Posts

April Blog Post

Image
                                                                        April Community Service Hours: 6 hours Total Spring Community Service Hours: 25 hours For my service activity this month, I volunteered at the NOLA Crawfish Festival. The aim of the festival is to provide a genuinely enjoyable experience for both Jazz Fest visitors who are between weekends and locals who are looking for quality crawfish and amazing southern musicians. To be completely honest, of the five years I have lived here since moving from California, the crawfish I had there was the best I have ever had! At the festival, I worked the food station in the VIP area, and here is a photo below where I can be seen battling the harsh daylight sun and heat. Despite the potential heatstroke, this was an extremely rewarding experience - I got to connect with local musical artists and producers, who were extremely kind and friendly. The experience was so good, that I came back again the next day to help set up for the
Post a Comment
Read more

March Blog Post - helping kids make musical instruments and being a sommelier!

Image
                                                                     March Community Service Hours: 10 hours Total Spring Community Service Hours: 19 hours The first of two volunteer activities I participated in this month was a STEM NOLA Saturday morning interactive learning event. I previously volunteered with them in January for a pre-Mardi Gras children's event. As described in my January blog post, STEM NOLA aims to provide children in the community with free enrichment opportunities to explore science outside of the classroom and develop their skills. As one of the activities, I helped a small group of elementary-aged students build DIY xylophones - pictured on the right above is one of my students who agreed to let me share a picture of her project.  For my second volunteer activity, I was a wine pourer at the Bacchanalia wine tasting competition and fundraiser, which is an annual event to fundraise for HandsOn which is a non-profit volunteer center that helps volunteers fin
Post a Comment
Read more

February Blog

Image
                                                                    February Community Service Hours: 4 hours Total Spring Community Service Hours: 9 hours For my first volunteer activity of the month,  I spent two hours crafting Valentine's Day cards for senior citizens through Cupid Crew. The cupid project aims to make seniors feel connected to the community, and acknowledged during Valentine's Day when everyone is celebrating love. I've attached pictures of my personal favorites from the cards I made below.  Many seniors can be prone to feeling lonely and isolated, as we learned about in Dr. Mostany's neuropharmacology course. These psychological troubles have shown to worsen any health issues many seniors may already struggle with and could shorten their predicted lifespan. I was raised by my grandmother for a majority of my life, and I think a lot about the loneliness she experiences back at home in California. Thinking of her - I put a lot effort (despite my limit
Post a Comment
Read more

January: STEM SATURDAY: THE STEM OF MARDI GRAS

Image
                                                                   January Community Service Hours: 5 hours Total Spring Community Service Hours: 5 hours This past Saturday I kicked off service for the spring semester by volunteering at a Stem Nola event titled "STEM Saturday: the Art and STEM of Mardi Gras". STEM Global Action was founded by former tenured Tulane engineering professor Dr. Calvin Mackie (he is also actor Anthony Mackie's older brother!).  STEM NOLA is located in the Lower Ninth Ward and aims to bring extracurricular enrichment to the local community with free programs and events such as STEM Saturday. As a volunteer, I was assigned a group of three elementary and middle school-aged students, whom I guided through four different building activities: a simple circuit, a catapult, a rolling device, and a motorized miniature Mardi Gras float. The aim of the event was to capitalize on the excitement for the upcoming parade season and get students to associate
Post a Comment
Read more

December Blog - lights & lighthouses!

Image
December Community Service Hours: 3 hours Total Fall Community Service Hours: 12.5 hours This month's service activities included 2 hours at Celebration in the Oaks at City Park and 1 hour at the New Canal Lighthouse.  Celebration in the Oaks is a holiday fundraiser held at City Park with a variety of lights, decor, and amusement rides.  I was placed at one of the entrance gates to take pictures of any visiting guests who requested photos with their loved ones. We - volunteers - were given Hot Hands to help combat the cold. It was not very busy late on a Thursday night at the beginning of December so I spent an ample amount of time messing around with the Hot Hands packets and the thought crossed my mind on what they were made of and what would happen if one ate the inside components. One of the major components is charcoal powder, and in class we learned that charcoal powder taken concomitantly with medication can reduce the absorption of drugs, as well as enhance clearance.  The
Post a Comment
Read more

November Blog

Image
                                     For this month's volunteer activities, I helped direct guests in parking at the Sunset Stroll at the Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature trail on November 16th and watched over the fire area at the Celebration in The Oaks at City Park November 29th, for a total of 6 hours. The Sunset Stroll celebrated the opening of the Sankofa park and trail which was a beautiful and lively event, but also located on the swamp and there was swarms of mosquitos all night. After volunteering I was covered in bites all over my body. In class we learned that the saliva that mosquitos inject into hosts contains histamine, which is involved in immune response and causes inflammation and itching, and contribute to allergic reactions. As we learned in class, antihistamines and topical steroids can help provide relief from these symptoms. More recently, over the past month we also learned that histamine is primarily metabolized in the liver and the end products are eliminat
Post a Comment
Read more

October Blog Post - Huey P Long Bridge Run

Image
For my October volunteer activity, I channeled my inner Oktoberfest beer maiden and served beer  with the Ainsley's Angels group at the Huey P Long Bridge Run hosted by Oschner Fitness Center.  I volunteered for a total of 3 and a half hours from 7:30 am to 11 am. Although waking up before 7:30 am on a Saturday wasn't exactly how I would have liked to kick off my weekend, I was really surprised at how great of an experience it was. Ainsely's Angels is a group that normally volunteers at different runs by pushing the wheelchairs of disabled participants along the route, but due to the steep nature of the route of this run they weren't able to do that this time and instead worked the beer tent. All the members of the group that I met were incredibly kind and motivated, there was even a couple who finished their 5k run in under 20 minutes and came straight to the tent to volunteer! Some misconceptions I definitely had before the event was that I would be overworked due to
Post a Comment
Read more