Good morning Vanderbilt! My first morning at Vanderbilt was
very calm and stress free. Thinking there may be a line for the showers, I woke
up 30 minutes early. However, there was
no one in the bathroom. I got ready pretty quickly and then headed down to eat
breakfast. All the food here has been pretty good, and there is a lot of
variety.
After a good breakfast with my proctor group, we each met
with our teacher assistant’s to head over to our classroom. The Pharmacology
classroom was not too far away, so I’m thankful I don’t have to walk too much
in this heat. Our professor, Michelle Sulikowski, is a professor at Vanderbilt
teaching in the biological and chemistry sciences. She also directs the
research program here, so we are very lucky to be able to be in a classroom
setting with her. I am glad she is not
strict, but rather very kind and willing to help with our needs.
After we got to know the students in the class a little better, Dr. Sulikowski went right into discussing the syllabus of the class. She is the type of
teacher who is an expert in her field, so she could go on and on about
different things all surrounding the concept of drugs. From organic chemistry to motivated reasoning,
she began to give us an insight of what knowledge we will gain over these next
few weeks.
Honestly, I was pretty overwhelmed with all the information, but I
expected it. Being taught college curriculum is really different from any high
school class. I didn’t understand everything she said, and I know I will be
challenged as I study Pharmacology. Our time spent in class today mainly
surrounded the topic of chemistry. Dr. Sulikowski is making sure we are all at
the same level with general chemistry before we go in depth with the study of
how drugs work. There were many things that were new to me in chemistry that I
didn’t learn during my sophomore year, but fortunately I caught on pretty
easily. With Yessenia by my side, the knowledge of another girl at my table (who
by the way took AP Chemistry), and of course our professor, I was able to
understand everything. One thing that I found very fun in chemistry was
learning how to draw organic structures. I enjoyed changing the Lewis structure
to the KeKule structure. I’m beginning to enjoy chemistry, and as I continue to
dig deeper into the sciences of drugs, I may be interested to study it in
college.
We also began reading a book about the study of drugs, and I found it
really interesting. It not only discussed the sciences of drugs but also how it
greatly affects our society. I learned that a drug is any substance that is put
in your body and changes your bodily condition. Many people know that cocaine
is a drug, but many don’t know that drinks with caffeine are also considered
drugs. There are many controversies about just the definitions concerning
drugs, and I’m excited to put my debate skills into work, as we will also hold
debates in our class concerning these topics.
Although this class will be very rigorous, with just a load of information
to take in, I am excited to learn much, much more. From watching educational
videos, to exploring the research labs here on campus, I can’t wait to bring
this information back to my own community.
Of course we had lunch in between two class sessions, and I especially enjoyed
choosing from the dessert area. There were endless things to choose from, including: cookies, brownies, rice krispies, tarts, cakes, and even pies. I ended
up eating a delicious, strawberry shortcake.
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| Getting to know my proctor group more! |
This was also our first day of Arête classes. I was put into a dance class, and it
was quite fun. We learned two line dances, and throughout this week we will
also learn Bollywood and some Latin dances. By the end of this week we will
perform in front of everybody. It’s really cool to be able to learn different
things and stretch across my own comfort zone. I’m not the greatest dancer, but
I really enjoy doing it!
We had a nice American dinner, and then had Trivia Night! We were
all split into groups, and my proctor group was called Survivor Sisters! The
topics of the rounds ranged from history to music. Honestly, it was pretty
challenging and tiring just thinking about each question. Unfortunately, our
group didn’t win, but we did our best and learned a lot of facts we didn’t
know!
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| The Survival Sisters! |
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