Stories of Atlantic City Project: A Reflection

What happens when you grant another person the chance to illustrate their perspective? When I first embarked on my

fieldwork journey, I believed that this question’s answer was simple, as it was taught to me often as a child-listening unlocks the

potential to connect with someone. Nevertheless, when I eventually approached the end of my project’s tenure, I recognized that this

inquiry’s riposte was less straightforward than I previously expected.

Firstly, from my research project’s commencement to conclusion, I realized the countless limitations and tribulations that

came with doing fieldwork. Simply determining and locating what organization I aspired to work for was a several day-long process

due to the demanding, disjointed schedules that often conflicted with my availability, especially those of my top two organizations-

Stories of Atlantic City and SCOSA. Being constrained to merely email and phone calls because of these schedules made this task

increasingly difficult also. Essentially, this task became so problematic that at one point, I was concerned that I would be incapable of

starting my fieldwork early enough that I could have a detailed thesis by the semester’s end. Thankfully, the wonderful Dr. Jackson,

SCOSA Director Dr. David Burdick and SCCESL (Stockton Center of Community Engagement) Director Dr. Erin O’ Hanlon helped

guide me towards my ultimate decision of volunteering at Stories of AC for my research enterprise. Compared to the project’s setup,

executing the actual fieldwork went effortlessly. However, some concerns related to the project’s environment, SCCESL, still

hindered the overall undertaking from reaching its full potential. One was that occasionally, I would struggle with loading up the

software that aided me with examining Atlantic City’s stories, AirTable, and the online document needed to record my fieldnotes. This

was because the Center was in a cavernous section of Stockton that was out of range of Stockton’s Wi-Fi epicenters, which therefore

triggered longer internet connection periods. Consequently, the encompassing amount of efficiency that it took to complete my

endeavor decreased more than I liked. The other was that since Stockton’s leaders dreaded the pandemic’s ability to continuously

harm its populous, they enforced mask mandates that influenced staff’s interactions throughout the semester’s majority. Therefore,

these mandates made it arduous to fundamentally determine the Center’s true social culture without any restrictions. Furthermore,

producing the fieldnotes themselves was quite grueling, as they forced me to dedicate an immense amount of time and energy into

understanding the fieldnotes’ required formatting enough to professionalize them. Winnowing down my 20-page fieldnotes into 2-3

pages was a strenuous task that did not make this any easier. Terminating this project was complicated as well, especially considering

how Dr. O’ Hanlon’s progressively occupied schedule gave her little time for ascribing more obligations for me to work on throughout

late March to mid-April.

Despite these challenges, there are many aspects of this project that I believe will help brighten the future of Stories of AC

and Atlantic City in general. Primarily, I trust that my work at the organization will help make the categorization of Atlantic City

residents’ histories smoother for Stories of AC’s cartographers. Thus, my work will help amplify these stories’ accessibility and

enjoyment for readers, aiding them with the search of tales related to their curiosities. Additionally, by describing the narratives I

discovered from working for this group, I hope I’ll contribute towards an Atlantic City that’s cherished for its holistic merit and not
solely for its casinos as well as Stockton. Moreover, I imagine that, as Dr. O’ Hanlon explained to me in April, utilizing more

resources into renovating Stories of AC’s programming and staffing will help the organization with its post-COVID growth. It can

also, I reckon, introduce more opportunities for South Jersey scholars, thus fostering relationships that do not just support the group’s

vision, but also their surrounding populations. Finally, my newly garnered understanding of Atlantic City has bestowed upon me a

new yearning to explore its 48 blocks. Subsequently, I surmise that as this organization expands, volunteers like myself will invest

novel resources into the town to strengthen the city’s spirit.

Regarding the overarching lessons from my involvement at Stories of AC, it has principally cultivated my love for Atlantic

City and demolished the stigmas I had of the area. Because of my fieldwork, I now understand that, incongruous to the adverse stances

of my loved ones as well as media conglomerates, the metropolis is currently in a contradictory state. On one hand, Atlantic City has

failed in the past to realize its capability as a tourism hub, a business base, and as a home due to faults it’s guiltless of. These

aforementioned ‘faults’ are town-wide wounds from classist, racist segregation that, despite efforts to decelerate it from the 1950’s-

1980’s, continues to powerfully course through the city’s current infrastructure. Chicken Bone Beach, AC’s struggling, working-class,

Black district striving to reclaim its history as a black cultural center, best exhibits this. Conversely, Atlantic City is teeming with

tenacious, generous, and knowledgeable people from a diverse range of racial, age, and socioeconomic groups. Together, they pine to

chronicle facets of their town’s past. For instance, residents from various backgrounds coveted one project’s chance to discuss Earl

Harvey-a late, black, news media mogul- and his illustrious impact on New Jersey’s minorities. AC also has an enormous opportunity

to flourish economically, particularly in the recreation, arts, culinary and fashion industries that several of its popular businesses

specialize in. Transecting these two paths of rise and decline is the city’s history. Many older residents have witnessed desegregation

simultaneously generate increased investments and academic inequity in their minority neighborhoods. Likewise, they have observed

casinos’ unsurpassable room, board, and shopping concurrently boost tourism and inflict foreclosures on copious small, minority-

owned businesses. From this perspective, it will be incredibly interesting to see which path AC prefers to tread on.

Inspecting older residents’ comparisons between the Civil Rights Movement they partook in (one even engaged in a

demonstration that led to a nationally covered fire that ravaged one of their HBCU’s dorms) and the current Black Lives Matter

movement was another remarkable learning experience for me. Predominantly, they felt that BLM’s effects on public acclaim of

officers, on peaceful demonstrations and on solidarity with minorities was negative when compared to younger generations’ opinions

noted prior to my research. By and large, it drew attention to a clearer generational attitude disparity than I thought about how to best

push America towards anti-discrimination.

Furthermore, I have also gained much appreciation for the office atmosphere, whose grand abundance of sociocultural

intricacies severed my expectations of workplaces formed by the Great Resignation. Omitting the nonconformist Dr. Erin O’ Hanlon,

three collectives of students, staff, and others utilized the office and its amenities differently. “In-And-Outs” were students, staff, and

outside community members who momentarily either used the printers and computers or extracted an item before they swiftly
departed from the office. “Regulars” completed art projects, service work and homework in the workspace. Furthermore, they listened

to music, used tissues, chattered, and lounged in the office while using as many objects as possible there. These substances included

those from outside this environment, with food, drinks, notepads, and crayons being notable examples. This group concocted an

occasional prank or two on each other as well, with the unsolved baby mystery being an unforgettable illustration of this. “Medians”

were a mix of these former crowds, using the office’s phones, computers, space, and other features longer than the “In-and-Outs,” but

stayed less frequently in the office throughout my fieldwork sessions than “Regulars”. Dr. O’ Hanlon, the dissenter from these groups,

moved between these three groups’ traits. Presumably, this was to keep watch over her staff’s duties, including mine, and positively

bond with them when she had breaks from her packed, daily agendas. Along with this social hierarchy, all staff members came from a

wide variety of LGBTQIA+ (bisexual, questioning, gay, lesbian, heterosexual), racial (Black, White, Multiracial), ethnic (Asian,

Hispanic, European, Latinx) age (college to elderly ages), and socioeconomic (lower to upper class) backgrounds. This, along with the

constantly shifting visual (posters, whiteboards, shelves being altered) and auditorial (interior and exterior environmental sounds)

setting made working at the office so exciting that, shockingly, I am considerably more attracted to enlisting myself to office

occupations post-graduation than I was preceding this endeavor!

Moreover, my fieldwork endowed me the opportunity to employ my love for storytelling as well as cultural learning to

invoke life into people’s narratives. By toiling with each story’s tagging, I was required to fixate on each story’s formatting, layout,

sentiment, and content. Additionally, I was driven to identify central themes that linked the individual account to others as well as

AC’s general history. As a result, I have ensured that the relationships between each person’s tale, their locations, and other stories are

just as resounding, vibrant, and distinct as Atlantic City. This abovementioned outlook is what I wish the organization’s future

cartographers who apply my categories to their maps will recognize from it.

Finally, I am exceptionally grateful to this project for gifting me the chance to encounter countless compassionate, clever,

and amazing people who I now have the honor to call my acquaintances as well as friends. Vakazz, Nicole, and Dr. Erin O’ Hanlon

will especially be close to my heart. These three have thrust me out of my comfort zone, were a calming aura within the fluctuating

office environment, and were springs of motivation that helped me advance forward with my fieldwork’s stressful assignments.

Subsequently, they have largely contributed to my new, non-stigmatized attitudes on office environments, and I’ll forever express my

gratitude for that.

Consequent to the previously stated points, my research journey did not just leave me with a reinforced ability to listen and

connect with those from a collection of circumstances. In truth, I now have an enhanced sensation of empathy towards Atlantic City’s

history that shaped its stigmas, an augmented craving to explore the city’s entirety, an affirmative perception as well as appreciation of

office environments, and above all founded friendships that will endure a lifetime.

Regarding Senior Seminar in general, I relished its assistance with my judgements of what I fancied pursuing-

communications, journalism, education, governmental, and nonprofit work-and did not-museum, archival, sustainable business, and
research work. Consequently, this, along with the Industry Exploration assignments, bequeathed me the motivation needed to make

headway on discovering which positions were my best fits. Hearing my colleagues’ perspectives on their senior-year struggles as well

as their job interests by the course’s facilitations was superb. This was since it imparted me three lessons: many seniors confront

demanding challenges before they graduate, SOAN majors can master numerous lucrative, gratifying job niches, and Stockton’s

SOAN populace is exceptionally diverse in experiences as well as socioeconomic traits.

Subsequent to all of these points and more, I think little is required to carry this curriculum to its full potential as well as

prepare future SOAN scholars for graduation. If anything, I would recommend including more opportunities for guest speakers and

discussions about concerns regarding our fieldwork and senior years in general to mature this course’s benefits.