Xavier Goodall
Photography Editor
Millersville’s University’s Paws On Deck club hosted their first meeting of the semester on Jan. 29, 2026. The event took place in the Student Memorial Center, where people would come in to learn about the club and take part in fun games and trivia to keep people engaged.
Paws On Deck is partnered with the Susquehanna Service Dogs organization, that raises, trains, and assigns service dogs of all kinds to people in need. The purpose and mission of Paws On Deck is to assist people with raising and training service dogs, and to spread awareness of how service dogs help those with disabilities.
“We’re a club here on campus, and we try to spread awareness on people who need service dogs or people who have them,” said Kylea Hegen, a junior Communications Public Relations major and secretary of Paws On Deck, “We also try to create an environment where people are given the opportunity to raise a service dog on campus.”
Throughout the meeting, the club sat through a presentation giving details about the club and its mission. They were split into three groups for a game of Jeopardy, with categories touching on topics such as dog facts, Millersville trivia, and the SSD organization. Such questions involved the number of years dogs have been domesticated by humanity (approximately 15,000 years), to the original names of Millersville’s first swans (Fred and Ethel).
Hegen would go on to talk about the training their service dogs would go through, even mentioning that service dogs would be raised and begin their training as young as a few days old.
“These dogs go to training every other week or every week in the beginning of their training,” said Hegen. “These dogs are learning cues that will eventually help them when they go into advanced training.”
Club President Rylie Shanebrook, a senior biology major, would go on to elaborate on the paths service dogs can take and the different ways they can help in our society, from guiding and assisting people with disabilities, comforting those with varying severities of PTSD, and even going into drug detection operations.
“It just kind of depends on what route they want to go to,” said Shanebrook. “These dogs choose their careers themselves.”
Shanebrook also went on to share that you don’t need to raise a puppy or a service dog in order to join the club, and that it is free to join for all those who want to learn about service dogs and their applications, and possibly even raise one yourself. For more information and to support the organization, visit their Instagram @ville_pawsondeck, their Get Involved page, or stop by their meetings held every Thursday at 6 p.m. in Room 24 of the Student Memorial Center.
