September

The first month of this semester was a little different than expected after Hurricane Ida brought some unexpected changes. I attended Tulane as an undergraduate so I was aware of the unpredictability of hurricane season, but this was my first time in 5 years evacuating. I stayed in Texas for a few days at a family friend's house before returning to my hometown in NJ when we found out that power wouldn't be restored for 1-2 weeks. The craziest part is how the storm made it all the way to New Jersey and caused a lot of destruction and flooding there too. Although I wasn't in New Orleans for the beginning of the recovery period to do any hands-on volunteer work, I donated to some local organizations I found online. In times of crisis, it's amazing to see how social media can significantly broaden relief efforts by sharing information about resources, where to send donations, where to volunteer, and energy outages. There were excel sheets being made with lists of grocery store hours, locations of cooling stations, and any restaurants giving out free food. It was also nice to see how local businesses were making changes to support their staff, some switching to a "pay what you can" model, and donating profits to local organizations. Now that I am back in New Orleans, I have been looking into ways to get involved in the community and look forward to sharing in October's recap. In the meantime, I've been enjoying our Pharmacology classes and meeting the students and professors in the program.