Volunteering in April

Common Ground Health Clinic – Tuesday, April 2nd  – 3 hours
KIPP Leadership Primary – Thursday, April 4th – 2.5 hours
Habitat for Humanity – Saturday, April 6th – 4 hours
Environmental Pharmacology Soil Collection – Sunday, April 7th – 2 hours
Common Ground Health Clinic – Friday, April 26th – 2 hours

In order to take a break from studying (finishing up the SHELF and gearing up for the MCAT), I loaded up the beginning of my month with volunteering at the places I normally do. At the clinic I helped put together the quarterly newsletter that is sent out to a few thousand people in the city and around the nation, and then worked with Desiree on planning for the “Community Day” event that will take place in early May. Many new providers have joined CGHC and as part of the clinic’s goal to serve the Algiers community, the clinic has decided they would like to do a meet and greet by door-knocking around the neighborhood and inviting everyone to a party of-sorts at the new clinic community garden. It sounds like it should be a fun summer event and a nice way to relax after, what I hear, are bound to be two crazy weeks of Jazz Fest.

I also volunteered at KIPP this month with Jenny. The teachers and staff are starting to wind-down for the year, so one of my tasks was to take inventory of, and put away the student graduation robes! While I’m in the process of getting ready to graduate for the 3rd time, it was more exciting for me to count the number of tiny graduation robes that will be presented to the 1st graders at KIPP. Over the time I have spent volunteering there, I have come to realize not only how much time and effort the teachers put in, but also how much each student strives to achieve. They are each expected to work incredibly hard, and through the constant interventions (and compassion) the teachers provide, they are challenged to grow everyday: academically, emotionally and socially. While kindergarten or 1st grade at KIPP doesn’t look like what I went through, it is truly a testament to the change this school is trying to have on children in this city. Not only are they making an impact on the high drop-out rates, but they are fulfilling the desire most parents have for their children: to provide the best education possible. These kids are getting ready for their first graduation so that they can make it to the next big one- high school, and I have a feeling that most of them will.

Habitat on Saturday was a half day because it was also the day of the 1st Annual Habitat Romp! A Tulane team of Jade, Alex, Srinath, Shuo and myself worked with two other groups (a Christian men’s organization and a small group from Loyola) to work on a house in the process of being built- literally. Some groups nailed in the roof, others put in siding, and we prepared the windows for painting. This pretty much involved caulking all of the windows and using wood glue to fill in any extra holes. It wasn’t necessarily the most glamorous job, but it did take the five of us the full four hours to finish it.

As most of my classmates did, I also participated in the soil collection “volunteer opportunity” for Environmental Pharmacology. I think Dr. Mielke gave us all a great background on the importance of this work, and I know I was definitely excited to get out into the city and take some samples of my own. Geared with the information sheets and plastic cups Dr. Mielke provided us, my classmate Alex and I made a day of it. We first headed over to Cabrini Park in the French Quarter. While it is currently being used as a dog park (which happened to be packed with adorable dogs curious about what we were doing), it is a site that is being considered for a playground. And with its proximity to another KIPP Charter school, it is understandable that the park should be checked for high lead levels. (The results of our collection showed higher than acceptable lead levels at the park- between 200 and 335 ppm in 5 different parts of the park. Acceptable levels are 100 ppm.) We also headed over to another popular area- Louis Armstrong Park on Rampart St. It was a gorgeous Sunday and the park was filled with locals, tourists, children and social groups. Fortunately the lead levels here were lower, and with so much grass, lead getting around isn’t as much of a concern. (Lead levels were between 5-165ppm).

(Pictures to come soon)