Petting zoo takes students’ minds off year-end stress

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 4, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Students pet animals as part of an event Monday at the University of Lethbridge aimed at helping relieve stress before final exams.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The University of Lethbridge’s student mentor team in the Student Enrolment and Registrar Services office hosted a petting zoo Monday to help students take their minds off the end-of-term stresses and impending final exams.

Co-ordinator of orientation and transition for the University of Lethbridge, Natasha Toney said they wanted to do something fun for the students to help them take their minds off school for a bit.

“We really wanted to provide an opportunity for students to feel supported and to relieve stress in a time of the year that’s otherwise typically quite high stress, so to give them an opportunity to just connect and have a positive end to their term,” said Toney.

She said they chose a petting zoo to help students relieve stress because there is a lot of research that shows being with animals achieves that.

“We use that as a basis for holding similar events in the past that students have responded very positively to, so we wanted to offer that same experience again,” said Toney.

She said this was the first time holding the event since 2019 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

“We’re really happy to be able to hold it again. We’re just getting started but so far we have a great turnout and it looks like we’ll have a lot of students being able to attend, which is fantastic and that’s exactly what we wanted to see,” said Toney.

One of those students was Ariana Williams, who had the opportunity to pet some goats among other animals, along with her friends Amy Jackson and Maggie Scott.

“This brings so much joy and the dopamine that comes from being able to pet animals at this time of year is great. My friends and I were crying when we found out it was happening, we got so excited,” said Williams.

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