ePortfolio September Blog Response

 Total Hours: 9 A few months ago, some of my peers and I volunteered with Covenant House New Orleans (CHNO). The mission of CHNO is to build a bridge to hope for young people facing homelessness and survivors of trafficking through unconditional love, absolute respect, and relentless support." Part of my duties was cleaning nine apartments and preparing for women who are homeless with a history of trafficking to live there. This was a really eye-opening experience for me to say the least. We spent approximately three and a half hours there going through each part of the apartments and ensuring that their quality was maximized for the upcoming habitants. In doing so, I helped the New Orleans community and the large homeless population it has and helped provide homes to those who cannot afford them. The location of the apartment complex that I helped clean was located in the Treme, which is only a 5 minute drive from where I live in the Warehouse District. What made this mission so ...

 Total Service Hours: 6 Cumulative Hours: 6 This past month I completed 6 service learning hours at Second Harvest Community Food Bank at their organization warehouse in Elmwood. During this time, I helped pack and sort donated goods into boxes that would later be shipped out to partner organizations that would be given to homeless individuals in the New Orleans area. While I was packing, I was able to interact with local New Orleans individuals about their experience living in the area for many years. This was an important experience for me since I was able to get a feel for what living here is like in my non-Tulane bubble. I really appreciated hearing about what their experiences were like. As an example, one of the other volunteers recently moved here from the northern part of Florida with her husband and is very involved in the community service organizations near her area; She was extremely involved in it back home and wanted to continue that hobby of hers and use it as a way ...

Total hours thus far: 0  I would say the beginning of the semester was off to a rocky start. At the beginning of our return to school after winter break I got COVID unfortunately and our classes were just then moved online as a result in the spike in cases. Regardless of that setback, I am eager to get back to in-person classes at the beginning of February. Part of the reason I really enjoy in person classes is that I get to bond with my peers and since I haven't seen the majority of them since right before winter break, I am especially excited to see them. In regards to the course content thus far, I would say that I really am enjoying it. Recently I have been thinking a lot about how far we have come this school year. In my opinion, I believe that I have learned so much in only one semester. As I begin my MCAT prep which I started about a month ago, a lot of course content has been implicated in some of the passage-related questions which I was really excited about. While we have...

 TOTAL COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS: 14 As we are closing up to what has been a great semester, I would like to reflect on the amazing opportunities I have had to complete my service hours. A few weeks ago, some of my fellow peers and I got together for 3 hours to create more of the Holiday cards that we also did the previous month. Knowing that these cards were going to be sent to the same orphanage that the cards from last month were sent to really helped me embark on a continuous process that was changing the lives of many local Louisiana children. While doing this was very moving, I also got to spend additional time outside of class with my classmates which helped us grow our relationships even further. I really enjoyed being able to do community service with my classmates because it really helped build a strong bond while providing for the needs of others.  This week I spent approximately 6 hours at the Second Harvest Food Bank volunteering in their community kitchen. We spent...

 On November 23rd, some of my classmates and I spent 2 hours preparing Holiday/Thanksgiving cards that were later sent to the Louisiana Methodist Children's Home in Mandeville. Personally, this activity was meaningful to me because Thanksgiving is not only one of my favorite Holidays but is about emphasizing the importance of a community. One of the most important characteristics about the city of New Orleans is that this feeling is especially strong here compared to other cities around the country. Preparing the Thanksgiving cards meant that we were able to wish young children a warm and happy Holidays even though they may feel like they lacked a so-called community. Another important component that was incorporated in this Thanksgiving card project was the fact that I got to be with my classmates in a non-studious setting. This helped me build relationships and grow stronger connections with my fellow peers. In the upcoming month, I am excited to continue growing my sense of comm...

 This past Monday (October 25, 2021) I volunteered in the Community Kitchen at the Second Harvest Food Bank. This non-profit organization produces thousands of meals per week for disaster relief victims, senior citizens, after-school Kids Cafe and Summer Feeding programs. For approximately 3 hours (8-11), we packed roughly 1200 snack packs that would be sent to children participating in after-school programs. While I got to help my local kids in the greater New Orleans area, I also got to meet some of the nearby residents that are not affiliated with Tulane. Since I am constantly meeting people in our various courses that are all Tulane students and staff, it was eye-opening to get some experience with people who actually grew up in this area.  In the last few weeks, we have dug even deeper into the Pharmacology curriculum. Now that we are back from the storm with very little disruptions, I feel like everyone has settled in more or less and has gotten more comfortable with the...

As we were slowly transitioning into normalcy and into the post-Covid world by starting in-person classes up, we were interrupted with the rapid unfolding of Hurricane Ida. During the first week of class, it was nice to not only return to in-person classes but also to begin meeting my peers and faculty that I will get to know throughout the upcoming school year. The introduction of the course curriculum for the first few days helped me get excited to dive into Pharmacology. More specifically, during that first week, we had an introduction to the general principles and mechanisms that embody the majority of pharmacological processes. Like discusses in the first week, several enzymes and drug-receptor interactions were highlighted that would later form the basic foundation of pharmacological studies.  While most of us had to return home as a result of Hurricane Ida knocking out power through the greater New Orleans area, it definitely was considered to be an abrupt disruption in what...