Happy Thanksgiving! I cannot believe that there are only 12 days left in semester. Time doesn't not seem to be slowing down. November has been a great month... well because it was my birthday month and I went home for the first time since I moved to New Orleans! Classes have been going great and I can whole heartedly say that this program has been extremely beneficial for me in my path towards medical school. It was has been very educational to be able to take a 2nd year medical school and very rewarding to know that I have what it takes to succeed in a medical school environment. We had a new course called Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology added to our schedule this month. The course emphasizes specific laboratory techniques that are currently used in the pharmacology field such as DNA recombinant technology and PCR. It has been slightly more challenging due to my lack of experience in using these techniques, but I hope through this course I will become knowledgeable enough to be able to apply them in the future should I find myself working in a laboratory setting.

I did not get to volunteer on the medical unit this month, but I hope to work a couple of shifts next month before returning home for Christmas break. Both the nutrition classes are coming to as close as well. At St. Annas, I can really see the kids starting to broaden their horizon. They look forward to cooking a healthy snack, and they are more curious about what makes something nutritious. Their final performance is next week so I will post some pictures in my next blog post. With the main director of the program leaving, Aubrey and I hope to take over the nutrition class next semester. I am very excited to be able to collaborate with her to develop creative learning lessons for the kids! At Edible School Yard, Aubrey and I had to say goodbye to the 7th graders. They finished off their year with an exciting Iron Chef Competition. I truly enjoyed working with them as they inspired me make learning how to cook a priority, and I hope I was able to inspire them to continue to work hard towards their dreams. I look forward to meeting the 8th graders and cooking some great food with them next month.

Volunteering at Touro this month has been great. Andrew and I were lucky to have the ER director spend some time with us again. This time he showed us various CT scans of patients he had seen. This included a patient hit by a car that caused his tibia to break and penetrate through the skin and a patient who swallowed nails while intoxicated. He also took the time to analyze an EKG with us (which I was extremely excited about). It was really interesting to see what EKGs look like in the real world vs. the EKGs they use in medical school for students to learn from.

That's all for now!

Hours:
ESY: 2 hours
SAAK: 1 hour
Touro: 5 hours
December Total: 8 hours

Total: 54 hours

Making Deviled Eggs with the kids at SAAK