Skip to main content

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.




October's total: 9 hours

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

Wave Goodbye

Can't believe that this is it. Nine months have flown by, and now I hold a masters degree. It was truly a pleasure getting to know each of my classmates and the pharmacology faculty. The last month was filled with presentations and studying for Cell Control exams. I had the pleasure of presenting how both long term- and short term stress can have an impact on memory. In short, acute stressors help enhance memory by mechanisms that are still not quite understood. Conversely, long term stress will have the opposite effect. This is seen in patients with Cushing's disease who often complain of frequent forgetfulness or a lack of memory retention.  In neuropharmacology, I discussed ketamine’s role in treating PTSD. Ketamine is a drug we encountered several time through out the year. Its main therapeutic action is to act as a sedative for anesthesia. However, subtherapeutic doses have been shown to enhance memory by increasing BDNF leaves which can be reduced from cortisol release...