Animal Adoption Foundation experience!

Originally posted April 7, 2014. View here!

The following was written by Amy Michael, a Connect2Complete Advocate for Spring 2014 at Miami University Hamilton. Her class volunteered at the Animal Adoption Foundation on Friday March 7, 2014. 

Civic Engagement was an unfamiliar concept to the majority of our students prior to this class. When we announced that our Civic Engagement project would take place at the Animal AdoptionFoundation the students were enthralled, they all wanted to share their animal rescue stories or show off pictures of their pets. The dynamics of our class changed upon introducing the project, the previously reserved class was now engaging with the other students and sharing stories with myself and the instructor. In the weeks leading up to our Civic Engagement project they read and summarized two articles about animal adoption. The articles exposed the dangers of puppy mills and informed the students why adoption is a better alternative.

The day of the Animal Adoption Foundation visit the students piled into a university van together and headed to the shelter. After arriving at the shelter we participated in a short orientation where the students learned the rules of the facility and how the facility works. After the orientation students chose if they wanted to work with cats or dogs, then were directed to their side of the animal shelter. I was able to observe students in both settings. Students working with dogs took them on the walking trail and students working with cats played in the cat rooms. Although the students were doing different activities it was obvious that they were all having fun.

                The next class meeting after the trip we reflected on our experiences at the Animal Adoption Foundation. The students each wrote an essay on what they learned from the Civic Engagement project and how it affected them. I noticed that this paper was easier for the students to write than papers we had done in the past. Unlike past writing prompts where they had to think back to a personal experience or formulate an opinion about a topic, this time they were able to write about an event they had recently experienced firsthand. 

                Visiting the Animal Adoption Foundation was the perfect project to introduce Civic Engagement to this class. It helped to unite the students, get them involved in the community and provided them with an opportunity to use their experiences to further develop their writing skills. 

Below are a few pictures from the trip! To see all of the pictures and videos from this Civic Engagement project please visit our Flickr