April '25 (22hr month/ 32 hours total)

 This feels like the end of an era. As excited as I am to graduate, I am going to miss the friendships and connections that I made during this program. I am going to miss coming to room 4700 everyday and hearing from our very intelligent professors and fun study sessions with my friends. This month due to exam season we had more "free time" to study and plan for our futures. I used a ton of this time to volunteer and enjoy the weather as it starts to transition to spring. 

This month I volunteered the ENTIRE French Quarter Fest weekend! This was a new experience for me because I had never attended FQF let alone work it. It's so cool because it's a giant FREE festival right in the heart of New Orleans. It was so cool to see people and families that have been coming annually since they were children. To see the young hearts shine in the people of New Orleans was so amazing and freeing. I am going to miss the spirit of the people here once I take my next steps. Since I volunteered so many days, I was able to experience different parts of the festival. I was able to be a survey taker one day. I walked around (and maybe danced a little LOL) and presented a survey to guests that will help make the festival better and continue to keep it free! I also participated in the beer serving tent, which I will say is a skill! Pouring beer is 100% not as easy as it may look. My favorite volunteer day was spent in the STEM boat for kids. It was nice 1) because it was the only place with air-conditioning and clean bathrooms and 2) because I was able to help introduce children into the scientific community with fun mini experiments and games. For a lot of FQF I volunteered with friends and it was just so awesome to be apart of the community with them, it also felt like a bit of a last hurrah! I was also able to volunteer at the Crescent City Classic, the marathon in the heart of New Orleans. This was a super early morning, call time was 5:30am!!!! 😩 But I rolled myself out of bed that Saturday morning and helped to encourage and direct the runners to their correct corrals. It was so cool to see the start lines go from 0-20k+ people over the span of a few hours. It is so amazing to me how people train and show up early in the morning to run the 6.2 miles all while donating to an amazing cause! Who knows, maybe next year I'll join them in the running hahaha. And last but NOT least, I volunteered at Zeus to walk and play with the dogs, I also spent some time hanging with the cats! Please go check this place out, there are plenty of animals ready for loving homes. 

With this, I mark the end of my blogs. I will miss this program and cherish how much it shaped and changed me in this short year. Thank you to all of my professors, my classmates, and of course the GOAT Miss Linda! 

Signing off with Love,

Nuriah Wells, Pharmacology MS graduate CO 2025 :)