February Blog: Spring Semester Update

Monthly Community Service Hours: 6 Hours Cumulative Spring Semester Service Hours Completed: 6 Hours Hi everyone! Academically this month has been intense. The topics focused on the endocrine and neurological system. Surprisingly, the neuropharmacology module has been my favorite. In the past, learning about neurology never really piqued my interest, but Dr. Clarkson and Dr. Mostany made these topics engaging and exciting. I gained a deeper understanding of the drugs relating to anesthesia, anxiolysis, and analgesics. Alcohol use disorder was a big topic this month with it being one of the topics of interest in Medical Pharmacology, Principles, and Neuropharmacology. Considering that alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects millions of people each year, learning more about various different AUD treatments is very important. Our last topic for the semester is on psychopharmacology and toxicology; I hope it’s as fun to learn about as the ones from this month! Beyond academics, I had the opportunity to volunteer at Second Harvest Food Bank New Orleans. Second Harvest needed volunteers for sorting and packing essential food boxes. The boxes get delivered to seniors and families in need. Some of the volunteers were given the role of assembling boxes and others were given the role of taping the finished filled boxes to be delivered. Similar to the sorting and packing I did at Giving Hope NOLA, my role was to fill up boxes with food with the help of others. Collectively we were able to package 240 boxes for the day. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to provide help to Second Harvest and have appreciation to the workers that do this everyday. Repeatedly filling up boxes gave my body a run for its money and I consider it my workout for the day. I can’t wait to come back again to help build more boxes or even pick up a shift at Second Harvest’s Reily Food Kitchen.

Kayla Nguyen