Onyx: USVSD Service Dog in Training
This month reminded us and taught us the importance of adaptability, an important life skill and medical school and career skill. We were threatened by several hurricanes, with one directly hitting us. This required moving around lectures, lecture cancellations, and reading by candlelight. I am still without power after day 3, and am capitalizing on the graciousness of classmates to let me charge devices and use wifi to write this blog post. This month's service required a combination of creativeness and resourcefulness, as I have not heard back from my several pen pals from last month, and social distancing is still in place. I worked with United States Veterans Service Dogs based out of Marrero as part of service work. We fostered several of their dogs in professional training for the storms, as they are outside the levee system and had to evacuate all three times. I attached a picture of one of the foster dogs. Onyx actually matched with a veteran, and she is perfecting skills before she goes home with him. Currently, we have Beaux, who is a crazy sweetheart that loves to hold things. We fed, groomed, and worked on commands and tasks with the dogs so that the storms would not interrupt their training. I also joined them to help out with socialization at the World War II museum. I worked with a dog in preforming tasks around other people, and getting them used to crazy sounds and noises that come from the unique exhibits at the museum. It is such a special experience to participate in the training and upkeep of the dogs, as they get to go on and provide independence to veterans. These dogs are incredible smart and talented, and is truly is amazing what we can teach them to do to help out. I raised a previous service dog for Canine Companions for Independence as well, and his brother recently matched with an 8 year old girl with cerebral palsy and her mom. The graduate team was exposed to COVID-19, and had to quarantine. I put together a care package to send to them, with the help of my classmates, and we prepared treats, cards, and other toys to help their quarantine experience. Her mom is a single mother, and had to work from home, while being a teacher, nurse, physical therapist, and mom, so we hope that the care package helped make things a little brighter.
School has been going well. I have seen an increase in my test score grades, and feel very comfortable with my refined study techniques. I have found a great little group to Zoom study with, and it is so helpful to have people to bounce off material with and break up the monotony of only being able to study at my desk. My cat, Hazelnut, also loves to join in on our studying and in lectures. The joys of Zoom learning! I am so grateful for the opportunity to participate in this program, as the professors are teaching us so much more than curriculum material. I hope the global pandemic is over soon, as I would love to get to know them more.
Here's to hoping the Gulf is done with storms.
Happy Halloween!
Total Oct Hours: 6
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