After Hurricane Sandy, my roommate Katherine Austin and I were devastated. We were so upset by the ruins our state was left in and we were willing to do whatever was necessary to help. Katie decided to make up a T shirt design that would be put onto shirts and sold to benefit the relief fund for Hurricane Sandy. When she told me about this idea, I was immediately on board, and would help in whatever way necessary.

We were able to find a printer in May’s Landing that was more than generous. He absolutely loved our idea and told us that he would put the design on all of the shirts for free. All that he would charge us would be the price that his manufacturer charges him. This was an excellent deal. We decided to sell our adult shirts for $15 each and child sizes were $10 each. We owed the printer $4 per shirt, therefore we were making $11 profit for each adult shirt and $6 for each child shirt to donate to the Red Cross.

We made a Facebook page, informed all of our friends and family, contacted our high schools, and our clubs here at Stockton. We wanted to get the word out as much as possible. Whenever people would ask me, “what club are you doing this with?” I smiled and shrugged back, and said “we aren’t affiliated with any club with this project, my roommate and I are doing this completely on our own, out of our dorm room”. People were completely shocked by my honest statement.

It wasn’t long before orders started flowing in. We had countless orders from family members and friends. But what was more remarkable was that we were able to reach people in different states through our Facebook page. We were getting orders from people we knew and people we have never met before. It was incredible.  

Originally, our goal back in November was to raise $500 to donate to the American Red Cross, to benefit the Sandy Relief fund. Not only did we make our goal, but we tripled it. We ended up raising $1,611 dollars to donate to the Red Cross. We sold 156 shirts and collected $2,235. After paying our generous printer, we were able to donate 100% of our profits, $1,611, to the American Red Cross.

I am still astounded that we were able to run such a successful fundraiser on our own. I am blessed to have been a part of this and having my name attached with it. I wish the interest in the shirts didn’t die out, because I would love to continue with it. I would just like to let you all know, that one person (or two) CAN make a difference. Don’t give up on your passion. Keep working hard, and it will pay off!

Anthony Gingerelli
There are so many clubs and organizations at Stockton and ping pong club caught my interest. I figured it would be a fun recreational activity that would be enjoyable way to take a break after a long week of classes.
Ping Pong club is a fun club with players that fall in all different ranges of skill. Some players are competitive and others are there for recreational fun. It was interesting to see the two different paces of the game. I originally went to for some relaxed fun but ended up playing some of the more skilled players in the club. I lost my first games to these players but everyone there was encouraging. They began showing me and the other less experienced players the strokes and techniques on how to return the ball. It was an enjoyable experience to participate in this club and I really enjoyed a night of play ping pong.
After playing several games for the day at the club, you receive a rating which matches you for your next games the following week. If you have intentions of becoming skilled, you can progress to win matches and move up in rating scale or just continue playing at the recreational level. Having so many players of different skills allows options for everyone who had an interest in playing so everyone would be equally matched. This vast range in skilled and non skilled players allowed people to take part in the club as they pleased. They could become a focused player and attend all the meetings and challenge themselves to play more skilled players to advance themselves. On the other hand, another option includes students who join the meetings as an outlet to play and have a way to relax and escape the stress of college.
Going to the ping pong club was a decision I will not regret. It is fun and it is a great release for me. It is nice to have a change in pace from my routine schedule instead of going back to my room after class. The enjoyable light hearted mood helps create a pleasurable atmosphere. Although the games can become intense, I personally feel it is a great social club, whether you choose to be competitive or just take it slow. I would encourage everyone to come and try the ping pong club or at least attempt a new club in which they may have an interest. Sometimes these trials or adventures may become a new and challenging interest because they might find out they love it.

Being that I am a part of the honors program at Stockton, it is mandatory to go to one Dialogue session per semester. This semester, I decided to attend the Womyn at Stockton Dialogue. At first, I didn’t know much about the premise of this particular session. I knew that the spelt “women” wrong intentionally, and I was very interested to find out what the purpose was behind this misspelling.

This dialogue was primarily about how even though today women are treated “equally” we aren’t equal with men. What was probably most ironic about this dialogue was that the entire room was filled with girls, aside from Daniel Tome. This, right off the bat, bothered Daniel and Diana, who are the Service Learning coordinators that were running this dialogue, because just because the topic is about women, doesn’t mean that men aren’t involved. Men are one of the primary reasons why women are being neglected in certain ways. And no men at Stockton found it necessary or fulfilling to attend this session.

 I found out in this powerful conversation that, in general, women get paid 70 cents for every dollar a man gets paid. Why is that? Personally, I think this is appalling being that a 30% difference in annual salaries is a lot of money. Also, I was informed that out of the major news stations such as CNN, Fox, NBC, etc., when covering the case regarding the teenage girl who got raped by teenage football players while she was intoxicated, the news stations took the sides of the teenage boys, instead of sympathizing and empathizing with the young girl. How or why is this happening? Why do people side with the individuals who are clearly wrong in this situation, while the young girl couldn’t even defend herself?

What probably took me by most surprise was a mere statement that Diana said in the midst of one of our conversations. She said: have any of your teachers, either in college or in high school, refer to the subject of history as “her-story”? I never thought that meaning behind this word, this subject that is vital to our education, was “his”-story. Why is this subject referred to as “his-story”? What about her story? It was at this point in our conversation when I found out why “women” was misspelled in the title of the dialogue. The word “women” contains the word “men”. Why should women even be remotely defined by a man? That is why the “e” was changed to a “y”, to make a clear distinction between the two genders.

I got a lot out of this dialogue, more so than any other dialogue I’ve attended. It was beyond informing and eye-awakening. I wish some men at Stockton would have come to participate in our discussion as well. Maybe next year! I fully advise anyone who has not attended this particular dialogue session to attend it next year.

Yesterday, I attended a reflection session to provide input on the Honors Program at Stockton. By attending the session, I was able to learn more about the Honors Program and ultimately was reminded that my time in the program will provide me with innumerable skills for my future.

While one student inquired about the difficulty of the courses -concerned that they would not be challenging enough- an upperclassman of the program informed us that the Honors Program’s mandatory courses all sufficiently challenge the students. As a student who loves a good challenge, I felt more confident in my choice to continue in the Honors Program, as I contemplated how I felt about the program.

Some of the benefits I realized I was receiving from the project was predominantly the varied connections and opportunities. The Honors Program links to all kinds of different organizations and people that one can meet through the various things the program organizes in addition to the many service projects that I will be completing throughout my time here at Stockton.

The leadership, communication, and organizational skills that I will learn from being at Honors Student solidify my conviction to be a part of this fantastic community.

As a freshman, one thing you worry about is what to do when you get sick on campus. There’s no mom to take care of you. You are responsible for deciding if you are so sick that you cannot go to class, if you are sick enough to go to the doctor or if you are even sick enough to go home. When I got sick on campus the first thing I did was call home, which is a natural reaction. The next step was to go to the doctor. Fortunately, we have a place you can go to on campus that can be used with your insurance so you personally do not have to pay money to go in. This is the wellness center at West Quad. I went there when I had an awful rash on my knee. I had no idea what it was, but the knowledgeable people there knew that it was chiggers. Chiggers happen when a very tiny bug bites you and you have a reaction to it. It is a common thing to happen here at Stockton if you are out in the woods a lot. Anyway they are able to prescribe medication and can send it to any pharmacy where you can go and pick it up. They accept walk-ins and will evaluate what is wrong. If it is something not life-threatening then they will arrange an appointment with you to see the doctor that is on campus. In my experience, they are professional, courteous, and make the appointment as soon as possible to be able to help you. If, however, it is something that needs immediate attention, then there is always the hospital. Luckily, we have a hospital practically on campus. Atlanticare has seen many Stockton students and from what I have heard they take care of their patients very well. I personally have not had an experience there, and hopefully neither will you. Altogether the experience of being sick on campus is not fun, but there are friendly, helpful people surrounding you who are willing to help.

As I headed toward my 9:55am Honors Freshman Seminar today, dozens of clubs and extracurriculars were strewed about the halls. Although I was brought up to ignore the countless boardwalk stand attendees and New York City hagglers, I resisted the instinct to walk by. By doing so, I found myself signing up for clubs that I never even knew the school offered while finding the single club I was searching for.

Although I was the Managing Editor for my high school’s school newspaper, I had not considered continuing my amateur journalism career while at Stockton; however, after meeting some of the members of The Argo, I signed up for email notifications and have planned to become a regular writer. I have always been interested in submitting opinion articles to online publications, so I look forward to the criticisms from my peers at Stockton in order to develop my abilities as a writer in the field of journalism.

Outside of writing, my efforts in the vegan movement and my yoga practice consume a significant portion of my time. I had never heard of Stockton having a Holistic Health/Wellness Club and was pleasantly surprised to find a collection of people with my common interest. Upon first looking through the freshman seminars at orientation, I hoped to join a course on holistic health, but did not receive such an opportunity due to the mandatory Honors Freshman Seminar. After finding a extracurricular in the field of my interest, I am glad to be enrolled in a course outside of my comfort zone that is helping me participate in the Honors Program.

Unsure as to whether I would pursue environmental efforts as my service-learning projects in the Honors Program, I knew I wanted to be involved in the school’s garden when I first entered the Get Involved Fair’s halls. I was able to find the garden and sign up for the emailing list right before class started.

I now have new connections to my interests on campus that will hopefully connect me to new people and new opportunities.

            Stockton is a distinctive college for many reasons. Our school is located on a beautiful campus within a national reserve, operates inside state-of-the-art buildings, and has full-time faculty members that truly care about the success of their students. Perhaps the most distinctive of all, the student body, have the potential to make Stockton’s name world-renowned.

Some of the most impressive work from our students can be seen within the pages of Innovations, our undergraduate research journal. Each year, inspired students generate ideas for research that have the ability to enlighten the community on a certain issue, test the validity of a particular theory, or potentially spread awareness regarding a social movement. One of my proudest accomplishments that I can take away from my time spent at Stockton thus far has been the opportunity to work on the editorial staff for Innovations and meet these individuals, who I truly believe can change the world through their research.

            Each year, undergraduates submit InDepth or InBrief research projects to the editorial board, which then have the role of meeting with these authors to create an article that is ready for publication. As an editor, I have the opportunity to read drafts of these articles and interview the authors to gain insight on their personal backgrounds, experiences and motivation for conducting their research. Last week, I met with an author who wrote about social mobility.

Nicole was assigned a research project for her Economic Wellbeing course, and was told that the research could be done on virtually any topic that fell under the umbrella of economics. Nicole saw this assignment as an opportunity to take her knowledge of this concept to the next level, and hopes to continue researching this topic in the future because she believes the concept of social mobility can relate to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic class. She hopes to inspire students to continue their efforts in pursuing their own dreams, and to not give up in the face of adversity. Nicole believes that it is important to be aware of this issue, as is can ultimately affect the economy on a grander scale.  Getting to know Nicole and working as member the Innovations staff has opened my eyes to the impact any of us could make in this world.

On Tuesday October 6, the American Sign Language Club hosted a weekly meeting in classroom F111. The gathering began with sign in, and the announcement of upcoming events and trips that the club will be attending, such as “Signing and Singing”, where members will sign along at a Stockton a Capella performance, and “Paint a Pot”, where students will travel to a pottery store owned by a deaf woman to witness sign language as a part of everyday life.

Next, the agenda for the meeting and the vocabulary from the previous week was reviewed with the group. Students reviewed practiced the signs for greetings, colors, numbers, questions, and the alphabet. Then, to further study and memorize the signs, students played an activity. The members divided themselves into four smaller groups where they practiced signing various statements and questions in order to get to know the other members of the club, and to perfect the hand motions. Members practiced asking each other about their clothing, what their name is, where they live, and what they like.

To reflect upon the activity, students then returned to their seats and members took turns to inform the club, through sign language, about something new that they learned about other members of the group. At the close of the gathering, members viewed a video of two girls signing along to the song “Free Falling” by John Mayer. This video demonstrated the versatility of American Sign Language and its power to convey emotion. The video also served as a preview for students interested in taking part in the club’s upcoming “Singing and Signing” event.

Sometimes I think it’s a shame we’re not away at school in the summer and home during the gloomy months of winter. For the majority of the school year, the residential areas on campus are reminiscent of an old-fashioned ghost town. While the temperatures hover in the teens and snowfall frequents the forecast, students stay huddled within the warmth of their rooms or apartments, only venturing outside when they have to attend class or their hunger simply becomes unbearable. In recent weeks, there have been a few spring-like days that have brought life to campus again. When the thermometer reached over 80 degrees, students lay sprawled out on the quad soaking up the rays while volleyballs and Frisbees flew overhead.

Some of my favorite aspects of Stockton in the springtime are the various barbecues hosted for the students by different organizations. Not only is this a huge relief for those who are running out of meal swipes at this point in the semester, but these gatherings offer students a chance to socialize with neighbors they never even knew they had, and enjoy the natural beauty of our campus at the same time. Neighborhood Watch hosted a barbecue in the freshman quad on one of the warm-weather days and received an overwhelming response from the student body. My friends and I had such a pleasant experience, we decided to attend the SET barbecue at Oasis the following week!

Though the weather wasn’t quite as enjoyable, SET put on a great event including food, live music, a surfboard simulator and a tie-dye tee shirt station! As a freshman, I found these events to be a great way to experience other members of the Stockton community and come together to socialize in a pleasant atmosphere- and the free food was definitely a key factor! I have my fingers crossed the weather decides to cooperate again before the end of the semester so that we might be able to get out and enjoy each other’s company once again.  When the weather is nice, Stockton in the springtime is a wonderful place to be.

On Sunday, October 11, I attended Fred Fest at the Lakeside Oasis with my family. This was a one-time event that was a part of University Weekend, hosted by the Office of Student Development. The event ran from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

It was sunny, warm, and overall a great day to spend at the lake. The DJ was playing fun and upbeat music that put everyone in a good mood. Soft pretzel sticks were served in abundance and ice-cold beverages were provided as a delicious snack. There were many volunteers around to help out or answer questions.

The highlight of the event for me was renting a canoe with my little sister. The rental was free of charge, so I did not hesitate to take advantage of it. The canoe allowed my sister and me to see the lake from a completely different perspective. The views are even more amazing from the middle of the lake than from the shorelines. I was also able to get a feel for how deep the lake really is, which, is not very deep at all. Although I could have spent a good part of the day out on the lake, my time was limited to just thirty minutes.

Overall, Fred Fest was a great success. Besides the free drinks and food, I was able to take away the valuable experience of canoeing across Lake Fred with my sister. The event allowed me to escape the college mindset for a moment and refresh my thinking. I would like to see similar events in the future. Stockton has access to the beautiful Lake Fred and should really find more ways to incorporate the lake into fun events for students.