September Nights: Jump in with Jade

My transition into the great city of New Orleans has been a tasteful one. Each visit prior to moving here, I always looked forward to the food. Now that I have easy access to it, I have been taste-testing a variety of the Cajun and sea food options NOLA has to offer. Uber eats has become a savior for me now that I have been consumed with my studies. Crawfish is one tap away, and I have become very grateful for it. On the other hand, the “happy weight” I intended to gain will be obsolete because of the absurd amount of walking this city requires. Having a car here is useless and expensive.

On a more serious note, I wanted to assess the ins and outs of The Big Easy before diving into charity work. The next several months will be dedicated to meaningful volunteering which I look forward to doing for the post-Katrina New Orleans.

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February

The month of February, I utilized my days studying for our last two Med Pharm modules prior to the Shelf Exam. Its unbelievable that we have made it this close to the end of the academic year already. The last two modules were neurology and psychopharmacology. Neurology studies the various disorders of the brain that are usually caused by a deficiency or lack of function in neurotransmitters such as Parkinson’s disease, seizures, etc. Psychology studies how the mind works; our lectures focused on how neurotransmitters were defected in psych conditions like schizophrenia, major depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, etc. From a pharmacological standpoint, targeting the majority of the disorders require agonizing or antagonizing a particular receptor at the synapse. The vast selectivity of the drugs are due to the different types of receptors within different neurons that only respond to particular neurotransmitters. I had the pleasure to discuss the manifestat...

The KIPP Experience

I signed up to be apart of KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program which is a public school system that serves New Orleans (along with other states). One of the main goals for KIPP New Orleans is setting their students up for success by exposing the students early on to college-prep which is why they target college students to set the bar for such an expectation. I favored this idea because I personally understand the impact a school and a strong support system can have on a child’s perspective toward education. Over the last month, my classmates and I helped to make the school more efficient by redoing bulletin boards and making them more presentable after damage during hallway commotion. We helped stock supplies and reorganize utility storages. Lastly, and my most favorite part was the interaction with the children. I was able to participate with them during recess and get to know them better. I personally feel like this is fulfilling of the schools mission. Octob...

Returning to KIPP

Although my hours for the semester have been completed, I wanted to finish out the semester by volunteering with the organization that I committed to throughout my time in New Orleans. And what better way to finish out with the same people I started with – my fellow classmates. We visited KIPP and helped to organize the computer station that the students will be using to take their upcoming state exams. Although there was not much work for us to tackle this time around, any amount of work that can be done to help the efficiency of the school for the betterment of the students is well worth it. After just sitting for the NBME shelf exam, I understand the need to have functional operating computers to make testing day go as smoothly as possible. March hours: 3 Total hours: 27

Serving New Orleans

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