On May 17th, sophomore Scott Sunseri organized the Fur Less Stress Event at Bellarmine, where therapy dogs were brought on campus to ease the stress of finals. Scott initially had gotten his idea when he went on a college tour in February, when he noticed bomb sniffing dogs at the airport terminals. His train of thought then wandered to therapy dogs, and the realization that therapy dogs could help a lot of people who were stressed at finals soon followed. Originally planned with Mrs. Luscher and Mr. Swenson, he contacted the organization Furry Friends, which specialized in bringing therapy dogs to colleges and other high schools, who brought several dogs on-campus.
The initial reactions to the events appeared positive, with Scott saying that “I think that it went really well, I was astounded by the event, I heard so many people saying it was a great event and they hoped it would come next year”. He’s already begun thinking about scheduling them twice next year, before midterms and the end of the year finals. He personally was very pleased with the reception, commenting that “A lot of people were saying that it was helpful for them, and that they forgot about finals for a little bit, and that was my main goal, just to have people relax about it.”