April Reflection

Total Spring Volunteer Hours: 32 April Hours: n/a This is it. The Masters of Pharmacology program is just about over. One more test on Tuesday in Cell Control and this year will be over. This past month has been a little different than how I spent March. I did a lot of my volunteering in March and a lot of preparing for exams/shelf. This month I have switched gears and started planning for the next year. I wasn’t able to do any volunteering this month but it is a goal of mine to continue volunteering during this upcoming year. I have spent almost all of my time studying for the new MCAT and making sure I am prepared for my test date in June. I have also been looking into what I will be doing all of next year. I am hoping to be doing some sort of volunteering in the medical field or working (hopefully both). This past month has been a lot of searching for opportunities in New Orleans. I want to continue to learn and grow in a hands-on setting to prepare me for Medical School. I also will be starting the reapplication process for medical school in May. As this year of Pharmacology is coming to a close, a new door is quickly opening that I am trying my best to plan for. This year has helped me more than I could have ever imagined. It was very helpful to have a year out of college to really learn about medicine and learn from other medical school students. This program has prepared me moving forward in my path to medical school. The 30 or so of us in this program have been through a long year together and hopefully we will continue to see each other this next year!

March Reflection

This program is slowing coming to a close. This past month I spent a lot of my time studying for the Med Pharm Shelf exam which we finished a couple of weeks ago. Studying for the shelf wasn’t too bad because everything that we had learned throughout the year came back to me pretty easily. Now that the exam is over we just have a couple of Cell Control exams left as well as presentations for a couple different classes. Also this past month I did a good amount of volunteering. I worked again at the Second Harvest Food bank a couple of times as well as did three more days with Habitat for Humanity. One of the days I worked at the Food Bank, a local farm had donated a shipment of turnips. I wish I had taken pictures of the enormous amount of turnips that were there because these were some of the largest turnips I had ever seen in my life. My other volunteering at Habitat was pretty cool as well. Normally Habitat builds homes from the ground up. This particular site that I worked on every time I went this past month was all restoration to house that they had acquired. So I actually got to see progress happening every time I returned to the house which was pretty cool. The house was actually a duplex and when I left last Saturday, we had prepared one whole side of the house to have new sheet rock put in (which is happening Monday). The picture that I posted along with this post is where I was putting boards over the fire blocking so that the sheetrock would be leveled when installed. And of course safety first. Total Volunteer Hours: 32

February Reflection

It is only the second day back from Mardi Gras and school is back into full swing! I had a great week off for my first Mardi Gras living in New Orleans! It was a great carnival season however I am happy to get back into the school routine. After my last blog post I signed up for volunteering at the Second Harvest Food Bank in New Orleans. My volunteer date was after that blog post so I wasn’t able to talk about it but now I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed it! I probably will sign up for a couple more Habitat for Humanity dates before the semester is over but I think I am going to try to volunteer more regularly at Second Harvest once our exam schedule dies down a little bit. At my first time volunteering, I worked with a large group in the warehouse doing mostly sorting and packaging. However, I did learn that there are multiple different opportunities/ways to volunteer at the food bank. There are opportunities to work in the warehouse, community kitchen, help in the office, as well as others. I also want to get a group together to go to the Second Harvest because the first time I went I decided to check it out by myself. I think it would be great to have a group volunteering together similar to how we have approached the Habitat builds. I decided to look into Second Harvest so that I can serve New Orleans in a variety of different ways. I am still looking into possible volunteer work in the medical field for the future! I have pictures of my volunteer work coming soon!

January Reflection

The beginning of this semester has started very quickly! We completed the endocrine/reproductive block and have moved onto our second block of the semester. We just started neurology but this block looks to be one of the most packed blocks we’ve had. This semester is a lot more smooth of a transition now that I know what to expect out of the classes we took in the fall. However we do have many new class this semester that are more conversation and presentation based. I’ve enjoyed our elective classes so far because it adds a little variety to our schedule and we get to approach pharmacology in a new way with these classes. The beginning of this semester I have also spent a good amount of my time keeping in contact with medical school so that my files are up to date with everything that I did last semester. At this point it is just a waiting game so I hoping for the best. Along with class I am going to continue my community service with habitat for humanity but like I mentioned in my previous blog posts, I will also start to branch out a little. I am starting to do some community service at 2nd Harvest Food Bank and I will begin those hours this Saturday. I will post some pictures on my next blog posts of my community service! Despite all the classes we’ve had so far things are starting to settle back in and I am sure this semester will fly by!

December Reflection

My overall reaction to this first semester of this program was amazing. I have not only learned a lot academically but I have also learned more about what it will look like to be a medical school student. This program has taught me about the medical system as well as topics that I will probably need in the future. I look forward to another semester of learning and growing as a student. Happy Holidays! I did all of my community service with Habitat for Humanity: 16 hours

November Reflection

During this month we finished up the pulmonary block and start the GI/Liver block. I have enjoyed the addition of the Molecular Cell Pharm class because I have been able to learn more about the hands on practices of certain medical/lab procedures. I have been doing Habitat for Humanity and up to this point I have already completed the required 15 hours of community service, but I might try to work at least one more weekend before the semester is over. I also am going to look into other possible volunteer opportunities while I am home over winter break. I think I will continue Habitat for Humanity in the spring but I might look for an opportunity to work in the medical field. However I do enjoy doing our community service as a class because we continue to grow together as a class through different activities besides just class. For example, I think we will also continue to do intramurals sports as a class when we come back from winter break. I have really enjoyed this semester in the Pharmacology program because it has prepared me more for my future as a medical school student. I especially enjoy getting the feel for a real medical school class in Med Pharm and I think this next semester will continue to help me while I wait to hear from medical schools! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

October Reflection

This past month has been all about the renal system. This renal block has been interesting because it was the first time we have had Mol Cell Pharm as a class. These classes were interesting because they described different lab techniques and went into detail on certain processes going on now in medicine. We just started pulmonary block and continue to learn about different lab techniques. These classes are not directly connected to the focus of the block (renal, pulmonary, etc.) but they are still relevant to what is being used in medicine today. I enjoy learning about these practices because it puts a real life aspect to everything we are learning. I like to see how science is used in the labs to get results that we are studying. We were able to get a small group together again to do Habitat for Humanity this past month. Instead of working on a house build, we were at the warehouse helping organize everything. This ranged from sorting different building inventory to testing power tools. This doesn’t seem like it would take too long but it was an 8 hour job! By the end of the day we had pretty much cleaned and sorted everything in the massive warehouse. I am sure we will continue to get together as a group and work with Habitat throughout the semester. Happy Halloween!