When Emily Brooker initially began volunteering at Operation Kindness in 2020, she was a private equity fund lawyer who was excited to end her long, tough days spending time with furry animals. Five years later, she is leaving her final volunteer shift to pursue veterinary school at Colorado State University — all thanks to the life-changing work she has witnessed at Operation Kindness.
“I had a great job, but something was missing,” said Brooker. “So, I started volunteering here, doing the night walker shifts back when they first started with the red aprons. Then I was like, OK, this is it. This is what I needed.”
As Brooker continued her volunteer journey with us, she started venturing into the medical side of helping shelter pets. While she always dreamed of working as a veterinarian, even obtaining an undergraduate degree in animal science at Texas A&M University, she never had the opportunity. With the hectic nature of life, Brooker put her dream of helping animals aside as she pursued law school in New York, met her husband and started a family.
No matter how busy her life was, Brooker always wandered her way back into the animal welfare community. After volunteering with Operation Kindness and with the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down her usually demanding life, Brooker jumped at the chance to continue her education and take online college science classes.
“After six months of classes, there was no way I was going back to the legal profession,” said Brooker. “I was volunteering here, doing the science stuff and it just clicked.”
Brooker was passionate about volunteering with our Community Initiatives team – a group dedicated to offering affordable, accessible veterinary services to pets across Texas. This team provides free or low-cost vaccine and microchip clinics, spay/neuter surgeries and general wellness for community members. Brooker loved helping at the public clinics and seeing how dedicated families were to ensure their pets received quality medical care.
“I became involved with Community Initiatives team, and they have just been like game changers, letting me get hands-on experience in safe ways, but also showing me a side of veterinary medicine that I actually hadn’t seen before,” Brooker said. “Everyone wants to take care of their dog or their cat, some just have to go about doing it different ways, which provides challenges that I love solving.”
Watching as lives were transformed by Operation Kindness offering low-cost public clinics and resources to pets and their families was the final push Brooker needed to send in an application to veterinary school. Now, Brooker and her family are making the over 800 mile move to Colorado before she starts her classes this fall.
Instead of joining a private practice, Brooker hopes to give back to her community and work alongside a group like Operation Kindness’ Community Initiatives team when she graduates.
If you would like to work alongside veterinary professionals and learn more about animal wellness like Brooker, join our dedicated volunteer team. We have over 600 active volunteer members and 50+ opportunities for volunteers to get involved with. From aiding with daily tasks such as cleaning enclosures, walking dogs and animal training, to aiding the medical team at vaccine clinics, there is something for everyone!
