March

March has been an eventful and exciting month! We had our shelf exam at the beginning of the month, which was a challenge for many of us who weren't familiar with the formatting and types of questions associated with NBME. While I didn’t feel as confident as usual about my performance after leaving that exam, I actually ended up doing much better than I expected! It was actually pretty self-affirming to see how much I have learned over the course of the year, and to be able to recall a majority of the concepts that we learned in our previous blocks. I hope that exposure to this type of exam now will be beneficial to all of us in the future, as most of us have figured out the best way to approach studying for this type of test. The shelf marked the end of Med Pharm, but we still have Cell Control mechanisms and the other class electives for another month.

Now that our program is drawing to an end, I’ve been spending more time studying for the MCAT and focusing on my plans for the next year. I recently got hired at Ochsner as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Departments of Nephrology and Rheumatology, so I’m excited to stay in New Orleans and work in a position where I can potentially apply some of my knowledge of pharmacology! I’m also currently in the process of moving into a new apartment and sorting out some of my other loose ends so that I can feel settled by the time I start working again. In addition, med school applications are coming up very soon, so I’m spending more time preparing myself for the process ahead. It’s been a very exciting but also somewhat stressful month! However, I did have some stress relief when three of my college friends were visiting after the shelf exam; it was a perfect relaxing weekend that gave me renewed energy to finish up the year!

For volunteering this month, I have continued with my weekly schedule at Edible Schoolyard, and I also volunteered at their Edible Evening event with some classmates! I volunteered selling raffle tickets at Edible Evening, all proceeds of which benefitted Edible Schoolyard. The event itself was filled with food, music, and lots of donated items for sale, and it was overall a really fun night to experience as a volunteer! I hope to continue to be able to work with them in the next year, and would love to continue supporting the organization now that I know I’ll be staying in New Orleans.

March Volunteer Hours: 12

Spring Cumulative Volunteer Hours: 26