Group decided to volunteer at Centre County PAWS for the service learning participation.

Most frequently the group communicated via e-mail and short "meetings" before and after class.

Joe took on the responsibility of contacting the sheleter via e-mail to organize the volunteer service and to ensure that the shelter was willing and ready for our services. Once approved, the following individuals volunteered on their respective days:

Nate, Joe, Quan volunteered from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM on Sunday March 30th 2008.
Chris volunteered from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM on Saturday April 5th 2008.
Joe and Nate volunteered from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM on Sunday April 6th 2008.
Quan and Chris volunteered from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM on April 12th 2008.
Joe and Nate volunteered from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM on April 13th 2008.
Quan and Chris volunteered from 11:00 AM-4:00 PM on April 19th 2008.

Joe and Chris held the responsibility of picking up the group memebers and driving to and from the shelter.

After having completed the service hours, during a brief "meeting" was held after class between the group members where individuals were assigned specific topics of disscussion for the paper.

Joe was assigned to write the intro and conclusion of the paper.
Quan was assigned to write an outline describing the experiences of the organization.
Nate was assigned to write how the experience was related to topics discussed in class.
Chris was assigned to write how civic engagement in the community can benefit from what had been acquired in this class.

A "meeting" after class during the week of 4/21-4/25 in which the group members decided that on 4/25 during class time, as there would be no lecture, that the four individuals would unite in the Life Sciences building to combine their four segments into one whole paper and revise it for editing.

As well, on 4/28 the group united again in the life sciences computer lab to wrap up any last minute editing, upload the paper to the required technological sources, and create the wiki page which detailed the actions taken by the group throughout the semester.

__Paper Describing the Volunteer Service__
"Community service isn’t about padding one’s resume, it isn’t about doing things so that one might be proud and arrogant about it. But it is the dawning realization of to the greater understanding our humanity, our fragility and a greater appreciation of the great lives that so many of us lead and deem to be “normal” – when it pretty much is extraordinary in its own respect relative to many other individuals around the world. "--Alwyn Loh
As we pulled into the Centre County PAWS (Promotion of Animal Welfare and Safety) animal shelter at approximately 11AM on that first Sunday morning, while willing and devote to requirement we had obligated ourselves to, we were in no mood to be spending our preciously earned time humbling ourselves to the tasks of retrieving canine stool from kennels and the drowning of ears to the deafening screech of a herd of barking beasts on such a day. Exhausted, hung-over, and as college students often find themselves, burdened by the masses of a inexhaustible work load, the ten minute drive to the shelter was spent pessimistically discussing our numerous other obligations that were to be adhered to by the day’s end.
However, after spending five hours that first day relieving the anxiety of confined and lonesome animals by showing them the affection and attention that they have been so frequently denied, and by our presence, allowing the shelter’s coordinators, who already work full time jobs but too graciously donate their strength and time to the bettering of these otherwise helpless creatures, to breathe a grateful sigh of relief, an unspoken sense of accomplishment riveted throughout us as we all resignedly walked back to the car to leave that afternoon.
Although left unpaid, our works performed at this shelter were visually recognized and amiably appreciated by both two and four-legged species. In leaving that first day, the once seemingly hollow and lackluster idea of civic engagement within a community now seemed crucially valuable to us as we had seen through our own sacrifices, the satisfying benefits of others.
Through this group’s community service project at the Centre County PAWS, we as young men grew in an appreciation and understanding of the betterment of ourselves through the enhancement of a society around us. By our sacrifice of time from our ever-industrious schedules and obligations, we found ourselves to benefit to the same degree as those whom we found ourselves serving.
Normally, we performed the service as volunteers on Sunday from 11am to 4pm. Our objective comprised of three parts: first, from 11am-12pm, we walked dogs. Then, from 12pm-2pm, we had to take care of the dogs for exhibition to the people who wanted to adopt them. Last, from 2pm-4pm, we cleaned all the rooms and cages.
Our favorite part was walking dogs. During the first visit to the shelter, James walked a huge dog. Because he was not skilled enough with walking dogs, the huge dog brought him some trouble; it kept running as it went outside and he had to use powerful force to pull him back. Because of this experience, James decided to change to a small dog. The small dog was much more obedient. It always followed him, occasionally stopped to look at him, and sometimes licked James’ shoes. It was so cute that he wanted to adopt it.
After walking dogs, and around noon, a lot of people came to see their adopting target. Normally we sat in a private room, hugging the lovely animals and waiting for people to see them. During the intervals, we would get some water by putting it in a tiny bowl for the dogs to drink. When looking at the dog putting its cute head into the bowl, we felt so satisfied. After a while, if someone was drawn to one of the charming animals, the manager of the shelter would undertake the adoption paperwork process and we would have to say farewell to our little friend!

One of our most memorable experiences of the volunteer service involved Chris and Charlotte, the three year old miniature Schneider, as they were on the way back to her place at PAWS. They went for a walk around 10 to 15 minutes to the hummock near her home, and they enjoyed walking. However, all of sudden, she rubbed her body on anything she could find while she was walking back to the shelter. There was something on her body, but Chris thought it was trivial; maybe she wanted to take it off, and she could handle it. It seemed that she fussed up and down. That is how their miscommunication began. Chris showed her to the chief of the volunteers as a precaution. As soon as he saw her, he rapped out, “damn,” and he started to take off something stuck on her body without hesitating. After a while, it seemed that the chief volunteer found himself unequal to the task he had undertaken, so he asked Chris to call Lisa, a manager, to help him. “We have some problem,” he told her, and the moment she heard, she came there at a quick pace.
“Something” which is fastened on Charlotte’s body is a kind of burs. So, as she rubbed her body on the grass, the burs ran into her body deeper and deeper, and later on, she started to bleed. Lisa took away burs carefully from Charlotte’s body one by one, and brushed her with love. The four of us could not do anything but watch what they were doing for 30 minutes. Then we realized the reason why she kept scrubbing her body. We understood how serious it was after other volunteers became grave. Since we did not have any experience of walking dogs, we couldn’t interpret or understand the message from her.
As we went through this incident, we got a deepened understanding of rhetorical situation and message delivery. To communicate with someone who has different language from we have, it is really important to watch cautiously how they react or deliver his or her message through body language. When speaker and listener do not use the same language and neither of them can understand each other’s language, the facial or gesture expression should be the main method of conveying the message what the speaker want to talk about. Because the message is not delivered by words not by gesticulations, the listener needs to pay more attention toward the expression to comprehend or identify the thesis the speaker wants to show. If, the listener does not understand or misinterprets gestures or physical expression of another, what the speaker wants to say cannot be transmitted, the listener cannot react upon or against the message.
While we were expanding our hearts, we were expanding our critical speech and writing skills as well. Trust us, you haven’t seen a good sales pitch until you’ve seen someone trying to find homes for twenty or so barking dogs. Everyone was compelled to take a puppy home by the clever antics of the people working there. In the end we all felt a little bad for leaving empty-handed. Although we left without any puppies, our minds had been filled to the brim with effective persuasive tactics.
Right off the bat, everyone who stepped into that building was a sucker to pathos. The dogs had been trained well, and they all wanted to be friends. How could one not want to take home Reebok, the giant yet gentle Great Dane? What about Molly, who was small, black, and very shy (yet very loving once she gave you a chance). From the goofy giant Rottweiler to the adorable Golden Retriever puppy, it was impossible not to want them all.
As if that wasn’t enough, the people working there whipped together a stunning combination of logos, exigence, and constraints. While visitors were having one-on-one time with the dogs, who were simply reveling in their company, even more of this complex sales pitch was thrown at them. In terms of logos, the volunteers explained the monetary and moral benefits of purchasing an already neutered/spade, disease-free, well-trained dog, for a cheaper price than any pet store would offer. Then they brought up their constraints and exigence. They discussed how they needed to find the dogs homes so that the shelter would have more room for other dogs, and so the current dogs would have the loving care that they deserved from real families.
Finally, they seal the deal with a fine concoction of ethos and pathos. They describe the pitiful places and conditions that they found the dogs in. Although never said directly, it’s understood that these volunteers are doing an amazing and selfless thing for the sake of these poor animals. At this point, many of the visitors find it worthwhile to help out the dogs and the people running the shelter by taking a dog home with them. They often leave with one more creature than they entered with.
All in all, it was a brilliant sales-pitch to witness. If those dogs were allowed in out dorms, we might have brought back every one. By the last day, our hearts had expanded two-sizes, and with that lesson in persuasion, hopefully our future speech grades did as well.
Thus, through our forfeits of time, labor, and self-rewarded behavior along with an affectionate warmth that was equally shared from ourselves to our canine and human benefactors alike, we four young men witnessed firsthand the benefit of our labors outside of the usual gratifying paycheck or a respected letter grade. Through our times spent at the Centre County PAWS animal shelter we expanded from the once impassive and apathetic college aged students into young men accredited with character and educated in the necessity of the society around us within which we are now so eager to contribute to.

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