October

October 23, 2018

October

October was quite an eventful month. We've just finished our third block exam on the ANS and Physiology module and it was quite a doozy! I can't believe how fast time is flying in this program and I'm so grateful to have such a great group of friends in our cohort to have late night study sessions with and help keep me on top of the material. Hopefully, we can continue working hard especially with this upcoming Cardiovascular block!

I'm also very appreciative of the free day we have after this last exam. I took advantage (despite the all-day rain forecast) and explored a lot of different places I haven't gotten a chance to see yet. A classmate and I went to the New Orleans Museum of Art where we learned a lot about different local artists and saw a lot of fascinating pieces. The museum curator told us fascinating stories about different pieces that I haven't heard before, including a story about Degas and his cousin during his time in NOLA. It is really fascinating to learn about the rich dynamic of different cultures and influences that help make New Orleans so unique. Earlier this month I was able to attend some of the Art for Art's Sake events happening throughout the city and saw some really interesting performance art from artists with varied backgrounds including Haitian, West-African and Vietnamese cultures. I love how this city has embraced all of these different cultures and how its identity is a result of an amalgamation of many different cultures and stories from the past and present!

October has also been a busy month for volunteering. I continued to work with the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine and continued to work with members of the New Orleans community! This past week, the students had an opportunity to work on making their own recipes using the knowledge they've learned from the past couple of weeks. It made me proud to see them substitute certain ingredients with ones with more fiber and more complex fats and really make something delicious! One of the students even decided to use cauliflower to make grits and it turned out as good, if not better than regular grits. She said that from now on, she will try to sneak in as much vegetables in the food she makes for her family, knowing that they probably won't be able to tell the difference. I'm so proud of the work that Goldring does in changing the lives of their students. These small changes in their diets make a huge impact on not only the students' health but the health of their children and other family members.

This month I also had a chance to work with Edible Schoolyard's Family Food Night! Family Food Night allows the young students at First Line Schools Charter Schools to cook the vegetables and fruits they grew in their garden alongside members of their family. The theme was taco night and my job was to make elote (Mexican grilled corn topped with a sauce and cotija cheese) with the kids and their parents. It was definitely a hit and the parents immediately asked for the recipe! It was great to see how proud the kids were, using the fruits of their own labor. They had so much fun sharing with their parents what they grew and seeing how it is used for Family Food Night. It's also amazing to see the joy that people get from cooking together. It makes me really miss cooking alongside members of my family, especially with the holidays starting to creep up.

As you can see it has been quite an eventful month and its not even over with Halloween coming by next week! Thanks for reading and stay posted for next month's blog post!

October Service Hours: 12

Cumulative Fall Semester Hours: 20.50