Elsa Wirth is a first-year student studying mechanical engineering who was inspired to take a DSI/Humanitarian engineering course in community-based design because of her interests in sustainability and engineering for underserved communities after learning about it at a meeting of Engineers Without Borders. As part of this course, she elected to work with the Heartland Humane Society in Corvallis. Elsa volunteered at the shelter a few times and led some collaborative design activities with the staff at Heartland. One of these activities included the Observe-Ask-Try (OAT) method to understand a problem, and she later reflected “I really resonated with the OAT method of gathering data, as it was a good reminder to step back and take in someone else's point of view before launching ahead with an idea.” Based on these and other activities, the group identified that communicating with volunteers and potential adoptive families about special needs for reactive dogs was and important area where Elsa could make an impact. So together they developed a thoughtful “kennel card” system which displayed critical information about each particular dog and how they could best be supported. Elsa also completed research to provide handouts for families to take home with their adopted pets. At the end of the term, Elsa was excited to take more classes like this one, and Heartland was eager to work with more OSU DSI students in the future.