As you walk into the cool dark room, the first thing you notice is the overwhelming smell of freshly popped popcorn. Next, is what you see. Rows of chairs fill half of the room, leaving a large space to lay out blankets and pillows for a picnic. You follow the line to the make-shift concession stand. You receive a bag of popcorn, a soda, and candy. Then you find your seat. Whether in one of the chairs, or on the floor with a group of friends, you settle in for the next 2 hours. Then it starts, the opening credits, followed by the feature of the night. For this particular night, Ant Man was playing. Most people were a little skeptical about a superhero the size of an ant. However, the audience was pleasantly surprised.

As the group watches this Marvel masterpiece, they are immersed into the world of Scott Lang. You rejoice when he defeats the villain, proving everyone who doubted him wrong. The action sequences were filled with thrills and humor. The awkward, yet cute, budding romance between the main leads, Scott Lang and Hope Pym, was something everyone could enjoy. The villain even had some great lines and was enjoyable to watch. However, he was no Loki. The character development of the main lead, from a criminal to a hero, was something that I feel everyone could relate to. To show that you don’t have to be born a hero, to be one.

When the movie was over, and the credits roll, you slowly get up, bringing all leftovers of your movie meal to the trash. Then you gather your things, and head back to the dorms. You think back to the movie, and how it made you feel. How good it felt to get a break from the stresses of school, and how nice it was to escape into a new world. How it feels to know that even though you are just a little college freshman, you can become great, just like Scott Lang. That even the ordinary can become extraordinary. As you depart your friends, you make promises to do this again next week.

On February 22, 2013, the second ever Stockton Alpha Lambda Delta Honors Induction took place. The Induction was held in the Campus Center Event room, and was equipped with delicious food and dessert for the many inductees.

Alpha Lambda Delta is a national honors program for freshmen with high GPAs  and academic standing and has accepted more than 100 students at Stockton since 2012. It was a great honor being one of the members inducted this semester!

The induction itself was great, starting off with the eboard introductions and speeches and followed by a performance by the Stockton Acapella group. The oath and certificate pick-ups then took place, as we were free to get food.  Although the induction itself was great, one of my favorite parts of being inducted was being able to see more of my friends. Because I don’t live on campus, I know I often miss out on seeing friends from classes and activities, however I was able to catch-up and talk with friends I hadn’t seen since the fall semester!

Overall, the induction was fun, simple, and great. I was very happy to be welcomed into a program such as ALD, and will be looking forward to planned events in the future!

Lolla-No-Booza 2015 was held on Thursday, October 29^th from 7-11pm. This date was chosen specifically because the night before Halloween is typically the biggest drinking night of the year. This event is a way for college students to have fun without drinking or going to a party. Lolla-No-Booza was run by the Wellness Center and Drug and Alcohol Peer Education. Everyone was encouraged to come out to this event; it was even free to attend! Along with free admission there was promise of a DJ, free food, lots of games, and tons of prizes.

This year’s theme was Freak show due to the overwhelming popularity of the American Horror Story Freak show. When people first walked into the campus center event room they were instantly greeted but the sound of fun music and cool lights. Then, once people started to look around, they could see the variety of carnival games that were set up all throughout the event room. The games ranged from playing pong to riding a mechanical bull. There was definitely something that everyone would like. Some of the games at the event where typical drinking games. The games had a twist though, to teach the dangers and consequences of drinking. If someone won one of the games, they got their name on a ticket that was entered into a raffle. There were drawings for the raffle every thirty minutes. If their name was drawn from the raffle, they got to select a prize from a large table with a variety of options.

Overall, this event was a blast for everyone who came and it was educational. People left with more knowledge about drinking and its dangers. Some lucky people even got to leave with some great prizes. The night was a great success, and was an event that no one would ever forget.

Since this is my last of 15 blogs I am going to tell you about what is going on next semester and the rest of my college life. So this past semester, it sounds so weird to say that, I have completed a lot of great achievements. First I was the treasurer for RHA. I had a lot of fun working with them on Building Battles, creating Game Nights, and hosting events like the Roommate Social. As treasurer I oversaw the budget and learned how to manage money and advise other people on how to spend their money. The next achievement I made was that I was elected Honors co-Director of Events. As Honors co-Director of events I organized the honors events with my counterpart. I ran events like Pizza and Pong and the Honors BBQ which is happening in this upcoming week. I learned here how to plan events and work with another person in the same position to be able to collaborate and exchange ideas about how to make the honors events more fun. Those were some of my biggest achievements and learning experience this last semester, but next semester I am looking forward to other great things. First over the summer I will be an Orientation Leader and a T.A.L.O.N. As an Orientation Leader I will be living here for a month over the summer helping the freshman learn about the campus and register for classes. As a T.A.L.O.N. I will move in early and go on the S.O.A.R. trip as well as facilitate Welcome Week Activities.  When the semester begins, however, I will no longer be treasurer for RHA as I am picking up a position as a Late Night Vice Chair for the S.E.T. team. I also will be a CARE peer mentor which is a volunteer position where I will be meeting with college students who are at risk of being kicked out of college. I will be meeting with them once a week to discuss their goals and how they can achieve their goals. I will be keeping my position as the Honors co-Director of Events and will continue to work diligently on the honors events. My school work will be harder next semester, but I am willing to put the effort forth to complete my goals and to get what I want out of college. Well I guess this is goodbye to whoever is reading. I hope that you have as fun as I did this year and will learn as much as I did too.

Make A Difference Day was held on October 24th this year from 8am to 5pm. This was a national day of service. This year Stockton conducted three different service projects on make a difference day. The first was an indirect service off-campus event co-sponsored by Student Development & Political Engagement Project. Volunteers met at 8:00am in the Campus Center to make the trip to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. The second  was a direct service off-campus co-sponsored by Stockton Water Watch and Clean Ocean Action. Volunteers for this service conducted a beach clean up in Atlantic City from 8:00am to 2pm. The third was a direct service on campus co-sponsored by Books Without Borders. Volunteers for this service met from 9:00am to 1pm to collect and organize donated books.

I personally volunteered for the third activity with Books Without Borders because I regularly attend their club meetings. Books Without Borders meets every Tuesday at 5pm in C103. Books Without Borders was created to address the concern for the lack of educational materials in third world countries. The club is composed of students, professors, and concerned citizens who believe in the power of education and equal opportunity for all. Over the past few years Books Without Borders has received many donations allowing us to nearly fill up our shipping container. On Make A Difference Day volunteers unloaded, organized, and repacked the donated books. The donated books are organized into general categories such as, biology, history, mathematics, non-fiction, fiction, etc. The books are then repackaged into new boxes which are then labeled with the category and number of books. After the books are repackaged, they are loaded into the shipping container. On Make a difference day volunteers made an assembly line to shuttle the books into the container.

This volunteer activity really encouraged collaboration and teamwork. We all had to work together to get the job done effectively. This activity also allowed volunteers to become better acquainted with the service learning office as their employees were present on campus and worked with us. Service learning workers helped drive the busses to and from the shipping container as well as helped us unload and reload the books. What I loved about this volunteer activity is that it was an on campus activity with an on campus organization which will allow volunteers and students to get involved in a long lasting service opportunity. On campus activities such as this will help build Stockton’s community and encourage them to continually engage in service.

So this may not be your typical blog entry because it is not an event that happened on campus, but it is about college life in general. Last night my friends and I went driving around the area and we came across some pretty cool places. Our first stop was at an abandoned warehouse. We got out and walked around seeing the field in the back and trying to decide what used to be there. The next stop was a baseball and street hockey court that we want to come back to soon to play. There were two street hockey courts complete with nets and boxes for teams. There was a little league field, a high school field, and even a batting cage for those who have a machine to work with. It was a cute little field and we are willing to come back soon to see a game. The last stop we made, besides a wawa run, was a playground. Even as college students, we are never too old to visit a playground. We ran around in the dark trying to hide from each other and play jailbreak. There was a rock wall dome where you could slip inside between two bars or in a cutout hole. I got in through the bars, but tried to get out through the hole…I got stuck when I tried to fit my hips through. It was so much fun just fooling around like we were little again. In the end we ended up just looking up at the moon admiring the fact that we could see so many stars. That was all in one night. Other times we have driven down toward Atlantic City down the white horse pike, but before we got through the toll we turned around. There was an abandoned gas station on the side of the road that we parked at and we just spent our time looking out at the skyline. It was beautiful to see the skyline and to just enjoy the night. Other adventures we have taken include driving down to ocean city to go to the beach, driving down to my friend’s campground in new Gretna (if you don’t have a campground you can just drive down and around there just to see the trees and enjoy the night air), going to the Atlantic City Skate Zone to go ice skating, and so much more. All together I loved being here on campus and in this general area. I am excited for all the adventures that we will get into next semester as well.

On September 27, 2015, Humans vs. Zombies came to Stockton University. The week-long game was organized by the Live Action Gaming Club (LAG) and is held each semester. In this game, there were two teams, humans and zombies. Players were randomly selected to take on the role of “original zombie”. Their mission was to tag as many players as possible and add to the zombie team. The human team’s goal was to avoid being tagged. Players could do so by hitting a zombie with a Nerf gun dart or even a sock. This event took place everywhere on campus except for inside or in dangerous areas, such as stairs on in the parking lot. In order to avoid confusion, anyone playing had to wear a yellow band at all times. A band around a player’s arm meant he or she was a human, while a band worn as a headband identified a zombie.

On Sunday evening, there seemed to be a pretty good amount of people in attendance. About 70 students met in the Campus Center with Nerf guns and plenty of spare darts. After a brief explanation of the rules, the group headed towards the Lakeside Lodge. Along the way, half of the party became lost before the game even started. When it did, however, many people became zombies quickly. Throughout the week, there were many missions for supplies to prolong human survival. Many paid attention to their surroundings for the chance of a zombie attack. During the day, many humans opted to walk to class indoors and out of the refreshing weather. On Friday, the zombies’ victory brought the game to an end.

As a whole, I thought the game was pretty enjoyable but could have had a few improvements. Many did not play fairly. If someone was tagged, he or she wouldn’t admit to it. A program used to keep track of the teams often took days to be in effect. Most of all, I believe zombie team worked more than anyone. Since I was tagged early on, I could say that the zombies played by the rules. These people continued to play after being tagged and were good sports when stopped by a human. The humans made up excuses for why they weren’t playing, even if they were wearing armbands.

Despite these setbacks, I believe that I will play again next semester. I felt that I have an better idea of what to expect.

SET team. Well, I am on the SET team here at Stockton and I absolutely love it! This past year I was just a general member, but I still got to help out with some of the events, got to attend any one I wanted, and had a lot of fun. Some of the events I helped out with were the homecoming float, the haunted walk, and planning for La La No Booza. For the homecoming parade each year a bunch of clubs decorate a golf cart with a specific theme. This year our theme was paradise. As a part of the special events committee which oversaw anything that happened during homecoming. When we were presented a theme everyone in our committee began brainstorming ideas of what we could put on this float and I designed the actual float. I drew up a diagram and it ended up being enacted! After this I became more confident and started helping out more often. The haunted walk was around Halloween before the hurricane when people would walk down dark path while others were trying to pop out and scare them while they were walking. Ultimately the group of walkers would end up at the Campus Center where there were different stations set up. Edible had a station and there was free food etc. My station was face painting. Since I had worked as a face painter previously, I volunteered to do it there as well and it was super fun. Anyone who came to my station walked away happy and I had a lot of fun seeing people’s reactions. This just goes to show you that even college kids can enjoy face painting. The rest of the semester was full of events that I have already written about and more including taco Tuesday, comedian Jay Black, Cupcake Wars etc. Next year, I am actually on the late night committee and will be in charge of anything happening from 8 to 10 at night. As a co-vice chair I am so excited to be getting more involved here at Stockton and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same. My passion turned out to be the SET team, but maybe yours is different. I suggest finding what you like on campus your first year and then pursuing a leadership role in that club. That way you get to do what you like and get to further your development as a leader and a student.

November 11, 2015 Stockton held a sixties concert at the campus center theater from 6:30 to 9:30. Upon arrival, students and visitors were led to the hallway on the right of the theater to view a sixties exhibit. Strewn along the walls were miniature exhibits representing significant events and people from the sixties. There was an ebony magazine section, a Muhammad Ali quote, protest posters, Woodstock festival music, and books on war that gave visitors a look into artworks and artifacts that simulated the sixties. Several posters were plastered on the walls to depict the sixties through common logos and students who helped organize the event were present in sixties outfits. The exhibit handed out rainbow dyed cake.

Afterward, we were allowed into the theater. We took our seats and were able to enjoy different performances made by Stockton students, Barry Bender and Friends, and the Stockton Faculty Band. Barry Bender and Friends played songs like 40,000 Headmen by Traffic, Willin’ by Lowell George, Get together by Chet Powers, and more. Then, student performers took the stage and performed songs like Yesterday by The Beatles, Stand By Me by Ben E King, and You’re All I Need To Get By by Marvin Gaye.  The Stockton Faculty Band played a set of songs including songs like Mustang Sally, Hit The Road Jack, Teach Your Children, and more. The concert even had special performances for a couple a songs. The American Sign Language Club participated by signing the lyrics to My Girl. In another special performance, a group of students performed a dance number on stage that led to them dancing in the isles.

The sixties concert was enjoyable for both students and supportive families. It was especially enjoyable being able to immerse myself in sixties culture with my friends. The decorations were an accurate portrayal, the small exhibit full of historical artifacts brought in by students was moving and interesting. Aside from all the fun, visitors were able to both learn about the sixties and reminisce, it was an enriching experience.

            This afternoon, my roommate and I visited the Celebration of Service outside of the library in the F Wing atrium. In the weeks leading up to this event, I had received numerous emails advertising the day and encouraging students to participate by setting up a table to present their community service projects to their peers and professors. Upon entering the exhibition area, my roommate and I were surprised to notice how few students had chosen to partake in the day’s festivities, and we could actually count the number of tables on our fingers.

            We first stopped at the Water Watch table to speak to a student who had organized various beach cleanup projects in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. She informed us that there would another beach sweep on Saturday morning, and encouraged us to attend. We admired some of the decorative boards, and picked up a few pamphlets from a table advocating for the Peace Corps and other organizations. From there, we visited a small group of students representing Clean Ocean Action, an organization promoting awareness of ocean pollution and taking initiatives to correct this problem. The students running the table asked if we would mind taking a brief survey to help their cause, which would enter our names into a drawing to win a free gift basket. With the small number of students in attendance, we figure our chances of winning are pretty high! The survey asked us questions regarding what proximity we live to the beach, if we are concerned about polluted waters, and what actions we personally would be willing to take to help correct the growing problem. All in all, our visit was brief and pleasant.

            It was encouraging to see the students who did choose to present their projects, as it demonstrated just how dedicated they truly were to the causes for which they were advocating. My roommate and I, who had conducted our own fundraiser this year by selling tee shirts to benefit the Red Cross’s Disaster Relief Fund in reaction to the recent hurricane, realized we very easily could have chosen to present our project as well. I personally left the atrium feeling a bit disappointed in myself for not taking the initiative to present about the hard work we put into our own project over the course of this year, and am now motivated to participate next year. Hopefully in years to come, more students will feel compelled to share their projects with the rest of the Stockton community and inspire us all to give back.