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Kelly Johnson

CCSD 543
Prof. Sheridan
10/27/14
Ethical Framework
If I had been asked six years ago what my ethical framework was composed of
and what values were important to me, I would have had a very narrow response. Having
now lived in three other states besides Michigan, I have seen things and met people who
have influenced my life greatly. This reflection has helped me realize that a good majority
of my ethical framework, though framed by some of the values I received from my
family, is mostly made up of my convictions and changes of heart I had from the various
experiences I have had. Whether it be the international students I encountered during my
two summers of working in the Rocky Mountains or the conversations with high school
girls while backpacking through the Pisgah Wilderness, the values I stand upon and the
ethics to which I hold myself to have been greatly molded by the adventures and places
outside of my comfort zone that I have found myself in.
Having been apart from my family for months at a time in the last six years, I
have begun to realize that my family has laid the foundation for a majority of the values I
hold to closely. As clich as it may sound, my family has taught me the importance of,
well, family. My value of family goes as deep as making sure that I make time for them,
even when I live 2,000 miles across the country. Even if we disagree on various issues,
my family has been the launchpad for all of my crazy experiences.

Faith is the value which I hold to most firmly and its interesting because I find
my roots for that value in my family, yet it is a value that I have challenged the most
strongly within my family. It was definitely an early-learned value and once I grasped it
for myself and personalized it, I challenged the way my family was going about pursuing
it. To this day, faith is an area of tension in our family because I hold it so dearly and my
family has seemed to let some of it go. That being said, though difficult, it has only
affirmed that I do not want to let go of that value and it has shown me just how highly I
value my faith.
As I mentioned earlier, experience has played an integral role in my ethical
framework development. Coming from a religious background, I have always valued the
community that I was a part of and the benefits I drew from that. It wasnt until I moved
to three different states and had to build my own community from the ground up that I
realized just how vital a strong community was in my development. From Christianity, I
learned how important walking with brothers and sisters in faith was and how impactful
their encouragement was. I moved 2,000 miles from home to attend grad school and
learned, very quickly, how much of my thriving came out of deep fellowship with others.
Having Woo (winning others over) in my top five strengths, I see now how this value and
my strength work hand-in-hand with each other to create a deep need for people in my
life.
Growing up in a family who enjoyed the outdoors, I never realized just how
passionate I was about the outdoors and outdoor recreation until I took a step out and
lived in the Rocky Mountains for three summers. My parents instilled a love for nature in
me from a very young age when I took my first camping trip as a four-month old. It

wasnt until my summers in the mountains, though, that I realized that being in the
outdoors was more than just a hobby for me. Being in the outdoors was something that
gave me life and something I wanted to do intentionally for the rest of my life. Since
then, I have pursued avenues which have allowed me to do that such as working for an
outdoor adventure camp in the summer and working with the Outdoor Adventure theme
house on campus. I hold my value for the outdoors very close to me and it is something I
intend on pursuing with my future family as well.
Since my freshman year of college, I have lived in Michigan, Colorado, Georgia,
and California for extended periods of time. Because of these experiences, I have come to
value bravery and courage. One of my favorite quotes is from the movie We Bought A
Zoo when one of the characters says, You know, sometimes all you need is twenty
seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery.
And I promise you, something great will come of it (We Bought a Zoo). Moving 2,000
miles away to a state, city, and school that I had never been to took twenty seconds of
courage when an opportunity was placed in front of me which simply asked for a yes.
Because of the deep ways that my experiences have shaped my values and affected me, I
value bravery.
Along the lines of bravery, I have come to value exploration, adventure, and
amazement. Fitting hand-in-hand with my value of the outdoors, valuing exploration
means never staying in the same place for a long time and finding new paths even in
familiar places. It is taken the path less traveled and I believe that will make all the
difference.

Amidst my travelling and community building, I have had significant people


speak into and influence my life. From my family, my dad has been an incredible
influence on my life. He has instilled an attitude of positivity in me that has taken me
quite far in life and in difficult situations. He encourages me to be the best version of
myself that I can be and helps me figure out who that is. I have also been influence by my
RD from when I served as an RA. She challenged me to really consider who I was as a
leader but also as a woman of faith. Authors like Bob Goff have taught me how to
practically love people. And authors like Shauna Niequist have taught me about
simplicity, vulnerability, and finding hope among the bitter things in life.
Finally, this course text also encouraged me to really figure out where I stood in
my ethical framework. Wilkens summarized my experience with values and ethics when
he said, No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite
set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking. Even in his philosophical probings
he cannot go behind these stereotypes; his very concepts of the true and false will still
have reference to his particular traditional customs (2011, p. 30). This book helped me
realize just how influential my experiences are and how they have come to shape my
values and ethics. It challenged me to become more aware of how my experiences are
being shaped. Finally, I learned not to take everything at face value and find the deeper
meaning with the experiences I have.

Work Cited
Wilkens, S. (2011). Beyond bumper sticker ethics: An introduction to theories of right
and wrong (2nd ed.). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

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