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Aliza Aquino
Mrs. Buescher
Service Learning
7 October 2016

Code of Ethics
Living in a world where many times I see the perversion of morals from people all
around me, I have questioned what is and what is not ethical. Personal codes of ethics can evolve
depending on what you believe in. For example, a third-wave feminist might find abortion to be
completely moral, but those who strongly believe in their Christian, Jewish, or any other
religious views, may think otherwise. Sometimes the line between what is moral and what is not
can be blurred or a gray area, but knowledge is valuable in creating your own code of ethics.
For me, I have developed my code of ethics from a variety of places, but specifically my
religion. Despite growing up in a religion where I did not understand why things are the way
they are, over the years I have found that the morals that were taught to me at a young age have
and will continue to stick with me for the rest of my life. However, that was not always the case.
I believe that the improvement of social media and technology can skew our ideas of morality
greatly. When I was around the age of fifteen, my morals and ethics came from the ideas of
others that I was listening to on social media. Those people influenced me significantly as I
sheepishly followed them. Although during that year my morals had changed, social media also
helped me regain positive morals that I learned from my religion and that made sense to me.
When I turned seventeen, I discovered people on the internet, once again, who held a code of
ethics that were similar to the code of ethics from my religion. When I regained those morals that
were from my religion, I was much happier than when I had found a code of ethics from people I

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had never known or had a clue about. I think its key that everyone gains a set of morals from
their religion, God, etc. instead of morals from a person who is flawed.
In Kohlbergs theory of moral reasoning, I believe I am in level one. Level one states that
those in level one do or do not do things based on whether or not they will be punished for their
actions. Personally, as a religious person, I strive to be a better person every day in order to not
be punished during The Second Coming, but I apply those things to a lot of my actions. If I
know I will not receive any reprimandation from an authority figure, then why not do what I
want? If I know I will not be punished for not doing homework, then why do it? As someone
who loves to plan things out, I find Im planning out each and every possible consequence for
anything that could possibly be something immoral or have a negative outcome. During my early
years as a teenager, however, I think that I was in level two of Kohlbergs theory of moral
reasoning. The second level states that the people within this level do things based on societys
expectations. When I was a younger teen, I believe that I did things based on the expectations of
the majority of people around me. What I would do or say would be based upon whether or not
society had approved of my actions. I think that its possible to move backwards in Kohlbergs
theory.
Civic virtue is a type of standard that a citizen of a society holds that can be seen as
righteous. To me, a good citizen is someone who contributes to society in some positive way.
Although some people think that to be a good citizen you must impact your community or
society, you can still be a good citizen in small yet helpful ways. Even by helping an elderly
person cross the street, helping someone with their groceries, mowing your neighbors lawn, or
voting for local laws or representatives, you are being a good citizen and contributing to your
society in a way that will change it for the better. Its important to be a good citizen because

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society would never make any progress if nobody helped each other. Sometimes its better to be
a small gear working well to help the bigger picture or the whole machine. When you have civic
virtue, youre able to choose the right decisions in order for you to better yourself and your
society.
One moral dilemma I have faced was when I still went to Will C. Wood. At Will C.
Wood, many students had signed up for AP US History. One day, after signups, I was informed
by one of my best friends that a boy I knew was doing some very unethical things. In order to get
into the AP US History class, one had to complete over one six hundred flashcards as well as a
five page essay explaining why they should be accepted into the class. This boy who was being
unethical had bought the six hundred flashcards for twenty dollars. He also had his father write
his five page essay in order for him to get into the class. Personally, I was very against this. My
best friend who had informed me about this kid had been working very hard before sign ups to
write this essay and was planning to work hard all summer in order to finish the flashcards, but
this boy bought his way into the class, which I didnt find fair at all. Although this situation
might seem clear-cut immoral, I still found it to be a moral dilemma for myself. Even though I
found it to be unfair that he was cheating, I didnt want to be seen as a snitch or a tattle by
my peers who have cheated before, just not in the same magnitude as this boy. Unfortunately, I
never actually reported this student to the AP US History teacher. To this day, I regret that
decision, but because I was in level two of Kohlbergs theory of moral reasoning, all of my peers
expected me not to tell on the kid, so therefore I did not.
While doing this assignment, I think it had some value, but not much. During my time
working for my service project, I have not found a code of ethics or morals to be relevant in the
slightest to my work there. While having a code of ethics is important, I dont really see how one

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could connect a code of ethics to volunteering since if one is volunteering, theres not much you
could do that is unethical. Volunteering is not like a job where many unethical things could
happen. Volunteering is what it says, voluntary work. If one does find something theyre doing
while volunteering is unethical, they can simply stop volunteering in that position. Theres no
effect necessarily unlike if it were an actual job where one would have to surrender their pay if
they were being unethical. All in all, I found this assignment to be more focused on psychology
and philosophy rather than service learning.
Works Cited
Sarah Bosin. Learning to Give. Civic Virtue. 2016.
https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/civic-virtue. Accessed 7 October 2016