April

April community service hours: 22 hours
Spring Semester total community service hours: 30 hours
2016-2017 Academic year total community service hours: 72 hours

            This month I managed to make up for a lot of the volunteer hours I was not able to complete in January and February. I continued to attend the STEM mentor program sessions at the Westbank Boys and Girls Club and increased my time to help with the chaotic homework sessions. The STEM sessions have been going very well since the children never lose excitement for legos. The team animal was decided as the cheetah, so the kids have been having fun learning them. The next major volunteer event was SuperSaurus Saturday at the Louisiana Children’s Museum. It was great event with a lot of enthusiastic kids interested in dinosaurs. My station with Melody focused on the T rex ancestor, the Allosaurus. Many of the students impressively already knew about the dinosaur, but all the kids enjoyed seeing the fossil of the Allosaurus head either way. It was fun day where I learned as much as the kids who came!

March

    I have finally completed some volunteer service hours this month after awhile. I am back at the Boys and Girls Club on the Westbank continuing the STEM program. For this unit, the focus is on engineering. Lego has partnered with this program to create kits for the kids to learn about conservation in relation to the honey bee (similar to the last topic of endangered animals) and engineering concepts related to simple machines and other simple physics content. I also have a new group due to some of the children’s scheduling conflict with tutoring. Two members are the same from the previous unit but the two new members are a nice addition. These last two weeks we managed to make a small “beehive” out of Legos that employs the concepts of simple machines as well as a small bee, which looked a bit like a plane with eyes. I have found that it is a little harder to keep the kids focused in this unit due to their unbridled enthusiasm for all things related to Legos. Luckily, I think the coordinator at the Boys and Girls club chose children who follow directions well and are excited about learning new things so it’s easy to get the children back on track thankfully. 

Volunteer Hours March: 8 hours

Total Volunteer Hours: 8 hours

February

            I have still not yet completed any volunteer activities this semester. I have been out of town for many of the Thursdays these past few months and hope to return to the Boys and Girls Club in Westbank at the end of March and into April and the end of the semester. I’m not entirely sure if the STEM program will still be continuing, so I will help with homework if the STEM has finished already. I am excited to see my group of kids again! I am also planning to go to a conservation day event that Melody has found. With our current climate situation, I feel it’s more important now than ever before to do our part for the environment.

            In our classes, we recently completed the endocrine block. The topics were very fascinating and complicated. It’s amazing that the steroid hormones affect so many aspects of the body and growth and the fact we’re always finding even more effects of testosterone and estrogen is incredible! In addition, the Diabetes TBL was very interesting. The many mechanisms behind the development of insulin resistance are a fascinating subject and hopefully we will know more about it in the future especially with the current obesity epidemic.

January

            I have not yet begun to volunteer this semester but I am planning to finish up the STEM Mentoring Program curriculum on conservation in the next few months as soon as my schedule is determined. The last time I went to volunteer in December, the child, who in the beginning told me he hated animals, gave me a big hug when I left. I am happy to have bonded with my group of four and can’t wait to return with new lessons!

            In terms of classes, we have finished the Neurology block and are almost done with the Psychiatry block. Both have been especially fascinating. In Medical Pharmacology, a patient who has struggled with mental illness came in today to speak to the class. It was inspiring to hear a life story of perseverance and bravery. The two new classes that have been added to the schedule are also proving to be interesting, as well. The topics covered in Cellular Control Mechanisms are very relevant to my future research interests in oncology-related and immunopharmacology; and Environmental Signaling is a completely new topic for me. I am also looking forward to participating in the Tulane Health Sciences Day, which is upcoming in February.

Total Hours for January: 0