Celebrating Our Students

There is no doubt that The College of New Jersey has some of the finest students in the state, and the Celebration of Student Achievement looks to make that known to the campus and the community.

The 10th annual celebration was held across campus on Wednesday, May 2, and featured research projects and creative work by nearly 500 students from all disciplines.

The day opened with a music recital in the Mayo Concert Hall to demonstrate the talent of the College’s music majors.

In the Social Science Building, students of Communications Studies, Criminology and Justice Studies, Economics, Education, English, History, Philosophy and Religion, Physics, and Women and Gender Studies shared research papers and group projects.

One notable group of Women and Gender Studies majors and members of Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL) took what they’ve learned over their entire four years at the College and put it towards an activism project, United Network: Global Alliance Against the Gag (UNGAAG).

“The whole class was expected to come up with a project so we could see the feminist theory we have learned over the four years of classes materialize in this activism project,” said Sharon Kohn, senior general business major and WILL member.

UNGAAG is working to bring awareness of the Mexico City Policy, also known as the “global gag rule,” that denies United States funding to any non-governmental organization that performs or promotes abortions.

Adjunct faculty member and director of WILL Mary Lynn Hopps led group members Noha Aljawhary, Jennifer Butch, Blakeley Decktor, Aida Figueroa, Lauren Fradella, Brittany Graf, Brittany Hammer, Heather Herman, Ginet Hernandez, Hillary Hewit, Sharon Kohn, Miriam Nazmy, Vanessa Polizzi, Linda Talarico, Dana Tallman, and Jessica VanLiere.

“Working on this project made me feel grateful that I have more access to information and resources than many individuals do around the world, especially in impoverished nations,” Kohn said. “I also learned that activism is a key component to making the world a better place and the passion we put into it will produce results with creativity and commitment.

Find out more about UNGAAG on their Web site, http://web.mac.com/ungaag/iWeb/UNGAAG/HOME.html.

The Art Gallery in Holman Hall was completely dressed with the work of the College’s own art students. Student work was also displayed throughout the hall.  The outside walls of Holman Hall itself were decorated with the work of senior Biology major Justin Dopiriak, junior interactive multimedia (IMM) major Bruno Kruse, and freshman art major Trebor Ricadela, who turned each brick into pixels for chalk drawings of classic Nintendo video game characters like Mario and Kirby.

“These are life-size representations of video game legends that most everyone can recognize,” Kruse said. “They are very significant to everyone in our generation who has grown up with these characters.”

These characters could also be found on the outside of the Brower Student Center, which housed the work of IMM, Computer Science, Technological Studies, Engineering, Biology, Modern Languages and Psychology majors.  Dopiriak and Kruse, along with junior Digital Arts major Russell de la Torre and IMM major Britney Pringle, displayed their Internet networking program, DOTS!.  Users answer personality questions, choose their DOT, and watch as other DOTS with the same interests and personality types mingle together in the DOTS! world.

“DOTS! is a visual representation of programs like Facebook and MySpace, only the DOTS band together based on each user’s interests, so you can find new friends who share common interests,” Kruse said.

Also in the student center were art-producing robots, self-driving automobiles, and a variety of biological and psychological research, including a study on the male response to average women after experiencing the media’s ideal image of females.

The only disappointment of the day was that it was nearly impossible to see everything!