DE-Stress
Therapy pets help students decompress at exam time
9:42 a.m., March 26, 2012--With mid-term exams and mid-semester projects hanging over their heads, University of Delaware students were under a lot of stress last week before they left for spring break. But a partnership between a registered student organization and a volunteer group from the community offered some relief that didn’t require a prescription or a trip to the pharmacy.
Sponsored by registered student organization Students for the Animals, 19 dog-and-handler teams from PAWS for People visited campus for two DE-Stress sessions, one on Monday night in the Trabant University Center and the other on Thursday evening outside the UD Library.
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Founded and run by UD alum Lynne Robinson, PAWS (Pet-Assisted Visitation Volunteer Services Inc.) is a non-profit pet therapy organization with some 275 therapy teams that visit people from children to the elderly in a variety of settings.
“Working with PAWS has been one of our most successful activities,” says Jaime Logan, a senior human services administration major at UD and president of Students for the Animals. “We thought that if we mixed up some dogs and some stressed-out students, maybe we could try to improve some grades or at least reduce some stress. Everyone likes to talk about their dogs.”
Student reactions to the dogs on Thursday night supported Logan’s theory.
Sophomore Addison George made a beeline for Bailey, a three-year-old German shorthaired pointer. “I have a pointer at home—she’s four, and she looks so much like your dog,” she told owner Ginni Emanuel. “I miss my dog so much.” George sat down in the grass to pet Bailey, left for a while, and came back about a half later for another “dog fix.”
Over the next hour, more than a hundred students stopped by to visit with Chase, Bailey, Summer, Sammy, Samson, Daisy, L.T., Teddy, and Casey.
According to Logan, Students for the Animals was started at UD in 2009.
“Logistics kind of forced us to shift from our initial focus on volunteering to our current emphasis on fund-raising,” she says. “There aren’t a lot of opportunities here in Newark for students to volunteer with shelters or animal rescue organizations, so we devote most of our efforts to helping organizations like Faithful Friends [a no-kill shelter in Wilmington, Del.] raise money. The nice thing about DE-Stress with PAWS is that it’s one of our few opportunities to actually interact with pets on campus.”
One student sitting on a blanket with Robinson’s two-year-old golden retriever Summer summed up the whole experience: “I’ve already finished my exams,” she said, “but pet therapy is always good. Now I have time to stop and pet the dogs.”
About PAWS for People
PAWS for People is a non-profit pet therapy organization that recruits, trains, certifies, and places therapy teams in over 115 sites in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, including schools, libraries, hospitals, assisted-living residences, and psychiatric-care facilities.
At the heart of the organization are the nearly 275 therapy teams who share the love and companionship of their pets, providing a deep and healing connection for those in need.
For more information about PAWS or to be added to the organization’s mailing list, visit the website.
For more information about Students for the Animals, send an email to sc-aandp@udel.edu.
Article by Diane Kukich
Photos by Doug Baker