October

October has been a fun month. It took the majority of September to get into the mindset of being a student again. Pharmacology classes have become very interesting, especially with the new material on cardiology that I never went over in undergraduate classes. I find myself doing well in class and often look forward to studying an interesting topic. I also joined a lab this month to work on stem cell research, because I believe stem cells might be the future of medicine. From what I learned in class, its potential is something that will probably be explored more and more in the coming decades, and I really thought getting some practice working with them during this program would be an advantageous skill to have going forward. I have been learning in- vitro techniques so far since the majority of my past research has been in- vivo.

On the volunteering side of things, I reached out to an organization I had been a part of for the past decade- HOSA: Future Health Professional's Louisiana chapter and have been in correspondence with state staff on how I could help out in the months to come. I am exploring the idea of doing leadership development coaching for a few of the officers who would benefit from it as well as help out at the chapter level. I am excited to see where this experience goes!

On a personal note, I wanted to capitalize on the beautiful weather in New Orleans, and have started to run again. The first few runs were quite painful and getting my body into running condition was an uphill battle. However, I slowly feel my body adjusting and have thus far run 34.75 miles in October. My goal is to hit 100 miles by the end of November.

Total Volunteer Hours: 5

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