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 2022. This massive complex will span over 2400 acres and will be allowed to release up to. 1.6 million pounds of toxic chemicals annually which will double the parish's overall toxic emissions and will be located 2 miles from a local public elementary school. In spite of the detrimental effects that this project will have on the environment and on the health of those in the community, leaders in Louisiana are still backing its construction because of the financial benefits that it will bring the state. This made me ask myself would they still be in favor of the Formosa project if it were in a prominently white area. Most likely not. Cancer alley is just another form of environmental racism. 

On a lighter note, were getting the opportunity to have an in person graduation and actually walk across the stage!!! Excited would be an understatement since I didn't get to have a graduation from undergrad. Also, I have continued volunteering with the after school tutoring program in Baton Rouge. Overall, I have definitely learned a lot over the past year in this program and I am excited to see what the future holds. 







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