Po Boys, Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee Fries, and more!

Annnddddd just like that, another month has passed by; quicker than a blink of an eye. September has been an exciting and eventful month for this Midwestern girl. Two of my good friends visited, on separate weekends; and as you can guess, there was a lot of exploring and eating that occurred. I now understand why the French Quarters is such a popular tourism spot. There is so much life and culture overflowing in that mile-long walk and there is literally something to do for all ages. I can go on and on about how awesome the French Quarter is but I digress…I am very excited to show more of my family and friends the beauty of NOLA as they make their rounds to visit me.

On another note, I also started volunteering at New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School this month, tutoring kids in Environmental Science. I am elated to have chosen this volunteering opportunity because I feel like I am really getting a lot out and growing as a person again while working with the kids and learning from them. I forgot what it was like to be in high school, with all the insecurities and distraction that comes with growing up. Sometimes the kids just need hear you say something like, “wow you’d make a great engineer with that kind of logic” to knock an assignment out of the ball park. It has truly been a humbling experience and such an honor to teach these kids and hangout with them on a weekly basis. In the future, I’d like to tutor another class when I have more time so that I can reach out to more kids.   

As with school, classes have been in full swing for a while now. We just finished our 3^rd block exam. School is kicking my butt, but in a very gratifying way. Going to class and studying is part of my everyday routine now. And it is a routine I’m glad to be in because without the routine, my grades would be nowhere near what it is now. And I believe medical school will be like this so I’m glad I have this part down at least! There is always room for improvement and I’m looking forward to scoring even higher on the next block exam! Thanks for tuning in, I’ll be back soon with another monthly update!


This month's community service hours- 6 hours
Total semester service hours- 6 hours 

The Beginning

Hello New Orleans!

After a long and arduous 14-hour drive from Chicago, I finally made it to The Big Easy! This is my first time stepping into the state of Louisiana so I was beyond excited to start a new chapter of my life here. Being a big fan of seafood, music, and warm weather, there was just no way I could pass up the opportunity to go to school in New Orleans when I got accepted into the Masters of Pharmacology Program. NOLA has not disappoint! I’m happy to say that my experience here has been wonderful so far. NOLA is an exhilarating city, filled to the brim with culture and activities on a weekly basis. After being here for about 6 weeks now, I finally got the hang of working diligently on school work during the week and enjoying what the city has to offer on the weekends. It's a great routine to be in.

We are currently on our third block of the semester, focused around neoplasia, cardiology, and thrombosis. A topic that really grabbed my attention was the discovery of angiogenesis inhibition as a way to combat tumor growth. The work that Dr. Judah Folkman pioneered was truly inspiring and revolutionary. It taught me that if you really believe in something, no matter how many people disagree with you, you should see it to the end or until you have convinced yourself otherwise; and not let other people decide for you that you are wrong.

Currently, I am not one hundred percent satisfied with my performance on the block exams. My challenge is that I try to learn and memorize all the information presented to us when I should really be looking at the learning objectives and focusing on those topics. This has always been an issue for me as a student, I want to know every little detail and in that process lose the view of the “big picture”. This is something I will continue to work on every day and hopefully my exam scores will reflect my positive progress.

All in all, I am very happy with the decision to come to New Orleans and enroll in the Masters of Pharmacology program. My experience so far, academically and personally, has exceeded all of my expectations and I cannot wait to see what’s in store. Cheers! 

  My favorite food on the planet, oysters. I would eat them all day and night if I could.

Of course I had to try out the fried oyster salad as well. Not bad! But raw oysters are still the way to go!