Skip to navigation | Skip to content

The College of Applied Health Sciences :: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The College of Applied Health Sciences

You are here: Skip Navigation LinksHome right arrow About Us right arrow AHS E-News right arrow Winter 2010 right arrow Initiative

AHS Student Launches Groundbreaking Initiative at Illinois

AHS students AHS Student Council members Bridget Evans (L) and Jordan Sestak (R) with service dog-in-training Pilot.

Bridget Evans knows well how helpful a well-trained service dog can be. As a student with disabilities related to spina bifida, she relies on her dog Coal for help with a variety of tasks, from opening doors to turning lights on and off. Evans has been a volunteer trainer for many years with the Mid-America Service Dogs Foundation. In October, she led the effort to form a training partnership between the Foundation and the Applied Health Sciences Student Council, of which she is a member. Members of the Council and other interested students are now training two dogs, Pilot and Jasper, with a third dog scheduled to arrive in January. It is the first service dog training program to exist on a college campus.

The more than 20 students involved in the training program will have the first group of dogs until December 2011, when they’ll be given to individuals with disabilities who need their help. Although Evans will graduate in May of next year, she says the program will definitely continue. "Trainers from MidAmerica Service Dog Foundation will continue to come down to campus twice a month," she said. "I will try to come down once a month and I am planning on mentoring someone to take over as the campus facilitator."

Students involved with the University of Illinois Service Dog Project recently took a number of service dogs and dogs in training to MarketPlace Mall in Champaign to learn more about handling service dogs and to increase their confidence in working with the dogs in public places. You can follow their progress at the U of I Service Dog Project blog.

Copyright © College of Applied Health Sciences