January Service Hours: 3 hours; Cumulative Spring Service Hours: 3 hours First month back for the spring semester! We finished up the Reproductive module and are currently in the Endocrine one. I think I've enjoyed learning about insulin signaling the most so far. I've grown up knowing the basics: insulin is released when blood glucose levels are high, people with diabetes either struggle to produce insulin or have defective insulin receptors, etc. But the past few lectures really opened my eyes to how wide-reaching the effects of insulin are, as well as what can happen when any step in the insulin signaling pathway is impaired. Who knew insulin stimulated protein synthesis? I've also been busy with preparing for the MCAT, so it's definitely been a big adjustment time management-wise juggling that with coursework, exams, and presentations. This will be my new normal for the next few months, but I'm surprisingly looking forward to it! This month, I continued voluntee...
November Service Hours: 7.5 hours; Cumulative Fall Service Hours: 17.5 hours I can't believe we only have one more round of exams before we are halfway done with the program. I've spent the past week and a half with my family surrounded by our three pets and eating lots of good food, but I'm excited to get through the rest of the GI/neoplasia module and spend most of winter break relaxing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the renal/pulmonary module, especially because we learned how to treat so many different conditions (asthma, UTIs, pneumonia, BPH, ED, etc) that I never considered to implicate similar organ systems. This month, I continued volunteering at Manning Family Children's as a Family Resources Center volunteer, and I also volunteered with BMSSA Tulane at Zeus' Rescue. At Manning Family Children's, I saw one of the patients I had previously done arts and crafts with, and we doodled and painted some more. We also played a few board games like Conn...