August

Just about six weeks in and two block exams down in the Masters of Science in Pharmacology Program, and things are moving along at a fast pace that is practically foreign to slow moving New Orleans. Unlike many of my classmates, I have been lucky enough to live in New Orleans for the past year. My wife and I moved down from Dallas, Texas when she started her first year at Tulane University Law School. Also unlike many of my classmates, I live near the Uptown campus of Tulane, while our classes are on the Downtown campus. This I also get a nice bit of separation from my studies if I need it. Once I leave the downtown campus, I can be done for the day if I want. Luckily the material we are learning has been so interesting so far, that I find that I want to keep learning more and more.

So far we have learned about basic principles and inflammation in the first block, followed by the second block on infectious diseases and more basic principles. The program does an excellent job of making sure we have the background physiology needed for our Medical Pharmacology class, so we get lectures on the physiology and lectures of the pharmacology which really helps provide the context of how many common medications work and makes them much easier to understand.

In the coming weeks I will begin volunteering at SciHigh, a high school dedicated to educating underserved high school students in New Orleans Parish in STEM along with preparing them for the college. Several of my classmates and I will be acting as tutors and helpers to the teachers a SciHigh. More on this exciting opportunity will come in later posts as we start our volunteer work.

I am looking forward to all the pharmacology I will be learning this year.