Students and Shelter Animals Learn Together
Last fall, the University was thrilled to welcome Kaleidoscope the Series to campus for a special filming. The episode, which aired Nov. 2, 2025, highlights the University’s innovative program, where students learn alongside shelter dogs and cats in experiential courses that blend psychology, neuroscience, compassion, and community service.
Viewers get an inside look at how students gain real-world skills by training and caring for animals while preparing for future careers in psychology, healthcare, veterinary medicine, rehabilitation, and beyond. This interaction gives shelter animals a second chance through socialization and adoption. The segment also captures the unique ways these programs support student well-being, foster empathy, and strengthen partnerships with local shelters.
We invite you to watch the Kaleidoscope segments filmed on campus and see how experiential learning, community engagement, and care for both people and animals come together in powerful ways at Saint Francis University.
Program Transcript Segment 1:
Sara Cameron, Host: But first, I’m sure many of you have pets, dogs and cats of course being some of the most popular. Many animals don't have the opportunity of a loving family, though. But now, a program at Saint Francis University gives them that chance, with a whole community. See, students are learning how to train and care for these animals, which gives them insight to not only animal behavior but people as well.
Dr. Shlomit Flaisher-Grinberg: I’m an associate professor of psychology here. I teach a few classes for the psychology program, for the neuroscience program, we have an animal-assisted health and education minor here that we started a few years ago.
We in psychology, we learn how to observe people. We are interested in behavior. We can analyze the behavior and we have the tools to modify behavior. So we can of course work with people to remove or maybe get rid of maladaptive behaviors, adopt behaviors that are better for us. For me, as a psychology professor, it was really important to be able to offer my students opportunities to really try it, to translate theory to practice. And of course we can be working with people, but animals need our help, especially shelter animals. They have behavioral issues. They need socialization. They need training. They need connection. They need to learn to trust us. And actually the theories about human behavior are very applicable to animal behavior. I figured out that my students can learn to apply their knowledge to benefit shelter animals, learn by doing and also have an impact on our community and on themselves.
Lisa Boland, Huntingdon County Humane Society Shelter Manager: I picked up the phone and accepted Shlomit's phone call that said, “I need dogs, can you help me?” And it was that one phone call that just connected us. And of course I was able to provide her with a few dogs for her program.
Megan Mills, Marigold Canine Coaching, Adjunct Professor K-9 Behavior and Learning: Lisa said, “I just, I know just the person.” And Lisa, our shelter partner, had connected Shlomit and I together and quite literally the rest is history. Shlomit and I work really well together. We really like our partnership and it shows through in the class too, I think. So it’s been awesome the whole time.
Shlomit: A lot of shelter dogs do suffer from behavior issues. They have been neglected, abandoned, some of them have been abused and they are in the shelter for no fault of their own. So very early, my first year here actually, we decided to bring in dogs and start the dog class. Students took to it immediately. Dogs love it. The campus community loves seeing dogs walking around. And, as we established dogs on campus, living with students in students’ apartments, coming to class, meeting people, they start getting invited to other campus events. They go to our mock hospital environment that we have here. They learn to give back. They learn to really enjoy the interaction.
Megan: Where she says that she has a lot of the knowledge of how psychology and learning theory works, but I help with the application of that specifically to dogs. You see a dog like, “Hey man,” and then we just walk. It doesn’t mean interact, do puppy things and crazy stuff, you know.
So we keep the dogs separate for the first couple weeks of class, and then we gradually work into that. Today was really great where we talked about canine communication—what that looks like, what’s safe, what’s socially acceptable, how dogs communicate. I’m comfortable, I’m uncomfortable, I’m aroused. And then, that’s what we did today, where we gradually brought the dogs together through a little bit of time where they're walking, interacting, and learning to be a little more neutral with one another.
So the class is designed to utilize dogs, work with dogs, and animal-assisted interventions and therapies. We utilize that across the board with many different majors. For example, a biology student can learn a lot more about animal interactions and how they can utilize animals in their work for education purposes. Like a PT, PA, OT—people that are getting into working with humans and their own physicality—so how they would then apply working with dogs in that environment to help with their patients or their clients.
Slow, and steady movement of the leash. Not fast. That's dragging a dog.
Catherine Moyer, Senior, Psychology and Criminal Justice Major: I think I've been waitlisted for, I don't know how long. So I finally got into it this year and I was really excited. My ultimate goal someday is to do criminal psychology. Right now I’m working as a victim support specialist, so I get the viewpoint from the victim’s end, but eventually I want to focus on the criminal end. I’ve always been passionate about animals, and I would like to incorporate canine work within my field. There have been new programs where dogs are being taken into prisons helping inmates, because it helps them realize that if a dog can be saved, especially a shelter dog, if they can be saved so can they.
I’ve learned a lot about the dogs. I learned a lot about their different behaviors because you know, you see a dog out and about and they might be like shaking or something and a normal person isn't going to understand why they're doing that. Now I know that’s a calming signal.
Cody Novitsky, Junior, Biology-Preveterinary Major: I’ve kind of wanted to be a vet my whole life. When I found out they had a pre-med, pre-vet style program, I liked the campus enough to come here, and I love all the professors here. But my goal is to eventually, after here, get into a grad school and get my VMD. I feel like this will help me interact with some patients and owners and let them know how they can help improve their dogs at home too.
So, the first week has been observing our dogs, noticing their quirks and how they behave around different things, noticing if they’re startled by anything. Now we’re starting to get into our actual training. So, things you’d normally do at home with your own dog, like sit, lay down, stay.
Liala Ashurst, Junior, Physician Assistant Science Major: Today’s lesson was about reading body language, how to tell if the dog is uncomfortable. Humans don’t have tails and stuff like that, but you can definitely learn to read into people when they’re feeling uncomfortable, when they are sad. You never know when it could help.
Shlomit: So, the dogs live with the students. They need to live in a 24/7 environment when they’re taken care of.
Cody: My roommates have been very helpful, and it's helpful to have a group that can take him out on walks. He's pretty chill most of the time, so it's not too much of a worry. Like, I can sit down, do my homework, and he'll just kind of sit beside me and relax. So it's not been too bad with him.
Megan: We want to make sure that we're choosing dogs from the shelter environment that not only enjoy a lot of social interactions, that they're just a safe choice for the campus environment. But also we want the dogs to be able to get along with one another because they're going to obviously be spending a lot of time together. So, the selection process is very rigorous in what dogs that we choose for this program specifically. And again, I really want to highlight our shelter partner, the Huntington County Humane Society. They do a really good job at working with us. We want students to have the opportunity to have experiential learning. This is hands-on learning. It's really, really great stuff. So not only are the students receiving that, but then the dogs, they themselves are learning life skills and just learning how to be comfortable, adjusted, well-rounded companions for a family.
It’s really nice that we have all that insight, and it's helpful for us find adopters for the dogs. So, that is something that is part of the class with the students is to do a lot of community outreach and advocating for their dogs and talking to people about if this dog would be a good fit for them or not. So, at the end of the day, at the end of the whole semester, we really would like to have the dogs go straight to an adopter instead of having to go back to the shelter after the semester.
Cody: I know shelters often get overrun by dogs and like, Tracker, he is such a good dog, but because he’s older I think he would have a harder time getting adopted, so I really enjoy that they're giving him the opportunity to be able to get adopted out.
Megan: So the graduation's an opportunity for us to highlight the accomplishments of not only the dogs and the work that they've put in, but also the students and the work that they've put in. And then to celebrate the collaboration of everybody on campus that has helped make this class successful. I make a dog cake every year. And then we have human cake. So the dogs get some cake and we get cake and celebrate. It's just a really nice celebration.
Shlomit: They don't have to wait until they graduate. They don't have to wait until they have a profession. They can start training and rehabilitating one dog at a time, one kid at a time and really see the effect of what they do. I think one of the greatest benefits to students is to see the work being so successful. Cats are getting adopted, dogs are getting adopted. We bring new cats in, new opportunities, new needs. So I think this is one of the greatest joy of our program to be able to see just how much of an impact our knowledge and our passion can do. I have amazing students.
Sara: Yes. What an amazing impact this program and these students are having. Now, what about the cats? Later in the show, we'll visit the cat room. More to come after this.
Program Transcript Segment 2:
Sara: Earlier we spent the day with students from Saint Francis University’s Canine Learning and Behavior course. Now it’s the cat’s turn. Housed in the library, this special room offers a break or unique study environment to any student looking for some cat time.
Lisa: She called me and said, "do you think we could do some cats?" I said sure, I've got 90 cats here for you to pick from.
Shlomit: And we started the cat class, which immediately I have waiting lists of years for these classes. Right now I'm in the waiting list for 27. It took right away. And the cats are amazing. They really benefit from the interaction with students. They come to class, they learn to walk on the leash in campus. I just have to be like cats this side, dogs this side. And as this was taking off, we decided to bring more cats. I spoke with Misty, who is our library director, and I was like, “Do you have a room for us?” We brought cats and this is the third phase of our program. So we have the dog class, the cat class, and the library cats. So wherever you go on this campus, there may be a cat or dog. That’s my goal.
Ava Rhoads, Junior, Aquarium and Zoo Science/Psychology Major: I'm a very big cat person so I was very excited to jump on the project. I think it's so fun for students to have a little study break and just to come down here and get some good cats and maybe adopt them so they can have a better life too.
Sophia Whitmer, Sophomore, Aquarium and Zoo Science: I want to work in wildlife rehabilitation at a zoo or an aquarium. So I think it will help to know how to care for animals.
Ava: I want to work with animals for sure for the rest of my life and also train them. And cats are super smart, so they can also be trained too. Any animal knows that if they do something and they get a piece of food for it, they’re going to do it over and over again. So yeah, they can be trained.
Sophia: So we have a cat learning class where they train the cats. These cats are part of the library cat team. So we have a team that comes down here and takes care of them every day of the week.
Ava: Most people have some pets at home that maybe they’re missing too so for a lot of people it’s very nice to come over and maybe remind them of their pets and find some peace that way too.
Sophia: If you’re feeling maybe anxious and you need a little emotional support, these cats are very helpful in that because you can cuddle them. And they're very playful and they can help in those ways. I’ve brought friends in to play with them and everything and they seem very happy. They're always very vocal and very playful so I think they’re doing pretty well.
Lisa: Oh, it’s a great benefit. Number one, it reminds people that shelter animals need love and attention and homes. It gets our shelter animals out of the shelter environment. So they're getting exposed to a lot of interaction with people and love and attention and yeah, it's wonderful. When they’re in our rooms, they might be sharing it with 15 to 20 other cats, and now they’re more isolated to have more one-on-one with the students.
Ava: This gives the university a different perspective on how students can take study breaks. It’s good for the students, but it’s also good for the cats too.
Shlomit: I moved some of my club meetings here. I know that if I have a small class that we meet, we can meet here. And again, you have quiet, you have cats, you have books. It’s perfect.
Sara: What a great space. Curl up with a good book and a cat. Well, we hope you enjoyed this edition of Kaleidoscope. To keep up to date with Kaleidoscope on our website, or join the others who have liked our Facebook page. And as I always say, for a different view of our region, look at life through our kaleidoscope. We will see you next week.