April

Wow! I cannot believe that our program is now over. I was able to explore some more of New Orleans during my last few weeks here. Aside from trying many more great restaurants in NOLA like Toups South, Addis NOLA and Pizza Delicious, I was able to visit the Crescent City Farmers Market near Crescent Park and visited a few art galleries, including the Chihuly Art Exhibit at the Arthur Ross Gallery. I also went to the French Quarter Fest and ate some great food, listened to cool bands and visited some interesting antique shops in the French Quarter!

These last few weeks also consisted of presentations for our Environmental Signaling, Neuropharmacology and Endocrine class. In Environmental Signaling, we each had to present and "elevator talk", which is a 3 minute presentation on a topic of our interest that is related to Environmental Signaling. There were some really interesting topics brought up by my peers, including microplastics, chemicals in our hair products, effects of industrialization on the environment and zero gravity and physiology. I presented on the effects of acculturative stress -- stress associated with immigrating into a new country -- on health outcomes. It was cool to do a little bit of research and share with my classmates an issue that I've had first hand experience on. Even more exciting was being able to deliver a presentation in 3 minutes. I thought it was cool to see what topics other people were interested in and I enjoyed learning a lot of new concepts involving Environmental Signaling.

I am so grateful for all the professors and mentors that taught us throughout the year and the wonderful administrative staff who helped coordinate all of the events and made sure that everything ran smoothly. Finally I'd like to thank all of my classmates, particularly those who have worked with me and studied with me these past few months. I didn't expect to make so many friends within such a short amount of time, but I am really glad that I did and that we were able to laugh, learn and grow together as Future Fhysicians of America (FFA's). I will truly miss a lot of the people in this program and I hope that we stay in touch and continue this journey together. Well, that is it for my blog post. Shout out to the Deming Familia, "The One Where They Learned Pharmacology", the GOT pals and my Roast Crew. You know who you are.

And for future Pharm program students, feel free to contact me if you have any questions coming into the program! My email is aalvarado1@tulane.edu :)

April Service Hours: 0 hours
Cumulative Spring Semester Hours: 29.5 hours
Cumulative 2018-2019 Hours: 62 hours

Good corn, good company

Feelin' fancy after our last exam!

Some of our Pharmacology Peeps

Chihuly Glas