AHS Student Launches Groundbreaking Initiative at Illinois
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.