Writer Coming to college often means leaving things behind.
People leave their families, friends and pets for some far-off place of learning.
For Melinda Dille, a freshman from Tacoma, Wash., it meant leaving something else as well. Dille started raising guide dogs through her 4-H dog club after training her own dogs for dog shows. Although she cannot raise the dogs here as a Hillsdale student, she plans to continue after graduation. Guide dogs start off their life with breeders and when they are eight months old move to the homes of volunteer trainers. The primary role of trainers like Dille, with whom the dogs will spend the next 10 months, is to socialize the dogs.