ST. PETERSBURG — Jenny Gelin, a freshman at the University of Southern Florida St. Petersburg, sitting in the front row at student orientation. A graduate of Wharton High School in Tampa, Gelin has never lived in a dorm and is nervous about meeting new people.
As the other 200 students filed out of the auditorium for a break on a recent Thursday, Gelin sat, questions swirling through her mind. Will everyone like me? Will I be able to make friends? What if they all find me boring?
Then she saw him.
A 28-kilogram “goldador,” a 2-year-old golden retriever-Labrador mix, enthusiastically greets the other incoming students.
Meet Snowbird, USF St. Petersburg’s newest employee. Snowbird is the school’s first and only “therapy dog,” trained to provide comfort, emotional support and therapeutic benefits. He is sworn in to the university’s police department In June, he joined Bailey, a K-9 trainer on the USF campus in Tampa.
Gelin didn’t hesitate to reach out to pet Snowbird as he walked past with his master.
“I usually don’t go near people, but then I saw the dog,” Gelin said. “I thought, ‘I don’t care.’”
Encouraging students to engage with people and events is just one of the benefits a comfort dog like Snowbird will bring, said Anita Sahgal, director of the USF St. Petersburg Student Wellness Center and Accessibility Services.
She says research shows that exposure to animals improves mood and makes people feel calmer. Sitting with an animal can distract people and help them move away from distress.
This is especially needed today, as college campuses across the country face a mental health crisis.
According to a national survey by the Healthy Minds Network, a research organization focused on the mental health of adolescents and young adults, 41% of college students had symptoms of depression and 36% had symptoms of anxiety disorder during the 2022-23 academic year.
As a police dog, Snowbird will help students who get used to it to university life or are stressed during exams. He can sit with students who come to the wellness center for counseling or to advocate for victims.
He will also accompany the officers when they intervene. Mental health crisis calls. Snowbird manager Mark Lickenfelt said he’s seen a sharp increase in these types of calls since he started in 2006, especially in the last five years.
Lickenfelt wants Snowbird to bridge the gap between students and law enforcement. He’ll move his office to the library or the veterans center so Snowbird can be closer to students.
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“If I can help just one person, that’s all that matters,” he said.
Snowbird lives with Lickenfelt, who has wanted to be a dog handler since elementary school. It shows.
Under the orange police vest hanging on the wall of his office is Snowbird’s black box, tucked in a corner. A stack of tennis balls sits on the shelf. A dog bone rests on his desk next to the computer.
On his belt, he carries his gun, his Taser, his radio and a small black bag of puppy treats. Lickenfelt, 51, imagines the couple retiring together, a milestone he anticipates for both of them in about a decade.
As he walked Snowbird around campus Thursday, students he passed reacted with gasps, smiles, selfies.
“Are you stressed today?” Lickenfelt asked them.
“Now that he’s here, things are much better,” one student told him.
Another began researching how to register his dog as an emotional support animal to bring into the dorms.
Belen Valdivieso, a third-year student on campus for a summer job, has been excited about Snowbird’s arrival since she first heard about him in the fall. She misses her dog at home, an adopted half-Yorkie, half-Shih Tzu.
“We all need a therapy dog,” added Emily Mann, student services librarian, who said Snowbird’s presence will be equally beneficial for professors.
Back in the auditorium, Lickenfelt explained to Gelin what a therapy dog was.
“Do you want him to hug you?” he asked.
Gelin nodded. Snowbird climbed into her lap. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and calmed herself. Finally, she felt ready to go off on her own and explore a club fair downstairs.
She would keep her eyes peeled for the school’s Puppy Raisers club, where students partner with the local nonprofit Dogs Inc. to raise service dogs.
It’s a club she knows she wants to join now that she’s met Snowbird.
