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April Blog: Giving Hope the Food Pantry

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 Service hours this month: 7 Total community service hours: 12 The month of April was bittersweet since it marked the end of the Pharmacology program. The program has taught me a lot about myself, studying medicine, and how to proceed from here. We finished Principles of Pharmacology last month, but still had presentations, our Cell Control Mechanisms final, and the opportunity to take part of the NBME. Our NBME consisted of retired Pharmacological questions from the shelf exams for medical school. It encompassed most of the Medical Pharmacology material from the cumulative year. Although a little daunting at first, the NBME was a great bench-marker for how much the Pharmacology Program has taught us. It was a valuable experience that hopefully gave the whole class the confidence needed to move onto the real thing in medical school in the near future. Additionally, the presentations and our end of the year elevator talk in environmental signaling proved how far we have come in terms of
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A Meaningful March

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 March service hours: 3 hours Total semester service hours: 5 hours March continued the trend of recent months and kept me very busy. Between medical school applications, MCAT prep, and the Pharmacology modules, I was constantly trying to efficiently allot my time in the best possible ways. Despite being so preoccupied, March was filled with many great moments and positivity as well. I was able to fully resume my exercise routine and play soccer again which surely had a positive impact on the month and my studies. Our Academic schedule consisted of a lot of material that sparked my interest. Through the end of the Neuro module and then moving on to the Psych module, we were able to learn about the powerful nature of the brain and neurotransmitters. The brain never ceases to amaze me with its impact on perception and complexity. This theme carried through to the medications for depression and other psychological disorders. Although we have a good understanding of their effects and these
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Modules & Mardi Gras

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 February service hours: 0 Total semester service hours: 2 The month of February was interesting, as always, and it was very nice to have the Tulane spring break that coincided with Mardi Gras for the first time. In college, teachers were usually understanding about returning home for Mardi Gra; we certainly did not have breaks based around it. I appreciated the break timing especially because Mardi Gras is such a big part of New Orleans culture and traditions. For the last two years, I have had the pleasure of riding in Rex on Mardi Gras day with my father (pictured above). Being so close to my family, I love any opportunity to spend quality time with my parents or siblings, so this was no different. It was a long day with the heat, but nothing beats riding with a family member and being able to spread joy and cheer with something as simple as a throw of a bead.  Aside from Mardi Gras, the modules we had during the month of February were the Reproductive module and part of the Neuro m
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Challah Bake & Brunch: Food Share NOLA

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 January service hours: 2 Cumulative service hours: 2 During the month of January, I had the opportunity to learn to bake challah for the first time during my community service. I went to the Anshe Sfard Synagogue with classmates Rabia, Amelie, and Sammy to bake challah. The atmosphere was very wholesome and had a family oriented feeling to it which I liked a lot. The event was hosted by the synagogue, Tulane graduates, and medical students so there were many people from those programs in attendance. Challah Bake & Brunch was designed to bake challah together with some of it being for personal consumption and the rest being donated to those in need through Food Share NOLA. The event started off with a family style brunch and then proceeded with a welcome talk from the Rabbi, Yochanan Rivkin. The introduction speech by the Rabbi and his wife discussed the symbolism of challah baking and the correlation it has to the jewish religion and giving back to the community. The message reall
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December Blog: Second Harvest

December service hours: 4 Cumulative service hours: 12 The first half of December was a busy time for me, but overall went very well. I had my third and final presentation of the semester shortly before our last exams which proved challenging, but continued to teach me better time management. I was also fortunate to get the opportunity to see my brother along with quality time with my friends and other family members. My brother lives in California so it is always a rare treat when he returns to New Orleans to visit. In terms of community service, I had the opportunity to work with Second Harvest Food Bank for my last community service experience of the semester. I volunteered on the 6th of December and helped them at their facility in Elmwood in the early morning. Although I had always heard good things about Second Harvest, the experience exceeded my expectations of how it would go. Everyone in the organization was very friendly and grateful for the help of every volunteer. For the d
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November Blog

 November service hours: 0 Cumulative service hours: 8 Although a great month as a whole, November surely kept me on my toes and was a very busy month. The curriculum started off with the Cardiovascular system which proved to be the most difficult yet rewarding module to date. The cardiovascular system was filled with medications and information that was familiar to me from past experiences. This made the module even more interesting and feel very applicable to real life. An added bonus was that we were able to participate in a CV patient simulation. The simulation allowed us to get a feel for what it is like to treat a CV patient ourselves without any risk to a real patient. We started off asking "Mr Boudreaux" questions about his symptoms and history, but had to react on the fly as he needed emergency treatment for various ailments. The whole experience was very memorable and a perfect introduction into educational medical simulations. After getting through a tough CV exam,
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GiST Volunteer opportunity:

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This month I was very pleased to be able to get my first opportunity to volunteer and help out. I was a group leader at GiST which stands for Girls in STEM at Tulane. STEM is an acronym for the subjects within this program and stood for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. This is a program designed to empower middle school girls to pursue careers in these fields and foster their passion for these subjects in the process. The program was held on October 29th at the Boggs building just off of Freret street. GiST initially started with a science scavenger hunt where we led small groups of girls to classrooms where different types of scientific stations were set up. There were informative presentations or more hands on exhibitions set up in each of the classrooms. The two stations that were clear favorites amongst my group were the NASA and the robotic vehicle stations. The robotic vehicle was very interactive because the girls were allowed to drive it around. They even had a camer
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