Man's Best Friend

Having just gotten a new puppy, I figured what could be more appropriate than writing about my volunteer activities involving dogs. This post is a bit different as it involves two different volunteering activities as well as my hopes for future volunteer opportunities.

The Causes:
When I was a young thirteen year old, I had to decide what I wanted to do for my Bat Mitzvah project. This was the first big volunteer project I took on, so it's a great one to end this blog on to come somewhat of a full circle.

My Bat Mitzvah project involved The Seeing Eye. The Seeing Eye is an organization that raises dogs to then be trained by professionals to become dogs used by blind people. The goal of the organization, which was founded in 1929, is to give people who are blind a type of independence they never experienced before.

The Seeing Eye depends on volunteers to raise the dogs before having their official training back at The Seeing Eye facilities. During the year or so that the foster family has the seeing eye puppy, they are supposed to attend monthly meetings and other puppy club activities, house train the dog and teach it basic commands, and bring it places with them to experience lots of different types of experiences and locations. The purpose of this is so the dog isn't scared of anything once it becomes a seeing eye dog for a blind person. Eventually, the dog returns to The Seeing Eye and has its official training before going to a blind person.

Photo By: Sangudo

The other organization I volunteered at, more recently, was The National Greyhound Adoption Program. Founded in 1989 the program aims to find loving homes for ex-racing greyhounds. Most of the greyhounds come from Florida, but some are sent to the rescue center from other organizations. In addition to finding homes for the greyhounds, the organization makes sure the dogs are healthy. They also educate the public about how to take care of greyhounds and about the issues racing greyhounds face.


What I Did:
For The Seeing Eye, I did not raise a puppy. Instead, I puppy sat. Puppy sitting is simply watching a puppy raisers puppy for them when they are going on vacation. I ended up watching quite a few puppies. In order to be allowed to watch them, I had to attend the club's monthly meetings to learn basic training commands, how to treat the dogs, meet the dogs, and meet the raisers.

One of the Puppies I Watched: Wilbur

When actually watching the dogs, I treated them as though I was raising them. The dogs with me had to follow the normal rules for seeing eye dogs and still needed to be introduced to new situations. For that reason, I brought the dogs with me most places I went. For example, on Black Friday once I was puppy sitting so I took the dog to Target. It was a really interesting experience for both me and the dog who had to pay attention on the busiest shopping day of the year.

For the National Greyhound Adoption Program, I went to the shelter and walked the Greyhounds. Walking the greyhounds give them a chance to get some fresh air and be with people, rather than just sitting in a cage all the time. This is helpful for the dogs' socialization with people and other dogs, making them a better candidate for adoption.

What I Learned:
Both of these volunteer opportunities made me realize why dogs are man's best friend. All of the dogs I puppy sat or walked were sweet in their own way. The dogs just wanted to be loved and I was glad to be able to do that.

Puppy sitting made me realize how smart dogs are. Witnessing a puppy be able to change from all play to work mode in just a few seconds made me appreciate their intelligence. Humans always assume we are the only ones able to truly think, imagine things, and make decisions. After spending time with such intelligent dogs, that are trained to make decisions for people who can't see, I wonder how accurate this is, probably not very.

Photo By: SkyWideDesign

I also learned about making sacrifice for others. The people raising seeing eye dogs are doing so knowing they will have to give the puppy back in just a short year. Giving the puppy back is not easy to do but they do it because they know how great the dog will ultimately be for someone who can't see. The puppy raisers understand selfless acts. I strive to be able to see where I can be more selfless to help someone who really needs it.

When walking greyhounds, I realized how important it is to treat dogs properly. A lot of the greyhounds were mistreated as racing dogs. These mistreated dogs need to learn to trust people again and learn to be able to interact with other dogs again.

Seeing others, dogs or humans, in a worse condition than yourself helps you learn how you must be thankful for what you have and should help others who aren't as fortunate.

In my case, seeing the dogs in this shape make me appreciate my puppy and makes me want to make sure I treat her very well, even more so than I normally would.

My New Puppy: Charlotte

Reflection and The Future:
Writing this blog helped me realize why I love volunteering so much. I love being able to help others, as most people who volunteer do, but I also really enjoy the lessons that come out of volunteering. Seeing others in different conditions and learning how to do other things has made me able to connect to all sorts of people while learning really interesting things along the way.

In the future, I plan to continue volunteering in a variety of ways. I plan to focus more on opportunities related to my major, Biology- so probably medicine, to learn lessons related to my major as well as about life. However, I also plan to continue volunteering in other areas to continue growing as a person and seeing life from different viewpoints.

WE ARE... but will you be too?

Do you remember a little over a year ago when you were trying to decide where you would spend your next four years? Well, the time has come for this years high school seniors to make the same decision. Recently, I have been volunteering at Schreyer Accepted Student Days to help these kids out.

The Cause:
For those of you who don't know, Schreyer Honors College is Penn State's honors program. In order to get into the program a student most apply. Once in, the students get honors housing and priority scheduling, among lots of other opportunities. They must maintain a 3.4 GPA and write an Honors Thesis to graduate with honors. The Accepted Students Days are a chance for the incoming class of 2020 to understand a little bit better what Schreyer offers and what it believes its students should stand for, the college's mission. Some of these values include academic excellence, integrity, and civic engagement.

Accepted Students Days include a presentation by Schreyer faculty, a student panel, student run tours, mingling with current students, and an opportunity to buy Schreyer merchandise.

Decision Day and Schreyer Merchandise

What I Did:
To help with the Accepted Students Days, I decided to be a tour guide. To do this I had to be trained, by the person organizing the tours, by pretty much by going on the tour myself. During the tours I show the main lounges and computer lab in the lobby of Atherton to give people an idea of what types of spaces we have available. Then, I show a sample room, almost always my own to give parents and students an idea of what they can expect from a real dorm. Then, we go through the basement and ground floor to show more spaces to study or get assistance from faculty. Finally, we head over to the other honors dorm where I show them a few common spaces and the GLOBE, a global perspective special living option within Schreyer that students can apply to.

My room that I show on tours- it's more decorated now.

My tour group can range from just a handful of people to 15 people. I have done tours both with parents and students and another with just parents. These groups were interesting because in the parent only group they tended to ask more questions and ones their kids may have prevented them from asking in a combined group.

What I Learned:
Giving these tours has given me a different perspective both on Penn State and Schreyer. When asked different questions about the university and honors college I realized how much I truly know about where I am. Whenever I'm asked questions about the negative sides of things here, I have learned to be able to give true answers that show that everything isn't perfect. Having questions asked of me about these negatives has allowed me to truly analyze where I am and how I like it.

The tours and questions that are asked have allowed me to become more reflective, something I tend not to be very good at. I have been able to bring this new and improved ability to reflect to the rest of my life, mostly academically, to understand why things happen the way they do and what I can do to change these things in the future. I also realize what happened, happened and can't be changed.

Giving tours, has allowed me to figure out what the most important points are to present to the groups and how to keep the group engaged throughout the tour. This can be applied to to other aspects of my life when I have to present or convey information or a message in a relatively short amount of time. It's becoming easier for me to choose what is important to include and what is okay to leave out.

Also, this experience has allowed me to connect with current high school seniors and hopefully give them some guidance about if Schreyer and Penn State are the right fit for them. It's important to realize that if you choose to go somewhere you don't fit in or do something you don't truly like, you won't prosper. I really enjoy being able to help seniors figure out if they will prosper here in anyway that I can.

Overall, the tour process and helping seniors has made me realize how much I like Schreyer and Penn State. I had my doubts about coming here, but looking back now I am very happy here and can't imagine myself anywhere else. I'm glad I made the decision I did and ended up here in Happy Valley.

WE ARE... happy we chose Schreyer and Penn State!