I live in D100, the first floor of the honors residence halls. Although I sleep there, I am usually found spending time with my friends in D200. Due to the fact that I am always in D200, I am involved when they have their floor programs. These programs are ran by the RA, the resident assistant, of the floor and is meant to boost morale and raise the sense of community. Julie Eller, the D200 RA, had a floor program that was meant to boost self-esteem. This program took place on Tuesday and was very successful.
The point of the program was to draw yourself as a Barbie doll. This meant drawing your imperfections and your favorite characteristics. Some people colored their dolls in with crayons or colored pencils while others cut paper and pasted it to the naked Barbie. My doll included larger hips, a larger waist, darker skin, and a thicker bone structure and had construction paper apparel. Julie then made us take pictures with these drawings and posted them on the board outside of the bathroom.
Around March 6th, 2015, Julie will send the pictures of us with our dolls to the Barbie headquarters or at dosomething.org. As part of a “realistic Barbie” movement, she hopes the head of Barbie will finally get the hint and make realistic dolls. The date is very important, it will be Barbie’s 56th birthday. There are many other organizations and volunteers doing similar projects. The unrealistic nature of Barbie has become a worldwide concern in recent years. The public see the perfect plastic mini-me as a catalyst for self-esteem issues. I could not agree more.
Pre-teenage girls are the main Barbie doll consumers. During those years, girls are going through a lot of different changes. The onset of puberty causes her to question her motives, her friends, her decisions, and her body. She begins to compare herself to those around her. Her perfections are inflated and her successes are deflated. Having the image of this perfect, yet unattainable, woman’s body is unfair to the girls. It will only exacerbate her feelings toward her own body.
I think it was such a great program idea because in college, there are still recurring feelings of doubt and unhappiness regarding body image. Freshmen can experience the weight gain, the comparison of themselves to older or more beautiful women, and the stress of new prettier friends. Boosting self-esteem is a great way to increase the morale of the floor and the general happiness of the resident; this is the main job of an RA. Julie is the best RA on this campus. She cares about her girls and is always available for help to listen and talk.
This is just one of her many programs this semester, but it is my favorite. She read us the life-sized proportions of Barbie and it is ridiculous that the makers of Barbie thought this was a good idea in the first place. I saw how other people drew their dolls, and although we are not all art majors, our rendition of Barbie looked better than the original. With the addition of witty captions like, “Strong is the new skinny” there was a unanimous realization that we do not need to look like Barbie to be pretty. In fact, if we did look like her, we would be unhealthy and look very emaciated. I am very pleased with the way the program went and if I ever become and RA, I will think about doing something very similar.

On Saturday October 11th, as part of the homecoming festivities, comedians Nicole Byer and Kevin Barnett came to Stockton. They performed in the Big Blue gym from 8-10pm and gave a fantastic performance. The comedians are from MTV’s hit show “Girl Code” and “Guy Code.” Since my brother and I love watching this show together, I invited him to come with me. Unfortunately, by the time I got in touch with my brother, it was unfeasible for him to make it down here.
Realizing that what we had planned for over a month was no longer possible, I decided to have enough fun for the both of us. I see myself as someone very similar to Nicole Byer. Not only do we look alike, but we have the same sense of humor, and act in very similar ways. It truly was an honor to see her in person. I sat in the front row, centermost seat. It is safe to say that I had the best seat in the house.
When Nicole walked on stage, I cried. I was seeing my role model and a very big part of me wanted to hug her. However, I kept my composure and screamed until I lost my voice, which I got back a week later. Her jokes were hilarious and I definitely had enough fun for both my brother and myself. Not only did attending this event make me happy on the inside, but it also allowed me to see how little school spirit Stockton has. Maybe I was a little biased because I was more excited than anyone else I knew. But, there was not a lot of screaming, excitement, or audience participation at the show. I thought maybe it was because people did not like Nicole Byer. Not only is that impossible, but I have noticed this at other events that weekend as well. The lack of school spirit is ultimately an issue I wish to fix during my years here.

For the eleventh annual Day of Service I had every intention of joining the Galloway Thrift Shop group. I wanted to do a simple project that took place inside to shelter me from the ninety degree weather. When it was time to go to the table of the group we wanted to work with another student took the remaining position. I then went to the group my friend signed up for, the Eastern Service Workers Association. I asked my group leader, Kiyle, what activities we would be doing. He told me that we  would be going from door to door in the desolate areas of Atlantic City talking to those in need. This was exactly what I did not want to do so, needless to say, I was very unhappy.

After a fifteen minute ride to our location we were given pitches to say to the people that actually opened their doors. Our main goal was to notify them of the resources available to them and their family if they became a member of the ESWA. They could receive clothing, food, shelter, legal representation, and medical care for a voluntary due of $0.62 a month. We encountered many types of people while on our trek. Some people refused to open their door, others seemed utterly uninterested, but most had a gaze of hope when we spoke about the help available to them.

Recently, four casinos in Atlantic City have closed, leaving thousands of people unemployed. This, with the lingering effects of Hurricane Sandy, caused a lot of the residents to feel helpless and lost. One of the people we spoke to was a homeless man on a bike, yet we saw at least two abandoned houses on every street. Another woman we interviewed had two young children and little food in her refrigerator. It was horrifying to see the way some people lived, but it felt amazing to be able to provide a glimmer of hope.

On our way back to the college we had a reflection session and the first topic Kiyle brought up was whether or not anyone has experienced this kind of poverty before. I spoke up and told my story of how I was homeless twice in my high school years and went to bed hungry more nights than I can count. I can relate to the way most of those people lived. Between my brother’s murder and my unstable living conditions it was hard for my family to get by. We had no knowledge of the resources available to us, so we had to rely on ourselves to make it. It was nice to be on the other side of the door.

I started my Day of Service project with grief and regret. After walking around for about an hour in the heat, rejection after rejection, I was losing interest in the project as a whole. Then, after signing up a few members and hearing the stories of the residents, I realized just how vital my being there with the ESWA was to their standard of living. Had we not knocked on their door and gave them flyers and information, they would not know how to help themselves out of the downward spiral of homelessness, unemployment, and hunger. I finished the day with happiness and gratification. It felt like I was giving back and helping those who aren’t strong minded enough to get through this alone, I could not have asked for a better organization to help.

On November 18, I participated in a staged reading of two unpublished plays by William Carlos Williams, directed by Chelsea Regan. These plays were Betty Putnam, written first, but performed second, and Tituba’s Children. These plays deal with the Salem witch trials and cover similar ground to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, but they were written earlier.
Tituba’s Children begins with Giles Cory and Tituba on trial. Near the end of the play, the scene changes and half of the cast sheds their Puritan clothing to show modern dress. All of a sudden, the scene shifts to show people on trial for being communists during the “Red Scare.” Through this use of allegory, Williams shows that the creation of the “other,” an out-group that is ostracized, is a natural human instinct that shows itself throughout history.
In Betty Putnam, which he wrote first, he shows a very different opinion. He writes of a young girl who is threatened to be hung as a witch because she would not yield and marry a man as a plan that would mean her land would be taken from her to pay another man’s debt. In this play, he shows that the threat of witchcraft was used as a means to get what one wants. This is a very different view from in Tituba’s Children where witchcraft is seen as a very real threat. The fact that both plays show a different view on the same issue shows that William Carlos Williams had a change in thought over the years between when he wrote these plays. This is something that was discussed in the talk-back after the performance. Besides this, we talked about themes that showed up in the plays that ranged from the creation of the other to the reason why it is an often-used allegory to compare the Salem witch trials to the communism scare.
We, the cast, were joined by students in a class about witches, and some others who wished to watch the read-through of some great plays that have not seen the light of day for many years, probably since they were written. Being able to play Betty Putnam and Tituba allowed me to have a view into a time I personally have not thought about for years, a time period that has much significance in our nation’s history.

During the week of November 12^th, the Stockton College Experimental Theater was transformed into a dilapidated apartment featuring a dusty living room, a horribly messy child’s bedroom, as well as another living room infested with cat toys and tuna cans.  The School of Arts and Humanities Theater program presented Crumble (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake) from Wednesday, November 12^th through Sunday, November 16^th.  The play, written by Sheila Callaghan, was directed, designed, and performed entirely by Stockton students under the supervision and production of Pamela Hendrick and Mark Mallett.  It took place in the Experimental Theater beneath the Performing Arts Center, encompassing the audience in the midst of a grieving family’s Christmas.

The play, directed by senior theater major Kate Sparacio, featured five cast members who played anything but a happy family.  A year following the tragic death of Father, Mother (played by senior Nicole Clark) is having severe anxiety in raising their eleven year old daughter Janice (sophomore Madelaine Welch).  Mother reaches out to her excitable sister Barbara (freshman Phoebe Gruetter) for help, but Barbara falls short in her abilities to truly understand Janice.  In their mourning of Father, Mother and Janice each fantasize about prominent male figures in their lives: for Mother, he is Harrison Ford, and for pre-teen Janice, he is pop star Justin Timberlake.  All three male figures are played by senior John Wisienski.  While the emotional distress eats at both mother and daughter, the Apartment (played by junior Evan Williamson) is personified and, falling apart both physically and emotionally, plots the death of the negligent family.  The show is characterized by extremely dark humor and sexual overtones, as well as the underlying message about the importance of family and the grieving process.

Welch, Clark, Gruetter, Wisienski and Williamson all did a fantastic job in bringing their characters to life.  I thoroughly enjoyed the performance and I applaud Kate Sparacio in her ability to envision Crumble (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake) and then organize such a highly effective team to bring across a difficult message.  The School of Arts and Humanities Theater Program spares no expense in producing high quality shows, and I will definitely be attending future productions.

Entering the Stockton Campus Center Theatre on October 11, 7:30 pm, the warm glow of lights illuminated expressional backdrops of French girls and the like in black ink. The Bud Noble Quintet sat at the front, instruments at the ready, and as the lights dimmed and the last few audience members snuck to their seats, the show began. Including actors Madeline Barrows, Dylan Brierley, Michael Farr, Laura Eguia, Isabella Fiore, and Kristen Garretson, Paris ‘75 is a new musical written by Henry van Kuiken, including broadway songs all tied together in an eccentric and comic presentation.

Andrea Mychaels and Henry van Kuiken Choreographed the show, with scenes including a Can Can dance, a sultry salsa number, and some upbeat tap. The variety of songs allowed for an assortment of dance styles, and a fun storyline that jumps around quite a bit despite there being one stage setting (by set designer Venustiano Borromeo). For example, after the intermission, the story follows two boys and their shared crush in between other stories, and their woes are used to enliven the story, but by no means contributes a deep or prominent storyline on its own.

Probably the most eye-catching part of the medley, though, were the costumes (designed by Henry van Kuiken), due to their period accuracy and natural flow with the setting and lights, paired well with the performance over all. Backed by the Bud Noble Quintet, the singing of each of the actors was compelling and each was talented at telling their story, not only singing a song. The enthusiasm and skill presented by this Medley made the show seem very sincere and enjoyable. As the Can Can performance wrapped up, the actors bowed to a standing ovation. Ending on a spectacularly cheery note, the room cleared with high spirits and impressions of the actors. The crisp night air brought the performance to an end and left a wonderful memory with everyone.

The Art Gallery at Richard Stockton college is no large entity. It is a spacious room, with three partial walls in it, but plain and simple are words most appropriate to describe it. Down a short flight of stairs, the pieces adorning the walls right now are those of the seniors graduating with a Bachelors in Fine Arts. Featuring seven students, their focuses range from designing posters and business cards to piecing together collages and creating . Many had their websites open to view, and an array of business cards and resumes were placed along with their pieces, but the artwork was not taken away from by such small formalities, and was presented as the main feature.

Going counter-clockwise around the room, Rachel Anvalone’s paintings begin at the right of the stairs. With a combination of canvas, fabric and duralar (a plastic sheet-like material) mediums, her pieces focus on acrylic paint and an eye-catching combination of subjects. Putting math equations, geometric shapes, and fractions in her paintings draws the audience’s attention, and stirs one’s mind with confusion. When I looked at her pieces, I was pulled to find some interpretation of her mixed topics, but left the gallery still wondering. Some of her artwork’s titles include “No Trespassing”, “Finally There”, and “Sybil”.

Next to Anzalone’s work was Maureen S. Howells’ section. Focusing on graphic design, Howells uses text and photo manipulation to convey her message or present an idea. Her photography is of nature, and her graphic design is closely tied to this theme as well. Meredith Brenan also focused on graphic design, showing a series of designs for Home Bound. An interesting and different graphic design student, Roberto Nieves, concentrates on a series of video game posters, bringing up topics of bullying and misogyny in the gaming world. His other pieces are Senior BFA Exhibit posters and a website.

SoJung Lee’s section of wall comes next. Her various sized pieces are arranged in a heart-shape on the wall, and each give a happy and inspirational feeling. Working majority with photomanipulation and text, Lee also shows her talent with pencil and paint. In the center of her heart arrangement is a sign that says “DREAMISNOWHERE,” which can be read multiple ways. Her happy and girly vibe is shown by these letters.

Last on the wall is Wesley R. Rowbotham. Presenting concepts for apps, websites, and products, Rowbotham’s pieces are practical, almost market-ready. His photography takes a turn to the abstract with his additions of shapes and titles. Very simplistic, his style comes off as clean and simple, yet eye-catching.

The various student’s futures are shown through their art pieces, and as well as the great effort they have put into their time at Stockton. By exhibiting their students. Stockton takes the opportunity to show its pride in these students. Despite the art gallery being small, and likely out-of-the-way, it is an interesting place to quietly stroll through and ponder the artist’s intent and process, especially when the work is of aspiring and still growing artists as this exhibit was today.

The Wellness Center is by far one of the best resources on the Stockton campus. Not only do they offer counseling and supportive services, but they also host a variety of special events. Some are held every week, such as yoga, or every month, like the health and nutrition seminars. The culmination of the autumn season events, however, was Lollanobooza, a Halloween extravaganza. Held on October 30th, the dance was a combination of frightful food, bloodcurdling music, and spooktastic prizes. And just like all of the Wellness Center events, it had a distinct purpose: to show that alcohol is not needed to have fun on college campuses.

With the central theme revolving around alcohol awareness, many student organizations pitched in by making “mocktails.” The punches ranged from sweet to sour, and one even had a gummy-bug surprise in the bottom of its serving “chalice.”  After being judged that night, the winning group was awarded a special trophy for their efforts.

Students, and many of the faculty, wore their favorite Halloween costumes to match the creepy spider webs and bales of hay that transformed the Campus Center Event room. Comic book heroes, ninjas, and princesses filled the dance floor. There was even a mummy who, by the end of the night, shed the majority of his two-ply overcoat (by the time everyone left, it looked like the host, Elsa, covered the room with toilet-paper snow)!

For the witches and warlocks who tired of the dance floor, there were a ghostly-array of games. Crowd pleasers included the mechanical bull, photo booth, and tattoo station. At the end of the night, well over two dozen door prizes left in the arms of students. It is not at all scary how fun things can be without alcohol.

~Alex Meyers

On October 7th, over 500 pairs of shoes were placed in a trail that followed the outline of the main hallway in the F academic building. Each pair represented a life taken by suicide on the nation’s college campuses each semester. Many people came up to my fellow volunteers and me, curious as to why these simple articles of clothing were against the wall. When we explained it to them, we saw faces staring back at us that were full of emotion. Clearly, this topic had an impact on everyone. It took just over three minutes to walk the entire line of shoes, but if they had represented suicides in a year, it would have been the equivalent of going from the TRLC building to the Lodge at Lakeside. Suicide is not something that is often talked about, much less presented through a symbolic visual, but it was time we spoke up.

The goal of this event was to “send silence walking,” and that is exactly what we did. Throughout the day, I conversed with complete strangers, both adults and fellow peers, all of whom made connections on the powerful message that was displayed at their feet. Other events during Suicide Prevention Week helped to continue the conversations. There were free depression screenings and consultations, panel discussions, a movie, and the Draw Hope art  contest.

The moment that was most profound for me, however, was a quiet time in which I was alone standing next to Lake Fred. I was privileged enough to work with the Active Minds student organization and was waiting at my post to cheer on the walkers of the first Send Silence Walking event. As I sat on the grass, I could not help but feel grounded amongst the pairs of shoes that lined the walkway; there were more than the number of students at my entire high school. Out of something so simple as a shoe, walked a concept more powerful than can be described in words. Together we must end the stigma on mental health, learn positive coping skills, and never let ourselves or anyone else walk alone.

~Alex Meyers

On what started out as a rather ordinary day, I was walking through a crowd towards my first class when out of the corner of my eye I saw something quite intriguing. At first I could not distinguish who or what it was, but imagine my surprise when a giant full-fledged (pun intended) bipedal Osprey came casually strutting past. This was no Mickey Mouse, but was still somewhat of a celebrity in his own right. This mascot, though a tiny bit creepy, represented the adventure that I knew I would be undertaking for the next four years, and I was only curious to see what the rest of the day had planned. Of course I had to stop to take a picture.

That morning, the Osprey was making a special appearance at the Get Involved Fair. This free event took place in the main hall encompassing the lower level of most of the academic buildings on September 16th and 17th, and could be viewed from 10am to 4pm. Over 100 student organizations set up tables, booths, and colorful displays, ranging from a high-tech gaming system to the traditional tri-fold board. Each station had engaging club members ready to answer any questions and provide signup sheets. Most groups had free “swag bags” to hand out, spreading club pride amongst the student body. All students were welcome to explore the many opportunities to get involved as they walked to and from classes, and were encouraged to find their own niche on campus (and I am happy to report I seem to have found mine).

For those who were unable to attend the event this semester, the Winter version will be held on January 27th and 28th. I highly encourage my fellow freshmen and upperclassmen who are interested in learning more about the great student-run organizations or Greek Life on campus to come spend a few minutes at the next event. Who knows— the one and only Osprey might make another appearance!

~Alex Meyers