The New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane Universty

Monthly Community Service Hours Completed: February: 6 hours

Cumulative Spring Semester Service Hours Completed: 25 hours

Yesterday I had the opportunity to volunteer at the New Orleans Book Festival hosted by Tulane University at the uptown campus. I worked at an Usher in the ROTC building where various talks took place. It was also my responsibility to greet guests and count total guest attendance for various forecasting purposes. One of the talks I got to attend included "Mystery, Magic, Myth and the Power of Imagination" which was the special kick-off event for the Family Day Session. It was a rotating panel of speakers which included young adult content authors such as Mia Arauho, Marti Dumas, M. R. Fournet, Adam Karlin, and Rachel Marsh and was moderated by Tulane's own Lindsay Cronk. Another talk I got to attend was entitled "Whodunnit: True Crime and Crime Fiction" which also featured a panel of true crime authors including Danielle Arceneaux, Rick Cohen, and Gary Phillips and was moderated by Ethan Brown.

By far the most profound I had the pleasure of attending was the one featuring former two-time United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy on the topic of his book entitled "Together: The Power of Human Connection" and was moderated by Tulane's own President, Michael A. Fitts. I took so many great quotes from Dr. Murthy that day and even ended up picking up a copy of his book. His philosophy on how powerful human connection is changed my perspective on how healing it can be for us as humans. My favorite quote from him was this:

    "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."

 I hope to emulate him and his philosophies on connection of the human spirit. Tulane University treated its volunteers quite well! I got a free book festival t-shirt out of the experience and was able to finally visit the bookstore where I picked up a graduation sign for the front yard. I would definitely volunteer at this event in the future!

    The Pharmacology program is so close to being done! My focus is to crush the Medical Pharmacology final and spend as much time as I can in the lab. On Friday, I was able to cannulate two vessels for the first time and with it being my first time trying! It was gratifying to accomplish this! Sorry for all of the exclamation points, but there are just so many exciting things happening. I am looking forward to graduation!