The Carlmont Associated Student Body (ASB) hosted the Dogs in the Quad event on Thursday to help raise spirits before finals week.
ASB puts these sorts of events on in the quad throughout the year in order to bolster school spirit and bring liveliness to the school; this time, however, ASB’s aim was to reduce student stress for the upcoming finals.
“We really hope to bring some level of de-stressing and relaxation to the student body, mainly because we recognize that review can be a very crazy time,” said Ethan Lee, a member of ASB’s Community Service Commission.
Lee also explains how Dogs in the Quad is run and the organization behind bringing the dogs to Carlmont.
“We work with the Peninsula Humane Society and the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) through a program called Pet Assisted Therapy. The group and its volunteers specialize in bringing animals, in this case dogs to many different locations in order to provide therapeutic and relaxing experiences with the animals,” Lee said.
The idea to bring dogs to Carlmont isn’t something that comes up spontaneously. ASB spends a lot of time and hours brainstorming and thinking of good ideas that will help to engage Carlmont students.
“Students within ASB brainstorm them and come up with the ideas for these activities,” said Jasper Patel, another member of ASB’s Community Service Commission.
The turnout for the event was huge as well, with students lined up well into the quad to meet the dogs. The students who attended shared that the event was relaxing and gave them a boost during the review week leading up to finals.
“I do think the dogs heavily helped me relieve stress. I’m no longer as stressed about anything,” said Carlmont student Angela Picht after meeting the dogs.
Students agree that dogs are something fun and different that everyone enjoys.
“I came because I really like dogs and I thought it would be a great time,” Picht said.
Overall, both students and ASB members seemed to have fun with the event, helping them relieve stress and anxiety and just have a little fun during the school day.
“Dogs in the Quad, being one of Community Service’s events, looked super interesting to me. Seeing how all the planning comes together has been even cooler. I love dogs and also wanted to help give back to students during this stressful week, so the event was great for me,” Lee said.
