From Seeing Eye puppies, a different type of education for Rowan seniors
From Seeing Eye puppies, a different type of education for Rowan seniors
May 12, 2008
When graduating seniors Magenta Bell and Kari Mastromonica think back on their Rowan University years, they'll remember classmates and professors, projects...and puppies.
Bell and Mastromonica, who earned their undergraduate degrees from Rowan on Friday, May 16, each have raised three puppies during their collegiate careers through the Rowan University Forward to Freedom (RUFF) program.
Begun in 2004, the program works with The Seeing Eye, Inc. to place future guide dogs with "family groups" of four Rowan students who raise the puppies. The students work to teach the dogs the commands and manners they'll need as they progress through The Seeing Eye program.
Puppies are placed with students when they're seven or eight weeks old and live on Rowan's campus with students until they're about 17 months old. Then, they undergo intensive guide dog training at The Seeing Eye in Morristown before they are eventually placed with their blind or visually impaired handlers.
Altogether, 25 dogs have been raised on Rowan's campus thus far through RUFF, according to Robin Brelsford, co-leader of the program. In the Class of 2008 alone, nine seniors have been involved with RUFF, according to Brelsford.
"Our students have to jump through a lot of hoops to raise a puppy. It is a lot of responsibility. And raising three puppies in a collegiate career is pretty amazing," says Brelsford.
For their first puppy assignment, Bell and Mastromonica teamed up with two other Rowan students to raise Al, a German Shepherd.
Then Bell, who is allergic to dogs, and different group raised Edgar, a black lab, and Caesar, a German shepherd, now seven months old. When Bell marched into Commencement, Caesar was there, too, in his own doggie cap and gown. Since she has graduated, Bell will continue raising Caesar at home in Bucks County until it's time for him to return to The Seeing Eye next March.
"Caesar is very confident," says Bell, a 2004 graduate of Truman High School. "He loves attention."
Mastromonica, meanwhile, a psychology major who has been accepted into Rowan's graduate program in mental health counseling and applied psychology, will continue raising Russ, a five-month-old German Shepherd, as she attends grad school.
Russ wasn't at Commencement. He's too little yet, says Mastromonica, who also has raised Walden, a yellow lab/golden retriever cross.
The experience raising three puppies helped Mastromonica find her niche at Rowan, she says.
"It has defined my college career," says Mastromonica, a 2004 graduate of Toms River High School East who now lives in Clementon. "It has helped me focus. This experience is not for everyone. You have to be really responsible. It's like having a baby on campus. But for me, it's been just awesome."
"I got Caesar in the middle of the school year. I was up every night with him for a week, sleeping on the floor with him. I'd go to class and my professors were like, ‘Are you OK?'" Bell says with a laugh.
The puppies live in residence halls with their student raisers and attend classes and other University events. The campus, says Brelsford, exposes the dogs to a wealth of different experiences they'll encounter when they're guide dogs.
The puppies also generally attain celebrity status on campus, though student trainers apparently don't. That's OK, Bell and Mastromonica agree.
"You become the girl with the dog. That's pretty much all you are and you don't mind it at all," says Bell, who did a class project on the experiences of people involved with The Seeing Eye. The podcast can be found at http://seeingeyestories.blogspot.com/.
Through RUFF, student raisers attend bi-monthly meetings. They write monthly reports on the puppies and compile puppy profiles for when they return to The Seeing Eye for harness training. RUFF members, says Brelsford, are also there to support each other when a dog leaves for training.
Correspondence is not permitted between the handlers and the raisers of a puppy, though raisers are invited to attend "town walks" to observe their dogs with their trainers after the training program is complete. Raisers, however, aren't permitted to interact with the dogs, according to Brelsford.
Sending the dogs off to training is heart-breaking, says Bell. But it's exhilarating to see them after the training is complete, she adds.
"We know they're not ours. But you can't half-love them because of that," she says. "When they go, you cry for weeks. You do. It hurts. But in the town walk, when you see a team walking, it's awesome."
"By the time the dogs leave, they're settled, well-mannered affectionate dogs," says Brelsford.
The RUFF program has helped reach a population of Rowan students in a way other programs might not, notes RUFF co-leader George Brelsford, Rowan's dean of students.
"The opportunity to raise a puppy while a student at Rowan adds to the richness of the college experience," he says. "Puppy raisers become more engaged with the University, make a long-term commitment to community service, and better develop as both people and students. The benefits of being a Rowan puppy raiser persist long after graduation."
Bell, who never had a dog before Al, agrees.
"At that time, it was my way of saying, ‘I can do this.' And it was something bigger than me."
Commencement was a special day for the RUFF program as the University presented Dr. James A. Kutsch, Jr., president of The Seeing Eye, Inc., with an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
Bell and Mastromonica, who earned their undergraduate degrees from Rowan on Friday, May 16, each have raised three puppies during their collegiate careers through the Rowan University Forward to Freedom (RUFF) program.
Begun in 2004, the program works with The Seeing Eye, Inc. to place future guide dogs with "family groups" of four Rowan students who raise the puppies. The students work to teach the dogs the commands and manners they'll need as they progress through The Seeing Eye program.
Puppies are placed with students when they're seven or eight weeks old and live on Rowan's campus with students until they're about 17 months old. Then, they undergo intensive guide dog training at The Seeing Eye in Morristown before they are eventually placed with their blind or visually impaired handlers.
Altogether, 25 dogs have been raised on Rowan's campus thus far through RUFF, according to Robin Brelsford, co-leader of the program. In the Class of 2008 alone, nine seniors have been involved with RUFF, according to Brelsford.
"Our students have to jump through a lot of hoops to raise a puppy. It is a lot of responsibility. And raising three puppies in a collegiate career is pretty amazing," says Brelsford.
For their first puppy assignment, Bell and Mastromonica teamed up with two other Rowan students to raise Al, a German Shepherd.
Then Bell, who is allergic to dogs, and different group raised Edgar, a black lab, and Caesar, a German shepherd, now seven months old. When Bell marched into Commencement, Caesar was there, too, in his own doggie cap and gown. Since she has graduated, Bell will continue raising Caesar at home in Bucks County until it's time for him to return to The Seeing Eye next March.
"Caesar is very confident," says Bell, a 2004 graduate of Truman High School. "He loves attention."
Mastromonica, meanwhile, a psychology major who has been accepted into Rowan's graduate program in mental health counseling and applied psychology, will continue raising Russ, a five-month-old German Shepherd, as she attends grad school.
Russ wasn't at Commencement. He's too little yet, says Mastromonica, who also has raised Walden, a yellow lab/golden retriever cross.
The experience raising three puppies helped Mastromonica find her niche at Rowan, she says.
"It has defined my college career," says Mastromonica, a 2004 graduate of Toms River High School East who now lives in Clementon. "It has helped me focus. This experience is not for everyone. You have to be really responsible. It's like having a baby on campus. But for me, it's been just awesome."
"I got Caesar in the middle of the school year. I was up every night with him for a week, sleeping on the floor with him. I'd go to class and my professors were like, ‘Are you OK?'" Bell says with a laugh.
The puppies live in residence halls with their student raisers and attend classes and other University events. The campus, says Brelsford, exposes the dogs to a wealth of different experiences they'll encounter when they're guide dogs.
The puppies also generally attain celebrity status on campus, though student trainers apparently don't. That's OK, Bell and Mastromonica agree.
"You become the girl with the dog. That's pretty much all you are and you don't mind it at all," says Bell, who did a class project on the experiences of people involved with The Seeing Eye. The podcast can be found at http://seeingeyestories.blogspot.com/.
Through RUFF, student raisers attend bi-monthly meetings. They write monthly reports on the puppies and compile puppy profiles for when they return to The Seeing Eye for harness training. RUFF members, says Brelsford, are also there to support each other when a dog leaves for training.
Correspondence is not permitted between the handlers and the raisers of a puppy, though raisers are invited to attend "town walks" to observe their dogs with their trainers after the training program is complete. Raisers, however, aren't permitted to interact with the dogs, according to Brelsford.
Sending the dogs off to training is heart-breaking, says Bell. But it's exhilarating to see them after the training is complete, she adds.
"We know they're not ours. But you can't half-love them because of that," she says. "When they go, you cry for weeks. You do. It hurts. But in the town walk, when you see a team walking, it's awesome."
"By the time the dogs leave, they're settled, well-mannered affectionate dogs," says Brelsford.
The RUFF program has helped reach a population of Rowan students in a way other programs might not, notes RUFF co-leader George Brelsford, Rowan's dean of students.
"The opportunity to raise a puppy while a student at Rowan adds to the richness of the college experience," he says. "Puppy raisers become more engaged with the University, make a long-term commitment to community service, and better develop as both people and students. The benefits of being a Rowan puppy raiser persist long after graduation."
Bell, who never had a dog before Al, agrees.
"At that time, it was my way of saying, ‘I can do this.' And it was something bigger than me."
Commencement was a special day for the RUFF program as the University presented Dr. James A. Kutsch, Jr., president of The Seeing Eye, Inc., with an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.