The End Of A New Beginning

Total Spring Semester Volunteering: 31 hours

Habitat for Humanity: 16 hours

Environmental Pharmacology Soil Sample Collection: 1 hour

Southern Eye Bank: 14 hours

     This is officially my last blog post for the Masters Program! We finished up our last Cell Control test this past Tuesday, and my last presentations were a couple of weeks ago. The year has really gone by quickly. Hard to believe we had our opening social nine months ago! 

     I'm currently studying for the MCAT that I take June 19th, and while studying I'm awestruck at how much material we actually covered this year. I was reading a chapter in biology about different receptors where it started talking about the insulin receptor, to my surprise I knew more about it than the chapter covered! This program has helped me in many ways, but mostly in my studying patterns. Before starting at Tulane, I never really needed to study much in undergrad. This year really taught me how to efficiently study, a skill I'm glad to have before starting medical school. It was also an amazing opportunity getting to explore so much in a year. I was able to take a course with the medical students, volunteer, socialize with new friends and try research. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next chapter of my life will entail! 

The Home Stretch

     In a month and a half we will be graduating. When my Dad told my grandmother, she replied, “Again? Already?” This last month has gone by quickly. After Mardi Gras came to a close, I spent a couple of weeks intensely studying for the Shelf Exam. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I tried to over prepare. My study time was interrupted because my groups presented in both cardiobiology and advances the week before the Shelf, but we managed to get through it. After doing some USMLE World practice questions, I was worried that we would have a lot of questions dealing with diagnosing that we, not taking all the medical school classes, hadn’t been exposed too. Luckily Dr. Clarkson picked the questions, and while challenging, there wasn’t much I would call unfair. Fortunately most of the material came back to me a lot quicker the second time. 

     Now that the Shelf is done we just have some electives left. We have a Cell Control test tomorrow, and then just one more and we will be done. Now that we are in the home stretch, I need to start studying for the MCAT. Luckily our schedule these last couple of months leaves plenty of time for studying for the MCAT and for volunteering, with a little time left over to prepare for my last Cardio presentation!

Winding Down

     Mardi Gras has finally come and gone, along with our spring break! Feels weird saying my spring break is already over and it isn’t even March yet. It has been very entertaining seeing all of my fellow peers reactions to Mardi Gras. Being raised here, I guess you forget how “crazy” we must look to outsiders. Somehow Mike still had a blast, despite the shooting right in front of his apartment the night of Muses.

      In a little over two months we will all have Masters degrees, it’s so hard to believe. I am currently studying for my last block exam in Med Pharm, and then will have two weeks of intense studying until the NBME exam. I’ve been lightly reviewing and it’s hard to believe just how many drugs we have covered. I still remember studying for our first block in inflammation, way back in July when the medical school was still empty! It will be a relief to get that out of the way so that I can start focusing on studying more for the MCAT that I’m taking this summer. Once we finish with the NBME in less than three weeks, we will just have our electives left over. It should be a lot less stressful as we wind down over the coming months.

Blocks, MCAT, and NBME..No Big Deal

     Wow, this semester is almost over! We have a couple of more blocks before the Shelf exam. Winter break was much needed, but I certainly miss the 5 week long breaks of college. This semester I’m learning a lot more about time management, balancing the regular block exams with MCAT studying and studying for the Shelf, in addition to giving more presentations than ever before! We just finished the Endocrine block where I learned all about the inner workings of diabetes and reproductive drugs. Now we are delving into the CNS, with a heavy load of principles lectures.

     Last Saturday I got to volunteer with Mike at Habitat, we we were building walls and doing framework for a house a company VMWare was sponsoring. They had actually painted their logo on the concrete foundation of the house, and sent a drone over to take photographs of the site all of us working! It was very interesting yet pretty distracting. I learned from some of the Habitat employees that VMWare had actually donated $250,000 and was sending 400 volunteers to work with them for a week building house in the Greater New Orleans area. It’s great to see companies getting involved in philanthropic causes especially in our city. I’m excited for my next build with Habitat for Humanity. Until then I’ll be studying CNS drugs!

Community Service Hours: 

1-24-15: 8 hours at Habitat For Humanity