Service Learning Reflection Paper

Service Learning Reflection Paper

Having the opportunity to participate in service learning is one of the best things that I have experienced at Eckerd College. I have taken away so many things and learned things that I didn't at first expect to learn. In this reflective statement I am going to try and address questions from categories such as personal meaning, personal learning, and civic and social responsibility.

The organization I participated at was the Southeastern Guide Dogs. This organization is located in Palmetto Florida and is the only one of its kind in the southeastern United States. They are responsible for the breeding, raising, training, and pairing service animals with handicapped individuals such as the visual impaired and even veterans with post traumatic stress disorder.

When I first arrived to their facility I was a little nervous and wasn't quite sure what to expect. As I pulled into the facility in my truck it was hard not to notice the tall fences every where, green grass and trees, dozens of play areas, and of course the loud barking that seemed to come from the entire 35 acre campus. I told the security person at the gate that I was here for "puppy hugging" and he instructed me to drive to the far side of the compound secluded away from the other buildings and fields. When I arrived and walked into the building, I was surprised to see dozens of separated pens, each housing a different litter of puppy with information about them such as their date of birth, name, species, and bloodline located on the gate leading into their pen. The types of dogs used are labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, and a mix between the two, which are known as goldador retrievers. This was one of the first indicators that allowed me to realize just how big this non-profit really is. A staff member greeted my girlfriend and I along with around ten other people who showed up to participate in this "puppy hugging" activity. The staff member was very grateful we were all present and let us all know that they rely a lot on the community to come in and help out by socializing the puppies and other activities with the larger dogs. The group was paired up in small teams of two or three and we were then lead into different pens where it was our job to play and give attention to these animals. The dogs were all between six and ten weeks old and live in this housing unit until about twelve weeks old and the pairing with a foster training family.

After having half hour socialization sessions with different puppies, we were instructed to go over to the main building where we had to assist with the larger animals. The larger animals are between a year and a half and two years of age and have already lived at the campus as a puppy, went home with a foster family for a year, and now are back to complete more training before pairing with an impaired person. There are anywhere from 50-200 of these dogs on campus at any time and since they are full grown, they require more space and attention then the puppies. Each person was given a dog on a leash and we were instructed to walk the dogs throughout the 35 acre complex with virtually nowhere off limits, other then the puppy house secluded in the far corner. This was a lot of walking as these dogs never seemed to get tired, but this service was not only greatly appreciated by the staff, but by the dog as well. The staff taught us some basic commands to use with the dog such as sit, come, stay, and lay down that we got to practice these with the animal on our adventure throughout the campus. Once the dog was tired out and wanted to go back in, it was smart enough to lead the way back to the housing building and then we repeated the same process with