Provost Bruce Rafert announced Erika Berg, assistant professor of equine studies, has been selected to receive NDSU’s Service Learning Award for 2012. She will be recognized at the annual NDSU Celebration of Faculty Excellence, scheduled for Tuesday, May 1, at 3 p.m. at the Alumni Center.

Rafert said Berg is being honored for her efforts to develop a minor and certificate program in therapeutic horsemanship, which enables student volunteers to work with the Riding on Angels’ Wings organization. The non-profit organization’s goal is to strengthen, empower and educate individuals with physical, cognitive, behavioral and emotional disabilities. During 2011, Riding on Angels’ Wings served 197 people from Fargo-Moorhead and the surrounding area.

“The committee was impressed with Dr. Berg’s contribution to service learning at NDSU,” Rafert said. “This service learning experience is equally rewarding to students as a means of giving back to the community. Dr. Berg is diligent in ensuring student success, and she encourages them to do their very best in and out of the classroom. This honor is well deserved.”

NDSU students taking Berg’s Introduction to Therapeutic Horsemanship course each provide 16 hours of volunteer service. The students engage in a number of roles at Riding on Angels’ Wings, perhaps most importantly walking next to riders mounted on the horses, helping to keep them safe and facilitating engagement and communication.

The physical benefits of equine-assisted therapies include increased range of motion in joints, increased balance and greater flexibility. Riders with cognitive disabilities often experience improved motor sequencing and greater attention to task.

Berg earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science at Purdue University and her doctorate in animal science at the University of Missouri. Her research interests include the impact of therapeutic horsemanship on equine and human participants and maternal factors affecting equine neonatal physiology.