Back to ACPHS!

First week back from break. First week of classes. First week of fun (with some stress mixed in there too.) It might seem like it would be difficult to readjust back to school from being home for a month, but it’s actually a nice change being back. While it was nice catching up with my family and friends, relaxing every night, and getting caught up with all of my favorite reality shows, I’m happy to be back with my friends and having structure to my days. I thought that sitting in front of the TV and eating cheese doodles all day was going to be great for four weeks, but to my surprise it gets old after about a week. After all of the festivities of the holidays, I couldn’t wait to get back and see all of my friends, be in Albany, and get my mind working again.

Being a Bachelor’s of Science student here at ACPHS means that things for me are a little bit different than my other PharmD friends. I take different classes, which are usually much smaller, and I experience a different part of ACPHS (mainly the HS part) that most students don’t get to. While I am taking a few PharmD courses, like organic chemistry II and psychology, I’m also taking a number of courses aimed at just the Biomedical Technology students. Everyone normally takes two sciences per semester, so in addition to organic, I’m taking an integrated Biochemistry and Cellular Biology course. There are 10-12 people in my class, which means I get one on one attention and have been able to get close to my professor and ask questions whenever I have one. I’m always actively engaged because, believe me, with that small of a lecture, the professor always knows when someone isn’t paying attention. In addition, I’m taking a sophomore seminar course. In this class we are all assigned a topic related to health care and throughout the semester research that topic, writing two pages about it per week and then presenting to the class our research once a week. By the end of the semester, I will have about a 30 page paper on a health care topic, which is pretty remarkable to me. Seems like a lot but spread over the semester, it’s not so bad. In addition to this, I’m still dancing it up with the Dance Team, being a peer mentor, and making time for some fun on the weekends.

Well, I need to get back to work. It’s imperative that I get all my work done during the day because CNN is airing the Hope for Haiti concert tonight at 8 and Dave Matthews Band is playing! I cant miss it. Have a great weekend!