Posts

April Blog

Spring Service Hours: 8.5 Fall Service Hours: 42 Total Service Hours: 50.5 As I write the final blog entry for this program, it is hard to believe this year flew by so quickly. It feels like just the other day that I moved down to New Orleans (and then disappeared for a month due to Ida). I did not know what to fully expect when I came down here, but this city failed to disappoint on every front. Throughout the past year I have learned so much about New Orleans as well as myself and have grown on multiple fronts. The next medical school application cycle opens up soon, and after completing this program, I am excited at the prospect that it will bring. The past month has been relatively relaxed as far as academics. We mainly we getting through presentations for many of our classes, during which we learned about many interesting topics. As a part of my presentation for the neuropharmacology class, I learned and spoke about a novel pH-dependent opioid drug that is selective for peripheral
Post a Comment
Read more

March Blog Post

 Spring Service Hours: 3.5 Fall Service Hours: 42 Total Service Hours: 45.5 March started off with the wonderful holiday of Mardi Gras. When I accepted this program, the opportunity to be a part of the first Mardi Gras back post-COVID was something I was really excited for. It did not disappoint, and the whole week was a lot of fun and a very much needed break. I had the opportunity to be a part of numerous small neighborhood parades. After seeing Endymion, I recognized that the smaller parades were more what I was looking for. People from across New Orleans got together in "secret" to be a part of walking parades filled with homemade costumes and floats. On Mardi Gras day, I got the opportunity to walk in the St. Anne parade, which was a conglomeration of block parties and neighborhoods getting together to dance, sing, and enjoy themselves. There was plenty of live music and block dance parties to attend. Thankfully it came during our spring break, so I had the rest of the w
Post a Comment
Read more

February Blog- Carnival Season

Spring service hours: 0 Fall service hours: 42 This month has been getting back to the full swing of things. We covered reproductive and neurological pharmacology, both of which are very interesting topics to me. In the reproductive module we touched on topics like contraceptives. One part that really stood out to me was the relationship between smoking and estrogen containing contraceptives. Learning that smoking significantly increases the risk for thrombosis was pretty alarming and really brought out some interesting questions about the role of estrogen receptors. The neurology module was similarly informative. Neurological disorders have always interested me, and learning about some of the pathology behind prominent disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and epilepsy as well as the pharmacological treatment methods for treating them was very informative. One of the surprising bits of information was during our discussion with Dr. Mostany when he told us about one of the genetic p
Post a Comment
Read more

January Blog

Image
Fall Volunteer Hours: 42  Spring Volunteer Hours: 0 After the much needed break over the holidays, I returned to New Orleans excited for the spring semester. We have a different set of classes which plan to cover some interesting topics. This semester seems to dive more into specific systems compared to last semester. The most recent module was the endocrine module, during which we dove into the topics of diabetes and thyroid dysfunction. I found learning about the very prominent disease of diabetes very rewarding, and coincidentally found it coming up in my conversations outside the classroom as well. Due to COVID resurgence, our classes were unfortunately moved online for all of January. With many of our new classes being more discussion oriented, creating that same environment over zoom has been challenging. To my dismay, the ball for the graduate students that was planned for the end of the month was canceled. I was looking forward to a New Orleans ball experience, so was pretty di
Post a Comment
Read more

December blog post

 December service hours: 0 Total service hours: 42 As the semester comes to a close, I cannot help but reminisce about how these past couple months have truly flown by. My experience since moving down here has been different from what I anticipated and has challenged me in more ways than one.  I have been challenged in the classroom with tough material. To meet this challenge I have had to modify and hone my study habits, spending time every day to review material in order to gain a better understanding. This resulted in significant growth in my time management and prioritization skills which has served me well during challenging tests. Similarly, I came into this semester with a goal of maintaining a healthy work/life balance. As we got deeper into the semester, it became harder to cut out time for myself, but I eventually found my groove.  Returning from Thanksgiving break, there was only about two weeks left of class and one more module to get through, which largely focused on cance
Post a Comment
Read more

November blog post

Volunteer hours November: 0 hours Fall Cumulative: 42 hours November flew by faster than I thought, and brings the surreal realization of the semester coming to a close. We started off the month finishing up the cardiac module and subsequently moving into the renal/pulmonology section. During the second week of the cardiac module, we had the opportunity to be a part of a simulation exercise that put what we had been learning into application. Splitting into two larger groups, we worked as a team to diagnose and treat a fictional patient experiencing a series of cardiac events. Throughout treating the "patient" we were able to interact and practice bedside skills, which I found to be a helpful and immersive experience. The following renal/pulmonology module brought with it a new set of information and challenges. I have noticed the topics building on each other, which provides help in a more through understanding of the concepts and their interconnectedness. Taking the exam on
Post a Comment
Read more

October Blog Post

Service Hours: 2 October started off with our return to in person classes. After September's hectic schedule, I was glad to be returning to some normalcy again. Since then, it has been back in full swing, and we have covered a variety of challenging and engaging information as a part of lecture. Topics such as infectious disease pharmacology and cardiovascular pharmacology have proved to be challenging, yet enlightening topics, and have given me a new perspective to some of the complex innerworkings of pharmacology. For example, during our cholinergic pharmacology simulation video, I was able to watch the effects of different drugs on an animal's in vivo blood pressure. Being able to directly see the short and long term effects of different receptor agonists.  As New Orleans returned to some normalcy as well, it brought opportunities for more engagement with both the community, and my peers. After our first test when we got back, many members of the cohort decided to meet at
Post a Comment
Read more