I Graduated!

This Saturday, I graduated from University of Wisconsin - River Falls with a B.S. in English (Creative Writing) and minors in Animal Science and Professional Writing. I also moved back to my hometown to save up some money and spend time with my family while I wait to hear back from the graduate schools I applied to. I am hoping to go on to receive my MFA in Creative Writing with the end goal of teaching at a university.

In the meantime, I am already missing all the amazing parts of my life I left behind when my time as an undergraduate student ended. First, I will miss the ADEPT program. Over the past 3.5 years, I had the opportunity to work with 7 amazing dogs. During this time, I learned all about service dog laws and how to be an advocate for service dogs and their handlers. Last summer, I even had the chance to see some of the dogs in our program graduate and be placed with their forever partners. I can say without hesitation that being a part of the ADEPT program was the highlight of my time as an undergraduate student. I looked forward to our classes every week, and I loved being able to share stories and laughter with this fantastic team. I am so honored to be a part of the PawPADs family; this experience has truly changed my life!

Second, I will miss my job at the Campus Information Desk. I loved my team and the experiences I had while working the desk and Student Involvement events. It was amazing to have the opportunity to interact with students, faculty/staff, and community members every single day. It is a special job that makes you look forward to going into work most days.

Third, I will miss my classes and professors. A large majority of my professors seemed to truly care about our success as students and as people in general, and without them, I couldn't have had the fantastic experience that I did. While I was sad to miss out on two years of in person classes, their ability to adjust their classes to fit their student's needs was astounding. I am hopeful that I will be back in a classroom again as a graduate student, but in the meantime, I will look back fondly on my undergraduate years.

Finally, I will just miss the community. My apartment was such a fun place to be, and I have lots of fond memories of hanging out with friends and my roommates there. The community was so close-knit and felt like home for the past four years. I will miss it all!

I am thankful to have Theo and Yuki to keep me company through this stressful but exciting time of my life, and I look forward to continuing to include dogs in my life forever even though my time as an ADEPT intern is over. I plan to stay in contact with PawPADs and would love to be involved in the organization again in some way or another. Until next time, stay pawsome!