{"id":2998,"date":"2021-03-17T20:28:57","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T20:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=2998"},"modified":"2025-02-10T12:29:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T17:29:26","slug":"wilmu-alum-introduces-therapy-dog-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2021\/03\/17\/wilmu-alum-introduces-therapy-dog-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"WilmU Alum Introduces Therapy Dog to School"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column2998_53af18-8c > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column2998_53af18-8c dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87\"]{font-size:1.5rem;line-height:30px;font-weight:500;font-style:italic;font-family:proxima-nova;color:#808080;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87 mark.kt-highlight, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87\"] mark.kt-highlight{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;-webkit-box-decoration-break:clone;box-decoration-break:clone;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87 img.kb-inline-image, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87\"] img.kb-inline-image{width:150px;vertical-align:baseline;}<\/style>\n<p class=\"kt-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading2998_afbc2c-87\">When students at Hammonton Middle School in South Jersey returned to in-person learning after a couple of remote days in February of 2021, they were greeted by their new classmate \u2013 Wally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wally is a therapy dog, introduced to his school by principal Michael Nolan, a double WilmU alum (MEd and EdD), to relieve student anxiety and promote better education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For years, therapy dogs have been used in healthcare settings for their positive emotional and social impact on the people around them, but their use in schools has recently been expanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After seeing a news story about a therapy dog in a nearby school, Nolan helped put together a grant application, procedures, and a policy to bring a therapy dog into his district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Through a donation from the Hammonton Education Foundation, the district was able to fund Wally&#8217;s purchase and training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe came into my second class of the day, and you could just see their faces just lit up,\u201d seventh-grade math teacher Danielle Law told the Press of Atlantic City. \u201cIt was really cool because I just feel like with this year our classes are small, everyone is 6 feet apart, and the masks &#8230; the energy changed in the room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wally visits the school often to provide emotional support to students and staff, but when he\u2019s not in the classroom, he lives with Nolan, who covers his expenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re always looking for different ways and different angles to reach kids,\u201d Nolan told the Press of Atlantic City. \u201cWhen we started this, we didn\u2019t think we were heading into a global pandemic. But, it\u2019s a good thing we did get him when we did because kids now are more secluded than they\u2019ve ever been.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read more about Wally\u2019s impact on the students he serves <a href=\"https:\/\/pressofatlanticcity.com\/news\/local\/meet-wally-hammonton-middle-schools-new-therapy-dog\/article_b7a44357-c7d5-5b25-aff0-32d2cd0b6e42.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See Wally\u2019s first day of school with students captured on video <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=PmQzSwsHyXE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo: the Hammonton Education Foundation Facebook page<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When students at Hammonton Middle School in South Jersey returned to in-person learning after a couple of remote days in February of 2021, they were&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":145,"label":"ALUMNI NEWS"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/credit-Hammonton-Education-Foundation-Facebook-671x480.jpg",671,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Rebecca Slinger","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/rebecca\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":145,"name":"ALUMNI NEWS","slug":"alumni-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":702,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":113,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":145,"category_count":113,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ALUMNI NEWS","category_nicename":"alumni-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15459,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2998\/revisions\/15459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}