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 week to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather we got. As we are coming to spring, we are in solid crawfish season now, and I have been having my fair share when the opportunity arises. My experience in labor intensive seafood is coming in handing and I have gotten the hang of eating crawfish efficiently. 

When we got back to class the following week, we started the neurology module, followed by the psychopharm module. I was looking forward to both of those topics the most as I find the brain and its behaviors to be an interesting topic to learn about in depth. Many of our classes this semester are presentation and discussion based and I have enjoyed the opportunity to engage in discussions with the class about novel research. I recently presented on two topics I found to be very cool as well: nanoparticle drug delivery and  novel opioids that show pH dependent selectivity. We recently had our last class sessions for two of our main classes, and the realization that the program is soon to end is starting to hit me. It is crazy how fast my time here went. While I am saddened that my chapter here is coming to a close, I know that means I will be starting a new one as I get ready to start applying to medical schools again. My experience here has been solidifying in my choice to pursue medicine and it has given me some better perspective to the directions I want to go in when I get there. 

Since spring break, the class schedule has been much lighter, giving me more time to do service hours. I was able to connect with Covenant House again and put in some hours to help them out. I, and a couple other classmates, helped clean newly purchased apartments that Covenant House plans to sue to house recent mothers in need. The apartments definitely needed some cleaning, and working together with a little music on a beautiful day was a perfect way to help them out. We recently had a devastating tornado come through the lower 9th ward and I hope to be able to find some opportunities to volunteer and help those affected. As we finish up this program, I am looking forward to some coming opportunities like the rescheduled GAPSA ball coming next week.