It Takes a Village

When Grace Paquin ‘24 was looking for the perfect place to spend her collegiate years, she was instantly drawn to the close community and academic prestige of Washington College, where she was determined to fully immerse herself in the vast array of academic and extracurricular offerings here at WC.

 

An environmental science major, Grace shares her passion for the environment with the entirety of the ENV department, citing the supportive and close-knit community of the major and its professors as having shaped her time and future career goals; “I like the community that the major has and all of the professors. All of my ENV professors have helped to shape my college career! Each class that I take with them expands my knowledge so much and they are always so happy to talk to students about what they want to do in the future.” 

Outside of the classroom, Grace takes her passions to the next level as a member of various clubs and organizations. From an accomplished cellist and violinist in the WC Orchestra to a dedicated member of the Washington College Equestrian Team and club, Grace encompasses living the liberal arts experience. 

Recently, one of Grace’s passions has been getting a lot of attention around campus in the form of Max, WC’s current resident “service dog in-training”. As President of the club “Fetching Freedom”, Grace has brought conversations surrounding community service and accessibility to a forefront within the campus community. 

“The mission of Fetching Freedom is to raise service dogs for Fidos for Freedom in Laurel, MD. We do this by placing puppies in training with students at the college to be raised for the first year of their life. We also have goals to educate campus and the broader community about service dogs, what they can do for people and the standards of training that they should be held to.”

Having worked with service dogs since high school, Grace has the experience and drive it takes to run this busy club; and hopes to see the campus community become even more active in the coming year; “Dogs are something that I know so many of us love, and the club is the perfect opportunity not only to get some dog time but also to learn just how much dogs can help people. I also hope to do more events for all of campus, whether this be events educating about service dogs, movie nights with dog themed movies, or de-stress events with our puppies in training and other dogs! It really does take a village to raise a puppy, and in my opinion the WC village is one of the best ones that our puppies could have.”

Through the mission of Fetching Freedom, Grace hopes to bring awareness to disabilities and the use of service animals as a whole, in hopes of sparking conversations around how the community can work to make the campus more accessible and open to all. 

For more information on Fetching Freedom and their work, visit them on Instagram at @fetchingwac. 

01/26/2022