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Can we have another semester please?

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 Volunteering: 5:30 Hours Crescent City Farmers Market 9 Hours NOLA Ready Vaccine Rollout  4 Hours Happy Bowlers       I cannot believe I am saying this but the end of the program has come upon us. It has truly been a lifechanging experience for me, and I am not saying that lightly. Throughout the course of this year, I have learned more information than ever before while also discovering more about myself as a student, where my interests lie and what works for me.      Since the semester is coming to an end, I thought I would provide a few reflections that might be of use to any future students in this program and help them succeed.       Number one, stay on top of your work! Getting behind, especially in the first few modules will put you in an enormously bad position and one that will take an incredible effort to get out of. If you spend a few hours per day, I promise that in the end you will have better grades and spend less time studying than if you put off studying.       Number
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A Month of Hard Work

 Service Hours:  Crescent City Farmers Market (Feb 5th): 3 hours The month of March has been quite a whirlwind even though I thought it was going finally provide a chance for a break. My March has been consumed with studying for our second Cellular Control Mechanisms exam and the Shelf NBME Pharmacology exam, which we take tomorrow. I cannot believe that it is already time to take the Shelf, something I vividly remember being intimidated by at the start of the Master’s Program way back in August. Thinking about beginning this program and now being 24 hours before the final exam has caused me to reflect on all the things I learned over the course of this year. I can honestly say I have never learned as much material as I have in this program, nor have I ever felt as confident in my study habits. I truly believe that while I still have more to learn, the foundation to become a successful medical student has been laid by this program, both through knowledge I have gained about pharmacolog
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The Home Stretch

Service Hours:  Crescent City Farmers Market (Feb 5th): 3 hours     Well, we are embarking on the final lap of the Masters of Pharmacology program here at Tulane with our last Medical Pharmacology lecture being presented to us this past week. While there has been a lot of work going into this past year in school, I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by. I feel like we were just beginning in August, learning the basic of P450 metabolism in the liver and how Aspirin works.      Speaking of which, as we have concluded the didactic lectures for Medical Pharmacology, it has become time to begin study for the NMBE Pharmacology Shelf Exam which we will be taking on April 1st, about one month from now. While I have not begun study to take a deep dive into preparing for this test, I have taken a substantial amount of time to organize my study materials and identify key areas of weakness which I need to review for. The challenge of any cumulative exam, especially one dealing with a vas
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Finally, a New Year

At last, the dreaded year of 2020 is over and I for one could not be more happy. I am optimistic this year, 2021, is going to be a return to normalcy for all of us. My first step towards getting back to normal came in the form of dose 1 of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that I received a week ago. Not only does it help protect me from a deadly virus, it is also a practical application of a few topics we have discussed in our studies in addition to the result of the hard work many of our professors put into their research to help develop this drug. Needless to say, the month of January has been a great month for me as I got my first dose of the highly coveted COVID-19 vaccine. But it has also been a month filled with fascinating topics in school covering subjects that have such large implications. The first main topic we discussed during the month of January was about diabetes, its pathophysiology and how to treat it. I knew the basics of type 1 diabetes involved malfunctioning beta cells
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Weathering the Storm

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Hours: 2 Letters to Nursing Home (1 hour) Crescent City Farmers Market (2.5 hours 11/15/20) Crescent City Farmers Market (2.5 hours 11/20/20) Habitat for Humanity, West St. Tammany Parish (4 hours 11/24/20) Hope's House, Rome, Georgia (2.25 hours 11/28/20) This semester has been one full of challenges that none of us saw coming. From the COVID-19 pandemic to an unusually busy hurricane season, me and my classmates have ‘weathered the storm’ and persevered. I am grateful for the experience but even more grateful for the friends I have made along the way. As the semester began to come to a close, I stumbled upon a few volunteering opportunities that neatly came together to perfectly fulfill my hours. The month of November has been the month of volunteering for me. First, one of my classmates, Rubel, told me about a local farmers market, the crescent city farmers market, that was in need of volunteers. I must admit I was skeptical that I would be able to contribute there. However,
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The Heart and Hurricane #438752 of 2020

The month of October has been filled with unpredictable challenges but also many enjoyable and gratifying events. For starters, my favorite modules thus far in the program took place during the month of October (I honestly feel like I say that after each module). Everything related to the cardiovascular system has been a joy to learn for me. I am fascinated by all it encompasses, from the anatomy and physiology of the heart and modulation of alpha and beta receptors to the actions of vasodilators in vascular smooth muscle. In fact, it has made me ponder if a specialty related to the cardiovascular system is something I should pursue later down the road. Our professors have done a great job explaining the material in a way that is easy to understand but also gives the students the option to learn it at a deeper level. The interest that I discovered in the cardiovascular system during these modules is best shown on my exam scores. Compounding that interest with the skills and study tec
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Early Reflections on Graduate School and Life in New Orleans

 My experiences so far in the Masters of Pharmacology program here at Tulane have been great. While the subject material comes at us quickly and at a large quantity, our professors are always looking out for our best interests and give us every opportunity to do well.  The coursework itself has been interesting, engaging and something that I do not dread having to learn. In particular, I was very interested by our first module when learning about the Cytochrome P-450 metabolism system that humans have predominantly in their liver. I have always seen the 'drug interaction' labels on various pharmaceutical products but had no idea the mechanism by which this happens. Finding out that one family of enzymes is responsible for the majority of these interactions, the drugs that will cause induction (increased activity) or inhibition of those enzymes and how to mitigate these problems has been informative and a lot of fun. Learning material which has an obvious clinical application is
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Location: New Orleans, LA, USA
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