Diane Hurwitz Pharmacology ePortfolio

This month was the start of the spring Miracle League season. In the spring, we are back to playing baseball. Unfortunately, I had to miss the first game due to illness. However, I was feeling better and able to attend the second game of the season on March 25. I was really happy to be back, as I was immediately reminded of how positive this experience is for everyone involved. I first enjoyed seeing some of my team's players, their parents, and the coaches who I have gotten to know very well over the couple of years that I have been a buddy. It was quite hot this day so some of the players did not enjoy standing out in the sun for long periods of time. As such, we were taking breaks in the shaded dugout quite often. During these breaks, my buddy and I, along with her good friend who is another player on our team, his sister, and any other players or buddies from our team who wanted to join in at any given moment would play duck-duck-goose. It was a really great way for everyone on

We had our last Miracle League game this month, during which we celebrated Mardi Gras and gave out medals to all the players to celebrate the end of the season. We had a mini Mardi Gras parade in which the players prior to the game decorate their own mini floats and brought beads and throws to parade around and throw to the coaches, buddies, and other friends/family. It was very fun and exciting for everyone involved and gave the players the opportunity to dress up and have some fun as the riders of the Mardi Gras parades. There was even a horse that people could pet, which many of the players got a kick out of. Additionally, we had a celebration for the end of the season and gave out medals to all of the players. They all seemed to appreciate this recognition and enjoy being cheered for as they got their pictures taken with their medals.  I really enjoyed volunteering with Miracle League again this season as each player once again showed up with excitement and energy that was so conta

For my service this semester, I am again volunteering with Miracle League. In the winter season (January and February), they do kickball, and in the spring, they do baseball again. I have never done the kickball season before, so this has been a new experience for me. It has been really enjoyable and a highlight of my weekends so far.  On my team, the Seals, there are a few players who were on my baseball team in the fall. It has been nice seeing these kids again as well as getting to know other kids who I saw on other teams or who I had never met before. One boy who was on my team in the fall remembered me, which I found really impactful. He and I had never been paired up as buddies for one of our games because he always preferred one other girl. As such, we never really interacted much, but we introduced ourselves briefly, during which he told me he really liked the song "Jack and Diane" after finding out my name was Diane. He reminded me of his love for this song when we r

This month, my last Miracle League game was canceled due to the weather. I was a bit bummed because, during the final game, they give all the children trophies, which is always fun. Instead, for this month, I went to volunteer at Glass Half Full. Glass Half Full was started by two Tulane alumni who were disappointed with the lack of glass recycling in New Orleans. They started out by collecting and hand-crushing their friends' glass. Word quickly spread of what they were doing, and they expanded into a new processing facility in New Orleans East, where they now can accept more glass. Today, they have a growing team of staff, volunteers, and community members who help to divert tens of thousands of pounds of glass from NOLA's landfills every single week. They ultimately convert the glass into sand products ranging from super soft, beach-like sand to glass gravel. The final products are used for coastal restoration projects, disaster relief efforts, eco-construction, new glass pr

This month, I continued volunteering with Miracle League (see my September blog for specific details on what I do with them). I have continued to get closer with the players and other buddies on my team. The games on Saturdays are always a highlight of my week, and I often find myself looking forward to them after a long and stressful week of studying. The kids are always so happy and excited to be there, and their energy is so contagious. If I am ever feeling tired or especially stressed out, like when I am preparing for an exam, I find that going to the games really helps because of the kids' excitement for life. It reminds me that there is more to life than studying and school, and it gives me a slight reprieve from my daily stressors.  One of the boys on my team has been my buddy for a few games, and every time I see him, he gets a huge smile on his face. He always runs to sit down next to me on the bench and gives me a kiss on my shoulder. Although he is non-verbal, we have so

Hello! My name is Diane Hurwitz, and I am a current Pharmacology master's student at Tulane. On this blog, I will mainly be writing about my community service throughout the year as well as my academic experiences in the program.  My transition to this program and living in the CBD of New Orleans was not too difficult for me, since I went to Tulane for my undergrad. While I definitely still had to adjust to the amount of information being given over a period of time, I am very organized and good at scheduling my time well, so I have been handling this transition in stride. So far, I am also really enjoying the content that we have been learning! We first went over the basic principles of pharmacology, much of which I had learned in a previous course in undergrad, and then we went on to our inflammation module, discussing NSAIDs, histamines, corticosteroids, and immunosuppressants. I really enjoyed learning about drugs that are so common in many of our daily lives, such as ibuprofen