I have gotten involved on campus...

Kelley asked me a few weeks ago if I have considered getting involved with clubs on campus. I had never really done that before, but decided that it is a good idea. Perhaps I am a little in over my head, but I was able to successfully campaign to become the Research Chair for the Student Pediatric Society, the Tar Wars Chair for the Family Practice Interest Group, the Gun Violence Prevention Chair for Physicians for Social Responsibility and I will probably end up being the Anti-Nuclear Proliferation Chair for PSR too. I was also thinking of getting involved with the Rural and Underserved Medicine group too. I haven't heard much from them yet, but we shall see. Tar Wars is a nationallly organized program run by the AAFP that is interested in educating elementary school children regarding the dangers of tobacco usage. I had the chance to go to a local school and tell them why smoking sucks! It was a whole lot of fun. Some of you might think that due to my love for firearms that the Gun Violence Prevention position might be a little contradictory, but it isn't at all. I think that people need to know that guns aren't inherently bad, but people need to use and store them safely. I have a feeling that nobody that has held this position in the past has ever seen a gun, let alone fired one. It is kind of a liberal group, but I feel that a little moderation might prove to be beneficial. Oh, I was able to get a 87.6% on my last microbiology exam. The average was an 82%. I was hoping to do a little bit better, but that is good enough. I also received my statistics score. That wasn't so pretty, 69%. It is passing, albeit under the average. Whatever. I passed. I would have just passed had I scored an 82%. Who likes statistics anyway??? Tuesday, I met with the Emergency Medicine Interest Group at the department chair's house. EM is looking pretty good. I can't wait to do my rotation in it. Kelley and I saw An Inconvenient Truth on Thursday. It was much better than I thought that it was going to be. There was a little bit of Gore pouting about losing the election and some politician trying to play scientist, but all in all it was good. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. We truly need to be more conscious of the impact that we make on the earth. We need to also support measures that will improve emissions and limit the amount of pollution of all kinds. I also met with my new PI (a pediatric hematology/oncology doc) for my summer research project / job / something to pass the time. I will be studying a calcium channel in bone marrow that responds to EPO and anticancer drugs. I still haven't found out if I have my required research project waived. Due to the fantastic support staff at PSU I have been delayed months on finding this out. Hopefully with a little support from the Dean I will get this figured out soon. We hope that you are all having a fantastic weekend, or have had a fantastic weekend!!!