, and museum-life artifacts protected behind glass and spoken about by audio recordings. It was all very interesting.

My favorite exhibit would have to be the new and featured Prohibition Exhibit. It was incredibly detailed. There was so much information on nearly every wall and descriptions of protected items directly from the 1920s. There was also a fun game that made you catch boat-looters that tried to slip past the police with illegal alcohol. My favorite part of the exhibit was the lifelike sit-in bar and the 1920s dance floor which taught you the popular dance crazes of the time, like the Charleston. I also really enjoyed the realistic outfits for both men and women of the time.

After looking at the exhibits, my friends and I went off to explore nearby Philly. It was incredible! I’ve been to Philadelphia many times, especially since my sister used to attend school there, but I had never seen the old city in the fall. It was a beautiful and crisp fall day and even though we did get lost a few times, it was a great experience and I would absolutely love to do it again.

Visiting the Constitution Center gave me insight to a lot of things about the Constitution I didn’t know. I learned a lot that day, and was able to appreciate all that the museum offered. I also really enjoyed being able to leave and come back at our leisure, which made it feel less than an overbearing grade school field-trip and more like a casual experience. If there are more opportunities like this in the future, I’ll be sure to grab it!

On November 6^th, Stockton hosted its first annual Sleep Out to raise funds for Covenant House. Covenant house is a nonprofit organization that provides care and services for homeless, abandoned, and abused youth who have no other place to go. Last month, I visited Covenant House for a class project and saw what an amazing place it was. When I heard about the sleep out I was more than willing to join. Sleep outs are hosted all over the US annually. They raise money to help combat homelessness and they help to show its participants what it is like to homeless by sleeping outside on a cold night.

Before attending the event, I heard horror stories of participants huddled together in their sleeping bags on a freezing, rainy night. Luckily for us, it was beautiful out all night. Most of the night, people were wearing jeans and t-shirts. I kind of felt like I was cheating because most nights aren’t this beautiful and people have to combat freezing cold weather. For the first half of the night, we played games and did other cheerful activities to get to know each other better. I almost forgot what we were doing it for. Around midnight, we went inside and there was a presentation. We were shown videos about people our own age who were struggling with homelessness and the positive impact Covenant House made in their lives. After the video, people I knew started getting up and sharing their own personal struggle with homelessness. After that, we went back outside and it was time to sleep. Most of us ended up pulling all-nighters because even though it was beautiful out it was much less comfortable then we were used to.

Before then, I always looked at homelessness as a faraway concept that affects people that I would never know. Now I know how prevalent homelessness is in my own community. The Sleep Out helped to open my eyes and now I am much more aware of a very important issue. About 20-30 people participated and we raised almost $1,000. I am excited to participate next year even though it might not be as beautiful out.

I’ve always loved ballet.  I never joined a dance academy myself, but I remember how the stories of learning to do splits or some other choreography always sparked my interest in elementary school.

I didn’t give much thought to dance until I was in high school, where there were choreographed performances done by the different dance classes. I remember sitting and watching the performances and thinking that ballet was truly a work of art. It’s incredible what people can do with their bodies, but to see and experience an entire story comprised of only body language is incredible.

When I found out that one of our options for a compensated performance at Stockton was a ballet, the choice was ridiculously easy – I didn’t even have to look at what play or story they were doing. It would be the first official ballet I would ever attend, and I was extremely excited!

On Wednesday, October 24, 2012, I arrived at the PAC to watch the Atlantic City Ballet Company perform Dracula. My expectations were pretty high, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was able to follow the whole story without getting lost. The dancers, coming from 9 countries across the world from each other, were able to work together effortlessly. Everyone, from the set makers, the costume designers and the make-up artists were just as talented.

The ballet told the story of Dracula, a story I wasn’t 100% familiar with, in incredible detail. The most impressive part of it was that there were no words spoken, and story relied solely on the movements of the dancers. It was amazing – the costumes, the dancers, and the set. I’m extremely glad I went, and it has furthered my respect for professional dancers. I’d love to go again next year!

Stockton’s Sixties Concert is an event thrown by The Sixties class. John O’Hara teaches this class and was in charge of running this event. It took place in the Campus Center Theatre on Wednesday November 11^th. The concert started at 6:30pm and ended at 9:30pm. The purpose of the concert was to take the audience back through time to an era where people charged for peace not war. I not only attended this concert for my personal enjoyment, but because I was performing in it with Stockton’s American Sign Language club.

The night started off strong with Barry Bender & The Peace and Love Museum. The music was sensational and the audience was wild. As the night went on special acts performed on stage. Singers from Stockton’s choral groups performed to guitarists and they were out of this world. Students from The Sixties class then performed an original dance to a mash of hits from the sixties and it was phenomenal. The night ended strong with numerous songs played by The Stockton Faculty Band. The band was surprisingly really good and it was enjoyable.

I along with fifteen members of Stockton’s American Sign Language Club were patiently waiting, in our front row seats, for the Stockton Faculty Band to play “My Girl.” We had been practicing how to sign “My Girl” for weeks and we were both excited and nervous to finally be performing it. Amy the announcer, a student in The Sixties class, introduced our club and we proceeded to the stage. The lights blocked most of the audience, but my heart was still racing. I knew the signs and I had practiced a hundred times, but being on stage was somehow different. The music started and the rest is pretty much a blur. I left the stage feeling accomplished and when I could finally see the faces of others all I saw were smiles which made me feel successful. Overall the night was incredible and I really hope they hold another concert next year!

As part of the Honors freshman seminar course Life of the Mind, we were told to read the book Boardwalk Empire by Nelson Johnson. Now most people aren’t always thrilled with required reading in school, but I’ve been never one to shy away from reading of any kind. However, uncharacteristically I was one of those people who inwardly groaned when it came to it. Growing up in Galloway, New Jersey for the last sixteen out of eighteen years, I’ve been to Atlantic City more times than I could count and the prospect of having to read about a place that isn’t exotic seemed really tedious to me. But the more I read the book, the more I came to realize that Atlantic City isn’t at all anything I thought it was. Sure, there are casinos and gambling, bars, and even prostitutes today, but I never would have imagined the manipulation and corruption that was consistent with the formation of this city so close to home.

On Wednesday, October 24, the honors freshman had the amazing opportunity to meet Nelson Johnson, who is not only the author of another Atlantic City based book, but also a judge. In the Lakeside Lounge, Judge Johnson talked to us about the reasons and inspiration for writing Boardwalk Empire. He first came to Atlantic City knowing it was corrupt, and once he was here he was intrigued by it. He wanted to find out why it was like that. After doing some research, he found out that no one had ever written an entire book about AC’s whole store. Once he decided he would be the first to do it, it took him a year and a half to write the book. He successfully booked an agent and got it published after many tries. Later, he was able to pitch the idea to HBO after a lot of hard work and the influence of a book called The Perfect Pitch.

Nelson Johnson has had a very successful life and being able to sit in the same room and listen to his story kind of had me a little star struck. After reading the book and meeting the author, one thing is for sure, Atlantic City will probably never look the same to me again.

The final event I attended was David Sanger’s presentation on modern global politics. Sanger lectured about opinions, which were seemingly presented as facts, on the world and its problems and solutions. Sanger began as a journalist for the New York Times before he was named a Washington correspondent for the same publication. He covered global issues and governmental concerns directly from Washington, D.C. and around the world.
First, Sanger discussed America as the “world’s policemen.” He explained that he was with president Bush when the second plane hit the twin towers, and that we have maintained this role ever since. Then the Iraq War blossomed from this, which presented many problems for the United States regarding power. This, Sanger pointed out, would be the dilemma in deciding what to do today, regarding ISIS.
Sanger said that over fourteen years, America has come nowhere close to ending extreme Jihadism. He pointed out that sometimes, Americans want to be isolationists, and sometimes they do not. This is a fundamental problem in solving ISIS: we do not want to fight them, but we cannot ignore the present and ongoing tragedies. These conflicts lead to yet another concern of whether we would end up creating more terrorists if we fight ISIS. The concerns are endless.
In addition to ISIS, Americans face other problems. One problem is the post-Cold War threats of Vladimir Putin that remain adamant, although Russia would supposedly be an ally if we fight ISIS. Next, there is the threat of ISIS. Last but not least, cyber attacks remain the most threatening to America’s safety. There are many benefits to the cyber world, but many problems. Foreign hackers are considered to be the biggest threat to America, according to the head of the CIA and the National Threat Assessment. The lecture presented a scary picture of what America faces currently.
Finally, Sanger presented solutions. He discussed drone strikes, using Special Forces, and using a cyber attack against Iran. He proposed that there are easy steps we can follow to eliminate several threats to America and our homeland security, and ended the presentation on a positive note. The talk was informative, entertaining, and extremely interesting, especially for those interested in politics.

Coming to Stockton came with a lot of changes for me. I was suddenly no longer in high school, where it had been almost a continuous schedule for four years. I was no longer going to see the people I had gone to school with for the last twelve years. I also came to fully accept that I wouldn’t be seeing my best friends every day anymore. Having your best friends with you in almost every class is something so relaxing and almost mundane for four years, that you don’t even realize how much you’re taking that for granted. So yes, coming to Stockton came with a lot of changes and to say I was nervous was an understatement.

Besides how nervous I was my first few weeks of school, I’ve come to believe that part of the beauty of schools is the opportunities that are presented for the students. There are clubs upon clubs and sports for every single perspective. The only real work that students have to put in regarding clubs and sports is actually looking for them. When I found out about the Muslim Student Association, I was extremely excited. After going to the first meeting, I knew I would be sticking with the club. The club doesn’t only deal with religious beliefs, but deals heavily with the idea of volunteer work which is a very important thing for me.

Stockton’s MSA is very involved with a few organizations, one being the Islamic Relief fun for Aid in Africa. This past October, our MSA joined up with dozens of other university MSAs to form the MSA-United fun for the Islamic Relief cause. The MSA-united group decided on a joined fundraising event for all the clubs across the state to meet up and raise money together. However, before that, all the clubs decided to indivicually raise money first.

Stockton’s MSA set up tables in lower D-wing for three days and I was fortunate enough to table for a few hours during the days. We sold baked goods including cookies, browines (which were heavenly) and samosas. We also provided Henna art for anyone willing to pay, and I was happy to offer my services in applying the henna to customers. It was fun and a completely different experience than what I was used to when tabling for clubs. We raised a significant amount of money and the joined MSA event was a lot of fun. It felt good to have connected and made friends with people of similar beliefs, and along the way it felt even better to have done something for people in need. College might have been a big change for me, but it was a change that has gladly been accepted

On October 17, 2015, about 30 students from Stockton studying Greek and Roman art, history, culture, and languages journeyed to New York City to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with a focus on their Cypriot collection. With monetary assistance from the Dean and Zoe Pappas Fund for Greek Art and Architecture, students, faculty, and members from the community spent the day amongst great pieces of Greco-Roman art and immersed themselves in the lives of the ancients. We traveled from the Cypriot Bronze Age, to Pre-Classical Greece, to High Classical Rome observing the artistic innovations of awe-inspiring times.

In the Cypriot art, we could see the Eastern influences of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and later the Turks. We stopped and admired the great stone sarcophagi and the ornate scenes depicted along the sides. The Greek influence appeared in the mythological scenes on the sarcophagi and the statues of Herakles and Geryon, along with the “archaic Greek smile” that adorned the statues of unknown men. Most of the statues even still retained a few specks of their original paint, giving us an insight into how the statues may have originally appeared. Wandering afterwards from room to room, age to age, we circled funerary monuments made to celebrate the deaths of those who led the most lavish of lifestyles. Along the way we stumbled upon the smallest trinkets of everyday civilians sharing space with the armor of battle-worn soldiers. We stood alongside the likenesses of emperors, heroes, and gods, such as Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Augustus, Alexander, Homer, Socrates, Hercules, Fortuna, Apollo, and the Graces. The Museum impressively uses its layout to intersperse many aspects of life to show the diversity of ancient culture. As students of Greco-Roman languages, we were particularly drawn to the various inscriptions in the galleries to test our mettle through translating these ancient texts.

After our visit to the ancient past, we ventured deeper into New York City to Ithaka Restaurant to experience an authentic Greek dinner. Over the expanse of three hours we enjoyed five courses of exquisite Greek cuisine, including stuffed grape leaves, tzatziki, taramosalata (Greek caviar), loukaniko (Greek sausage), pastitsio, and loukoumades (Greek donuts). Just as our cups and plates were never empty, so too did our eclectic conversations never cease. Sitting in such a festive and genuine atmosphere gave us a look into the modern lifestyle of the descendants of the people we came to know at the museum.

Ultimately, our trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened our eyes to the art and splendor of the past and our hearts to the culture and people of the present. We spent the day learning, teaching, and reveling in the glory of a past that will continue to inspire us and others for years to come.

Almost two weeks ago today on September 14, 2012, I attended a lecture called ‘Sex and Justice’ in the Campus Center theater. It’s not exactly the title of a lecture I could really see myself going to a year ago, so initially I wasn’t sure what to expect by going to the event, I honestly planned to go because I knew I would get extra credit for a class! I assumed that it would be kind of boring, since Anita Hill wasn’t going to be there and it would only be a video that would make me sleepy and possibly cranky before my next class.

As part of the Constitution Day Series 2012, it was obvious that the issue being discussed would have something to do with our nation’s government. However, until I saw the actual video, I never knew how much of an impact Anita Hill’s accusations against Justice Clarence Thomas had on the nation. After watching the video, a step by step documentary of the testimonies themselves, it was really evident that Professor Hill put a lot on the line accusing Justice Thomas so very publicly. It was also apparent that regardless of whom the hearings turned in favor to, the issue of sexual harassment in a workplace would never go back to where it was before.

So as I sat there for an hour and half watching the actual Supreme Court hearing that made history, I slowly forgot about how cold the theater was or how the camera close-ups in Professor Hill and Justice Thomas’ faces really bothered me. I really got into the actual context of what was being said. Anita Hill made bold accusations against Clarence Thomas; saying that he repeatedly asked her out, spoke to her of detailed pornographic visuals, and gave her vivid accounts of his own sexual life. In retaliation, Clarence Thomas opted to the use of pathos, stating he had worked for 40+ years to get to where he was and that not only was his nomination into the Supreme Court suffering, but the integrity of his name and his family were taking a toll as well.

The testimony of both parties was intense, emotional and drove nearly all watching to the edge of their seats.  Anita Hill gained a plethora of followers with the help of Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts and Clarence Thomas was a prominent and well known political figure with an army of followers. The decision was too almost too close to call. In the end, the Senate ruled 52-48 in favor of Clarence Thomas and he succeeded in obtaining his position in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Many people even today are upset by the decision of the Senate when they stop to think of it.. Some people believe that Anita didn’t win because she was a woman, some believe she didn’t win because she wasn’t as well connected as Clarence Thomas, and some people believe she didn’t win because she was lying the whole time. Regardless of Anita Hill’s defeat, the blurry lines of sexual harassment became more distinct after this historic event.

I wasn’t able to attend Anita Hill’s keynote lecture, but I know that she had a lot of courage to project her accusations so vocally. I believe that everyone has a voice and the choice to use it and because of Anita’s courage, the workplaces of America are a lot more safe and people have more courage themselves to speak up when they don’t feel safe. The Pledge of Allegiance states “Liberty and Justice for all,” and the testimony between Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas certainly played to that.