Doctoral Student Ties Volunteer Work into Research
Kristen Hopkins is a student in the occupational therapy doctorate (OTD) program. She is also a volunteer trainer for service dogs through 4 Paws for Ability in Xenia, an organization that trains service dogs for children and veterans with a variety of disabilities.
Becoming a volunteer first occurred to her while completing her undergraduate work at Wittenberg University when she saw some of her peers coming to class with service dogs. Being an animal lover, this piqued her interest, and she soon learned they were volunteers with 4 Paws for Ability who had a partnership with that university, which allowed student volunteers to help train the dogs.
Kristen became a volunteer four years ago, and when she began attending Kettering College, she proposed making our college a partner with 4 Paws for Ability as well. She spoke with OTD faculty and staff, and they agreed to let Kristen begin the program on our campus.
Kristen is currently training a dog named Ladybird, a gentle giant with soulful eyes. The dogs are trained from the time they are born to be of service to others, but becoming a certified service dog takes up to two years of training. Eventually the dogs can help with things such as mobility, behavior disruption, and seizure and diabetic reaction alerts. They receive general training to track their owners down, especially for patients who have autism and commonly run off.
Before the dogs reach the higher levels of the training that makes them service dogs, they must first learn to be around people on a daily basis, which is where Kristen comes in. Ladybird accompanies her to class, quietly sitting next to her, waiting for Kristen to lead the way. Kristen patiently trains Ladybird to learn how to integrate into the world of people, normalizing this environment for her, so when Ladybird is ready to be paired up with someone, she will know exactly what to do to enrich that person’s life without being distracted.
Being a service dog volunteer trainer is more than a hobby for Kristen—it’s research. When she knew she was heading toward a career as an occupational therapist, she realized a service dog would be an excellent form of assistive technology for people with autism. As she began the program and diving into research, she also realized the research on this is limited.
Kristen’s doctoral project is focusing on the use of service dogs in occupational therapy. She will look specifically at the effect of service dogs on children with autism and present her findings. Service dogs have proven to be adaptive to whatever the patient needs, and Kristen will focus on creating the research to back this up. She will be the scholar who leads the way by creating the research she was surprised to find is lacking in her field.
Ladybird is proving to be a dog who is excited to serve an owner who needs her instincts for assistance. Kristen says having the dogs from 4 Paws for Ability accompany her into class has created a relaxing environment in the OTD department. Students tell her often how happy they are to see the dogs.
As Kristen heads into her final year of the OTD program here, she will begin to pull her experience, research, and volunteer work together to help advance the field. It’s a field that sets out to improve daily life for everyone, no matter their injury or obstacle. Kristen is creating the research that shows sometimes the most intuitive assistive technology comes with four legs, fur, and a heart for service.
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