MARCH CHECK-IN

Monthly community service hours completed: 4
Cumulative semester service hours completed: 5

March has been the most demanding month of my Master’s program at Tulane so far. After completing five exams and five presentations, I’m finally able to take a step back, recharge a bit, and shift my focus toward community service hours and MCAT preparation in April. Despite the busy schedule, I managed to fit in a volunteer shift at The Green Project with my friend Kavin, and it quickly became clear how valuable their work is to the community. During our time there, we rotated through several departments, primarily organizing the wide and eclectic mix of items on the shelves and removing products that were out of place. Because everything is secondhand, I found it surprisingly challenging to categorize items. Each one felt unique, with no obvious “correct” location. For example, figuring out where a welding mask belonged wasn’t always straightforward when there wasn’t a clearly designated spot for it. This experience gave me a new appreciation for the effort required to maintain an organized and accessible space in a reuse center. It also highlighted how important these organizations are in promoting sustainability and providing affordable resources to the community. The atmosphere created by the employees was warm and welcoming and the customers I interacted with genuinely appreciated the services that they provided. I plan on volunteering at The Green Project every weekend in April and look forward to contributing more towards such a great non-profit organization.

Although the last few weeks of Med Pharm were difficult, I found the material we learned to be quite interesting. Psychiatry is an evolving field, and learning about how drugs interact with the brain has given me new insight into healthcare. When I worked as an EMT, I interacted with benzodiazepines often, as they are used both on the rig and in the hospital. Although Ativan and Versed are both benzodiazepines, they were used in very different contexts. I find it fascinating that drugs with essentially the same mechanism of action can be utilized for such a broad range of indications, and I look forward to learning more about psychopharmacology as I continue to advance in my career.