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April 2021

April Community Service Hours - 8   Total Community Hours - 20 This is the last blog post for the year and it's bitter/sweet. My experience in this program has been great but the year has been extremely stressful. After finally taking the NBME I could finally take a breathe and relax a little. This month I had three out of four of my presentations back to back for endocrine pharm, neuro pharm and environmental signaling. They all went well and I can feel myself getting more comfortable with presenting. A highlight of the courses would have to be the environmental signaling elevator talks. These were extremely informative and opened my eyes to environmental problems that I would have never thought about. My elevator talk focused on the Farmosa project that has already been approved in St. James parish. St. James parish lies in area known as Cancer alley which one of the most polluted areas in the country.  This is a 9.4 billion dollar industrial plastics complex expected to open in
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March 2021

March Community Service Hours: 10 Total Community Service Hours: 12 March has been a pretty eventful month to say the least! We ended February leading up to the last Medical Pharmacology test. It covered the Psych module which I found the most interesting of this semester, maybe even of the whole program. Being someone who has close friends and family members which mental illness such as bipolar, depression, and anxiety this module helped me understand it a lot more. I also really enjoyed learning about the history of the FDA and how the regulations have evolved.  Like I said last month, endocrine pharmacology is still the class that I look forward to the most. The discussion posts aren't so bad, and I am always learning a lot about my classmates through their interpretations of the chapters. The presentations are getting better and better each week and I always find myself completely captivated by the topics being presented on. This month we covered how stress effects pain, memory
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February

Community Service Hours: 2  This past month has flown by! Our second module this semester was very interesting. I can't say that I had a favorite topic because they were all so intriguing. I think I learned the most from the anesthetics lectures. However, anti-epileptics was a close 2nd. Of the classes, endocrine pharmacology is still the class that I look forward to the most. The discussion posts are growing on me to be honest. My classmates always have extremely insightful opinions and stories. The presentations are always very informative and connected to current and relatable issues. My favorite presentation so far was last week's on stress and reproduction. They covered the disparity seen in mortality rates of black women during child birth. I have always known that black women are more likely to die during labor however, seeing the facts and figures made racism in the healthcare system much more evident. This is a big factor in my decision to go into medicine. We are now
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January 2021

                                                                                                                                                             Current Volunteer Hours: 0    Thankfully, the month of January has been smooth sailing! Winter break gave me time to relax and regroup which was much needed. The first module that we covered was the Endocrine/Reproductive system which I found very interesting. My favorite part of this module was covering diabetes because its such a widespread condition. I have many family members who are diabetic, so I found it very informative. I had a bit of a hard time in the beginning with the non-hypoglycemic drugs but the Diabetes TBL was helpful. I also really enjoyed the estrogens and progestins lectures. To start this semester I decided to switch up my study techniques a bit and based on the 1st test it seems to be working well. Also, there are a couple new courses that we're taking this semester like Environmental Signaling, Neurophar
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A Reflection of September 2020

As September ends, I am finally becoming more accustomed to the Master's program. Of the material that has been covered, I am enjoying Medical Pharmacology the most. The lectures covering Antibiotics, Antivirals, and Anti-fungals have been the most interesting to me because many of the medications that we covered were things that I have taken myself. Learning their mechanisms and interactions has greatly changed my perception of pharmacology. After the 1st test I have learned that I need to take more time to understand corticosteroids and eicosanoids. I was not very happy with my performance on the 1st test, however by preparing early and staying on top of the material I was able to do much better on the second test. Instead of waiting until the week before the test to start answering the learning objectives, I go through them the evening of each lecture. This allows me more time to review and do practice questions. One part of the program that I have surprisingly enjoyed has been
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