December

Finally, things are coming to a close, and with that so have my volunteer hours for the semester. I spent 1 hour doing the edible schoolyard orientation where we sat in on a cooking class and helped the kids learn about kitchen utensils and different types of food. I then spent 4 hours in an open garden day where we helped do things that the kids could not. Such as shovel compost, and help plant some new veggies, and plants.

See you in January!

Total hours: 30
December hours 5

November is finally coming to a close. As I look back and reflect it has been a pretty productive and successful month. I spent this month focusing on volunteering, studying for class, and buckling down for the MCAT. This month I had the opportunity to help out the edible schoolyard of NOLA once again, and this time was able to participate in two projects. First, classmates and I helped out with a weekend garden day where we moved mulch, planted some veggies, and did some painting. We came together to clean and enhance the local schoolyards garden. My second event for edible schoolyard was the iron chef event. This was my favorite volunteer experience thus far. There were 8 chefs who paired up with volunteers and a group of kids where we made a signature dish for a group judges which had to incorporate the secret ingredient (papaya). My group came up with the idea of a papaya salad, and to be honest I was skeptical at first. However, our chef turned it into a great salad that everyone was happy with. My last volunteer escapade of the month was the day before Thanksgiving where my aunt and I went to the local food shelter in Ohio to serve the homeless a nice Thanksgiving dinner. This was a first for me as I have never volunteered at a food shelter before. Being able to see how thankful and gracious the homeless were for a nice warm Thanksgiving meal was pretty mind-boggling, and I have to look back and realize how thankful I am to grow up with a roof over my head, food, and a place to sleep every night.

See you in January!

November hours: 12
Total: 25

This October has been an interesting month thus far in my New Orleans journey. I have begun to work in a research lab, volunteered a little bit, and did some shadowing this month. I'm definitely excited to get back into a lab and to start doing research again. I have definitely missed being apart of a lab group, and am looking forward to learning new techniques! As for volunteering this month a few classmates and I decided to volunteer for the sweet potato fest at a a local school. To be honest, this volunteer experience was probably the most fun I have had since I moved up here in June. We got to interact, and play with community students, as we worked at a smoothie station. This was pretty unique in my opinion because the students actually biked to produce their smoothie. The school had a bike rigged up to a blender so if you input energy then you'd get a well blended smoothie. It was really entertaining to watch kids drink a sweet potato smoother... I was thoroughly impressed at how many of the kids actually somewhat enjoyed the somewhat blended concoction. During my break I was able to experience some of the festival by trying all different types of sweet potato dishes that ranged from sweet potato salsa all the way to pizza.

My last unique experience this October was being able to shadow a general surgeon. I've always knew that I have been most interested in a surgical field as I love to work with my hands, and put together puzzles. It was extremely satisfying and reaffirming finally being able to watch a procedure in real time, and see the teamwork that is associated in such a miraculous task.

See you in November,

Pierce Spencer

October hours 4.5
Total hours 13

As September wraps up, its time to take a look back and reflect on what has happened so far this month. I volunteered with habitat for humanity at one of the restore locations. Began studying for the MCAT with fellow classmates, got involved in intramural basketball, survived another exam, ate at some new restaurants and witnessed one of the biggest upsets in my undergrad college's franchise.

When I agreed to volunteer with habitat for humanity initially I thought we would be building a house, but after I got to the location I could not have been more wrong. I had no idea the difference between a restore/build, nor did I even know that their was a difference initially. I'd like to take this space to reflect on this experience in an honest manner. During our 8.5 hours of volunteering at the restore it seemed like we were basically free store clerks in charge of moving merchandise around, and helping customers. Now if you would have asked me if I thought doing this was useful right after I had finished, I would have said no. It really took me time to absorb and reflect this experience in order to think of what we were actually doing at the restore that is imperative for New Orleans. Habitat for humanity is an incredible organization with a beautiful mission. Everything that gets sold in the store goes into supplies for building houses for those in need. So after I thought about it for awhile we had about 10 volunteers that day. We worked around 8.5 hours which if habitat had to hire people, assuming they were only paid minimum wage that translates to around 616$ which would be taking away from building supplies for the main goal of the organization... to build homes for those in need. So what I did during this day may have not felt entirely useful, but after analyzing it turned out to be extremely helpful and satisfying knowing that our group, and I are making a difference trying to better this wonderful city.

I will end this post with some sports as my alma mater is having a breakout season (Go Cougs). Being from the west coast most college football games end by 10:30 pm. Now that I am 2 hours ahead of my west coast time zone watching late night sports causes me to stay up way past my bedtime these days, but the WSU vs USC game last night was worth every second of it. I didn't miss a game in my 4 years of undergrad so cheering these guys on 2700 miles away is not ideal for me. They are an incredible underdog story this year, and are worth taking the time to watch, even if its just for the mike leach interviews. On another sports note we had our first intramural basketball game where we are currently sitting at 1-0.

See you next month!
Sincerely,
Pierce Spencer

Hours this month: 8.5
Cumulative Hours: 8.5

Seventy-three days ago I packed everything I owned into my tiny car and  embarked on the biggest risk in my academic career. It took me five days to arrive in the big easy from Washington, but the drive was well worth it. I got to experience some of the most amazing natural feats in America. My first stop was Yellowstone national park in Montana. I've added a few pictures from my journey to share just how magnificent this place is. I highly recommend stopping by if you are into wildlife, and lush scenery. My next stop was Colorado Springs. After experiencing Yellowstone I did not think that I could be excited about any more scenic views since I had thought I experienced the best there was to offer. However, I was extremely impressed with the delicacy of the Garden of the Gods (I've added some pictures as well). These rock formations were astounding! to think that these have been here for so long, slowly eroding away to form some of the most famous rock architecture in America. I then ventured through Austin, Texas which was much more exciting, but in a much different aspect then my previous two pit stops. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity living in a car I arrived in New Orleans.

During my short time here in this one of a kind place I am so grateful for the experiences that I have had. I have been given the opportunity to surround myself by some of sciences best minds, not only to include the professors, and physicians, but the students as well. Coming out of undergrad I still had poor study habits, but let me tell you, that has changed. Thanks to some new friends from this program they have really helped me develop strong study patterns. One thing that makes me beyond ecstatic about this program is that we all have a similar goal, and similar means to achieve it. This allows us to connect, and bond much easier and has really helped us push each other into doing things that we were unaware of before starting here.

How could I blog about my experiences in New Orleans without bringing up food? This place has opened up my eyes to some things I have never seen before, but they all have the same thing in common. It is absolutely delicious! Coming from the pacific northwest our fried food, is well a joke compared to here. I have never in my life craved fried chicken until these last 3 months. Fortunately I have also been able to try the amazing seafood such as crawfish, oysters, and shrimp. I am a little biased in the oyster department since back home we do have some amazingly tangy, delicious oysters, but the ones down here are pretty decent too. 

Lastly, the thing that makes the big easy so amazing in my eyes is the effort the people of this community go through to give back. This is not the most fortunate of places to have been especially 12 years ago after Katrina. What amazes me is the attitude locals have and their enthusiasm about giving back as I will begin to do as well. I have submitted my applications to mentor for the under deserved schools in the greater New Orleans areas, partake in tutoring elementary students, and I will begin volunteering for habitat for humanity to help rebuild this one of a kind city!

See you in September!

Sincerely,
Pierce Spencer

Thermophilic microbe hot spring (Their byproduct is sulfur... so this beautiful view comes with quite the stench)

Prismatic springs (The most beautiful spring you could possibly imagine)