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Service dog trained to work in a chemistry lab gets her own special award at graduation

She even had to learn to wear PPE.

Simple Thought Productions/salad_and_crouton/Instagram

Cecilia Hernandez and her service dog Canela during commencement ceremony at Rollins College.

One of the most gratifying parts of graduating college is getting to walk across the stage during the commencement ceremony to collect that hard-earned degree. And for Rollins College student Cecilia Hernandez (@salad_and_crouton), who studied chemistry, her walk across the stage was side-by-side with her beloved service dog, Canela, who helped her accomplish her studies in the chemistry lab.

During the ceremony, Hernandez wasn't the only one recognized for her hard work—service animal Canela was also presented with a special patch in recognition of her outstanding support. The sweet moment was captured on video, which included a heartfelt speech from the school's dean.

"My service dog received a special patch for her vest in recognition of her hard work at graduation," she captioned the video.

As Cecilia's name is called to accept her diploma (she graduated Cum Laude), the dean gives a heartwarming speech to also honor Canela. "In addition to presenting Cecilia with her diploma, we also wish to recognize the service companion who who has accompanied her throughout her Rollins career, Canela," he says. "Cecilia majored in Chemistry, which required Canela to undergo special training to prepare her to join Cecilia in the laboratory. I am very pleased to present this service badge to Canela, in recognition of her contributions to Cecilia's success at Rollins."

In the post, Cecilia shared more details about how special Canela's role was to her. "Having a service dog in chemistry is nearly unheard of. It required many, many training sessions just to get her used to wearing PPE," she wrote. "As I did research for an undergraduate thesis, this required even longer days in the lab. I am beyond grateful @rollinscollege provided such a wonderful campus and community, allowing me to thrive with my service dog by my side."

In another video shared by Hernandez, she gave a behind-the-scenes look at graduation day for the duo. Together, they wore matching grad caps, and Canela also received an award from Rollins' Chemistry Department for her work.

Hernandez previously opened up to her followers on social media about how she was initially paired with Canela. "In 2021, I had a rough start to college. I had undergone emergency surgery and struggled with my health," she shared in the video's caption. "To help, I got Canela to help navigate my disability."

The video pans to Canela as just a puppy. She continues, "We began training. She took to it very quickly. Eventually, she became a full time service dog. However, having a service dog in chemistry can be difficult."

In the commen section, Hernandez explained just what Canela's training to be in the chemistry lab entailed. "She needed to be trained to wear her PPE at all times in the lab. Most dogs struggle with wearing garments. Also she needed to have a very solid 'stay' as she needs to lay on a mat in the lab. (The mat just protects her from any potential contaminants on the floor)," she shared. "Additionally, just in general, she had to learn how to do medical alerts while wearing said gear. So how to get my attention without causing a distraction."

After overcoming difficulties, Hernandez never gave up on her dreams of pursuing a career in chemistry. And her hope is to advocate for more representation and accessibility in STEM.

And viewers of her graduation video with Canela cannot get enough. "Canela is looking around 'what? Like it's hard?' a la Elle Woods💕," one commented. Another added, "Stacked with cords and everything!! Get it girl!! Congrats and good luck with all your endeavors!! (Please give Canela extra pets for me!)." And another touched viewer wrote, "🙌🙌 yay congratulations to you and your pup you two are gonna go places and achieve so much."

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Equality

If you want an example of how NOT to do diversity, please see this university's tweets

@nuffsaidny/Twitter

Our society has come a long way when it comes to acknowledging and celebrating diversity in its many forms. At least we like to think we have.

The problem is that sometimes, instead of elevating historically marginalized people, leveling the playing field, or genuinely seeking different perspectives, "diversity" becomes a paper goal and yet another way to pay lip service to progress while actually inflicting harm.

Case in point: This tweet by the University of Missouri Athletics Department.

@brvand0/Twitter

As explained by The Riverfront Times:

"There seems to be a clear difference in the messages displayed between white and black student athletes. There was gymnast Chelsey Christensen — 'I am a future doctor"'— and swimmer/diver CJ Kovac — "'I am a future corporate financer.' Opposite them were two black student athletes, whose texts did not include the word 'future' or even mention their areas of study. Instead, runner Arielle Mack is shown stating only, 'I am an African American woman.'

Similarly, Chad Jones-Hicks — who appears to not be a student athlete, but rather a 'Ticket Office Assistant' according to Mizzou's website — is shown stating only, 'I value equality.'

I'm sorry, what?

The tweet was quickly called out for its…what do you even call this? Absurdity? Offensiveness? Bizarre lack of awareness of how racist and wrong putting those images and words together was?

Identifying the two white athletes by their future careers, but not the two black athletes, is a choice that can only be steeped in conscious or unconscious perceptions of race. I can't see any other explanation. What's baffling is how no one involved in the making or sharing of the images seemed to notice the problem.

RELATED: A teacher had her 8th graders write 'funny' captions under slavery-era photos. Seriously, WTF.

The school tried to apologize for their "mistake" and smooth things over by sharing a video of the athletes describing themselves. In the video, the words shared with their images are shown to be their own quotes—"I am an African American woman," for example—but those same athletes also shared their future career goals as well.

Why on earth would you pick these quotes to accompany the photos and not the same career-oriented ones shared with the white athletes? Why would you not put "I am a future physical therapist" instead of "I am an African American woman," when we can see her race quite clearly from the photo? Why would "I value equality" be at all a compelling identifier? Isn't that just a given?

Another image shared by Mizzou showed black athlete Caulin Graves with a banner said that, "I am a brother." Really? The vast majority of males on the planet are brothers, not to mention the allusion to the colloquial use of 'brother' in the black community. Graves' full quote in the video was "I am a brother, uncle, and best of all, I am a leader." Why on God's green earth would you choose "I am a brother" over "I am a leader"?

Writer and speaker Ally Henny, who frequently addresses issues of race in society, explained why the images drew immediate ire on her Facebook page.

She wrote:

"This story is what you get when you view black, brown, and indigenous bodies as a deviation from the norm and inherently political. This 'attempt' at equity and inclusion demonstrates how people at this institution in particular and white people in general have a lack of imagination when it comes to black athletes.

Black athletes are seen as people who bring their beloved institutions and teams money, but they have no real value beyond the physical labor they produce that brings their institution prestige.White athletes, in contrast, are perceived to have a future beyond college sports. They are 'future [fill in the blanks].'

Black athletes are there so people will think that their racist school in their racist little town isn't actually racist. Their majors don't matter. Their aspirations don't matter. Their futures don't matter. The only thing that matters is that NCAA money."

We clearly still have a ways to go on the racism front, folks.

RELATED: Using the 'dictionary definition of racism' defense is a sure sign you don't understand racism.

If you're looking for an example of how not to do a diversity announcement, this is it. It's also worth pointing out that diversity and inclusion shouldn't need a self-shout-out on Twitter anyway. An institution that manages to create an environment that truly enables and embraces diversity, and does so in a way that is meaningful and beneficial to those it seeks to include, will speak for itself. No slogans or hashtags needed.

And until such environments becomes the norm, campaigns such as this will keep missing the mark.

Most Shared

Here's the plan to erase student debt for more than 42 million Americans right now.

There are two things that most of us can reasonably agree on:

  1. That education is important and should be provided to any American that needs, wants, or otherwise shows interest in obtaining it.
  2. That paying for that education has become catastrophically difficult. And though it used to be that one could go to college, get a good job upon graduating, and then buy a nice house complete with a fenced-in backyard in which to raise 2.5 children, that's now a pipe dream many university students can't even afford to think about.

So what do we do? Some cities, including San Francisco, have already made their community colleges free for residents. But that's just one small step towards a future where education's affordable for everyone.

On Monday, presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren released a memo on how the college system could be altered to make it achievable for all.

Warren's proposing that more college be free and that federal Pell grants be expanded. She's also suggesting that student loan debts should be wiped out, ensuring that future generations get a leg up on their futures.

"As states have invested less per-student at community colleges and public four-year colleges, the schools themselves have raised tuition and fees to make up the gap," Warren wrote in a post on Medium.

"And rather than stepping in to hold states accountable, or to pick up more of the tab and keep costs reasonable, the federal government went with a third option: pushing families that can’t afford to pay the outrageous costs of higher education towards taking out loans."

The result, Warren points out is "a huge student loan debt burden that’s crushing millions of families and acting as an anchor on our economy."

"It’s reducing home ownership rates. It’s leading fewer people to start businesses. It’s forcing students to drop out of school before getting a degree. It’s a problem for all of us."

Here's what Warren's plan would look like.

Under her proposed policy, Warren would wipe out $50,000 worth of student loans for anyone who's annual household income is less than $100,000. Anyone with a household income of less than $250,000 would also receive substantial reductions.

Those whose incomes are higher than $250,000 would continue paying off student loans without changes. However, as Huffington Post notes, the proposed plan would help 42 million people in The United States. That's 95% of anyone who's attended or is currently attending college.

Warren's plan also includes a significant amount of money being invested in historically black colleges and universities, more diversity in two and four-year colleges, and an end to the government-helping fund for-profit colleges, which prey on economically disadvantaged communities.

The policy sounds great — more students attaining college degrees while being allowed more control over their financial futures — but it's going to be a tall order to implement right now.

Aside from hand-wringing concern trolls who are already out in full force on Twitter, demanding to know why anyone would go to a college they can't afford (while ignoring that higher education has become so expensive that even state schools are out of reach for many), there's the very real issue of convincing voters that the $1.25 trillion the program would cost over ten years is viable.

Warren believes it would be possible by raising the tax on families that earn more than $50 million a year, something that might also ruffle some feathers during the next election cycle.

Still — a population that's educated and not overwhelmed with debt? That sounds pretty good no matter who you voted for in the last election.

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Frat boys made a racist video that went viral. Many think they're getting off too easily.

*trigger warning: this post alludes to sensitive, racist content.

A disturbing video starring University of Georgia fraternity members went viral last week, reopening an important discussion about racism and inclusivity.

“Pick my cotton, b****!” a seemingly intoxicated University of Georgia college coed jeers, while hitting one of his pals laying under the covers in a bed. The group laughs hysterically as the phrase is repeated more than once. “You aren’t using the right words," chides one of the boys, to which the ring leader excitedly responds “Pick my cotton, nig***!”

This blatantly racist, 30-second encounter was recorded by four members of the southern university’s Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and started going viral on social media on March 22. Sadly, it’s just the latest example of flagrant racism caught on camera involving members of a national fraternal organization.

Hours after the release of the video, both the fraternity’s national headquarters and UGA’s StudentGovernment Association responded appropriately to the situation.

They revealed that the Xi-Lambda chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon had been suspended effective immediately, and also confirmed an investigation was underway regarding the boys in the video.  

The fraternity’s national headquarters noted they were "disgusted, appalled and angered by the remarks shown in the video. TKE will not tolerate any actions such as these that would bedefined as racist, discriminatory and/or offensive." They specified that while the incident did not take place on the chapter’s premises, the four boys in the video were promptly expelled from the organization.

The University itself did respond to the student government, also confirming that it “condemns racism in the strongest terms.” They continued, “Racism has no place on our campus. We will continue our efforts to promote a welcoming and supportive learning environment for our students, faculty and staff.”

In order to take the first step in opening up the conversation about racism between students and administrators, the school announced on Monday morning they would be hosting a discussion about racism on campus dubbed “In Solidarity.”

But is that response enough? Some students don’t think so.

It’s possible the University needs some more time to formally investigate the incident before taking more severe action against the individuals depicted in the viral video, for legal purposes. But in general, are fraternity and university officials really doing enough in response to such heinous and despicable act of racism, considering that these types of instances seem to be a reoccurring theme in colleges and universities across the country?

“It is just unfathomable that stuff like this is going on at the school I go to, learn at and attend. We are extremely outraged and offended by the ignorance on a modern-day college campus,” Obinna Ibebunjo, a senior and member of the historically black fraternity Omega Psi Phi at UGA, told the NewYork Times.

“They were suspended from the fraternity but they were not reprimanded by the school, so it was a slap on the wrist. We think colleges are moving to a more liberal state and being more progressive, but just the fact that you would record it and post it is extremely ridiculous.”

The university’s NAACP chapter also formally responded to the “inappropriate and derogatory” video, blaming the educational institute. “This video only touches the surface of the long history of racism that has existed on this campus and within the state of Georgia. We hope that the university will take action,” they wrote in a statement released Saturday.

This is far from the first incidence of racism in the Greek system.

While it’s likely racism has been prevalent in the Greek system dating back to its origin, it has become more publicized in recent years. With the advent of media and the fact that almost everything gets caught on camera, it’s nearly impossible to sweep these instances under the rug these days.

In 2015, Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s University of Oklahoma chapter was shut down and two students were expelled when a shocking video of fist-pumping students chanting, "There will never be a ni**** at SAE. You can hang him from a tree, but he can never sign with me," made the rounds.

Additionally, just last year 15 members of Syracuse University’s Theta Tau engineering fraternity were suspended and the fraternity was expelled after the release of a video in which they used racial and anti-Semitic slurs and mocked people with physical and intellectual disabilities. The students went on to appeal the suspension, however, the decision was upheld in January of this year.

So how can we prevent blatant racism in our youth? It’s starts with having perhaps uncomfortable, but necessary conversations about discrimination.

It’s clear that we aren’t doing enough as a society to educate our children that any racist, discriminatory and blatant hate acts are not okay. While it might seem that we have made great strides in regard to inclusivity, we still have a long way to go.

While taking an aggressive and unapologetically strict approach to disciplining any students who engage in such acts is a step in the right direction, they would no doubt happen less if kids learned they were wrong long before leaving home for college. Taking preventative measures — possibly by opening up the conversation about inclusivity when kids are younger and more impressionable — is crucial in order to keep situations like this from happening again and again.  

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