Pharmacology in the Wild

"Look, look, Zenaia is gonna do a death drop". I was standing in the playground at my first Youth Run NOLA practice as coach, and unexpectedly I was watching an elementary schooler attempt a dangerous looking dance move. To her credit, Zenaia pulled off the ominously named death drop flawlessly, but it certainly wasn't what I expected to witness when I first signed up. Allow me to back up a second. This wasn't a dance practice; it was definitely a running practice, but the funny thing about kids is that when you get a group of them in a playground after a day of school, they sometimes don't rush to follow instructions and instead do whatever they want to do instead. That being said, they had earned a little bit of liberty after completing four laps of the block, a whole mile covered in a pretty decent time for their age group. Another reason the death drop wasn't such a bad thing is that the kids were still having fun. It's a mental adjustment I've h...

“Oh, these right here? Imma need me some of those. Protection is key” With our encouragement, the man grabbed a handful of condoms, followed by a couple of more delicately selected insurance rubbers. “Sir, could we also interest you in…” We rapidly pitched our wares that day: low cost family dental plans, Medicare healthcare coordination, free STD checkups, free first aid courses, free granola bars; honestly not a bad haul for a Thursday morning. The gentleman was content with condoms, but assured us he’d tell his friends to stop by. Representatives from health care related organizations around New Orleans, some first year students at Tulane Med, and I had gathered to put on a health fair! People were largely attracted to our offers of free granola and water, but many were simply interested in what services we were providing. The health fair, named the Elk Place Health Spot , takes place at one of the busiest transit stops in the city, providing a vital opportunity to bring heal...

McDonalds hash-brown and coffee in stomach, I made my way to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore location early on a Saturday morning. ReStore is both a fantastic little pun as well as the second arm of Habitat for Humanity. While Habitat's main function is building houses for those in need, at ReStore locations, Habitat collects donations of furniture, appliances, and building supplies, and resells them. These sales go into funding future Habitat builds. We began by reorganizing couches that patrons would see as soon as they entered. It was not something I expected to do at the ReStore, but it forced our group (a collection of Pharmacology students as well as ReStore regulars) to call upon our inner interior designers. The rest of the day, when we weren't helping customers load heavy wares into their trucks, was spent moving merchandise into more presentable positions and moving trash out of the way. This involved the fun yet labor intensive endeavor of breaking down wood palle...

Almost two months ago, I stepped into 1430 Tulane Ave (the Hutchinson building) for the first time. That moment now feels like forever ago, much like the first time I stepped foot on my undergraduate campus. The past two months have been eye opening, allowing me to grow as a person and scholar.   I moved from a small liberal-arts college in semi-rural Northfield, Minnesota (population 20,000) to a graduate program at the Tulane school of medicine, in New Orleans. I don’t think it’s worth expounding on how these environments are different; no-one in their right mind could confuse Northfield for New Orleans. However, I’ve been struck by the similarities between these institutions. Caring professors and bright, collaborative classmates have thus far marked my experiences.   So far, our program has covered two blocks, basic principles and ANS/CV. We’ve covered a lot, but I’ve found that between the accessibility of my professors and group studying with my classmates, the ...