The coffee down here isn’t so great; in fact, it’s aggressively mediocre.  That’s not the first thing I say about New Orleans when reflecting on the city, but it is a considerable vice. The first thing that comes to mind isn’t the spectacular jazz music nor is it the po’ boys; It’s Peter Gold. Peter was the Tulane student who ran between a kidnapper’s gun and the victim on the bad side of the barrel. Peter’s a hero in the most quintessential sense of the word. But he isn’t the only one, this city is filled with heroes. The Tulane chancellor who made community service a student requirement after Katrina, the students who show up time and time again to help, and the locals who puts their blood and sweat into rebuilding the city are all heroes. Helping others is engraved into the cultural constitution of New Orleans and that sentiment extends from the city through the university and its students. Fidelity to helping others before we help ourselves is the city’s most important characteristic and because of that it’s only fair I forgive the bad coffee.

It also doesn’t take too long to see how seriously the school of medicine takes teaching. I am always thoroughly impressed by how detailed every professor is regarding each drug we learn about. In the last block we covered drugs relating to the cardiovascular and nervous systems. At first, I was a little overwhelmed by the seemingly endless list of contraindications and side effects for each drug. However, learning these became my favorite part of the curriculum. I think it’s important to know the side effects of a drug, big or small, because it prepares us to stay faithful to a cardinal rule of medicine, “do no harm”.

After two months I have grown to appreciate the academic rigor and the selfless culture that accompanies a Tulane education and I have begun settling into my niche here in the big easy. My first community service effort occurs this Friday with Habitat for Humanity and hopefully I can keep finding ways to make an impact inside the classroom and out.