Action Post #1

Hi everyone! 

As some of you may know, throughout last semester, I was doing an inquiry project on veterinary medicine, technology and education, focusing on the history of the practice and its evolution throughout the years. I am very glad I chose that topic because I’m extremely passionate about science and animals and I learned a lot through this research; however, I recently decided that it would be even better if I actually gained experience and provided actual help in this field instead of only learning about it. Therefore, I will be volunteering at a veterinary clinic for my action project. 

Firstly though, I must consider my values and sustainable development goals. 

After completing the Values Activity, I found that my three most important values are Helping, Compassion and Competence. Not that they aren’t important, but my three least important values are Tradition, Recognition and Power.  

Tradition isn’t as important to me because I do not believe in things staying the same forever, and as nice as it is to be recognized for your hard work, I do not think people should only be working for recognition. They should be passionate about what they are doing. Furthermore, I do not believe that some individuals should have so much more power and influence over others, not unless they use that power for the good of the world. 

I do agree with the results because I believe that in order to make the world a better place, people have to not just work for themselves but they must show compassion and help others, and in order to make real change, they must also be competent at what they do. An example of situations when I put these values into action is when people in my physics class were struggling with many of the homework questions, and although I had assignments from other classes that I could be working on in the morning, I decided to take some of my time to help them understand the concepts that they weren’t understanding so that they could complete the homework and be more successful on tests and quizzes. Although I am not a peer tutor for any particular subject and I don’t always consider myself the best at explaining things, I will always be happy to help someone if they come to me with questions.

After researching the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals, I have decided that Good Health and Well-being and Quality Education align with my values the most, and I am passionate in both of these areas. I believe that in order to make positive, sustainable change in the world, you have to be dedicated and effective at what you do, showing competence, and that requires a quality education. If people do not have access to a quality education, it is much harder to move forward. Furthermore, I think that Good Health and Well-being are extremely important because if no one is healthy or happy, it isn’t really a world worth living in. In hospitals for example, the people working there have to show compassion while helping others as well as being competent at their job, and with these values, they have the ability to save and improve lives. 

Therefore, as I mentioned at the beginning, I want to volunteer at an animal hospital because it will address values and my goal of Good Health and Well-being, especially since the veterinarians and veterinary technicians will be able to focus more on customer and animal care as I will be able to get the more tedious but equally important tasks out of their way. 

In my next post, I will explain what plans I made to obtain this volunteer job, what I will be doing throughout the semester, the impact of my action, and what my plans will be moving forward. Thanks for reading!