Orientation: Take 2

Day two of Orientation has come and gone.  This is great news, because orientations bore me.  I'm sorry.  That's kind of negative, but it's true.  It's probably just that I'm anxious to get cracking on the actual learning-how-to-be-a-PA part of PA school.

At least I took some pictures today.  Well, I took one of the class, and it was at the end of a break, so not everyone is in their seat.  It's a pretty lame pic, but I wanted to post it to show you what our classroom looks like.  The room is pretty much full once everybody is in it.

 Oh, and I forgot to add this picture the other day.  Back on Wednesday night, about half of the class got together for food/drinks at a place downtown.  It was cool to get to meet a lot of my classmates before orientation on Thursday.

Honestly though, orientation was a little better today.  Aside from the hour we took going through the entire Academic Year Student Manual, there some highlights.  After breakfast, Dr. Syed (Coordinator of Tobacco Education) came and talked to us about Red Ribbon Week.  Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco and drug prevention/awareness campaign held in October.  Apparently we get to go with him to middle schools around Gainesville and talk to kids about how tobacco is bad for them.  He said the kids can get a little feisty.  I think it sounds fun!

Our financial aid coordinator also came and talked to us.  Now, I wouldn't exactly call learning about the crushing debt that will soon be hanging over me fun, but it at least it was...informative.

 Then the president of the Class of 2013 came and talked to us about the student officer positions and elections.  I guess we'll hold these at the end of Summer term. There are the standard offices (Pres. VP, Secretary, Treasurer), but there are a ton of other ways to serve: PA school rep to the College of Medicine student council, Florida Academy of Physician Assistants (FAPA) student rep, intramural sports coordinator, social events coordinator, and lots more.

Lastly, a 4th year med student came and talked to us about the Equal Access Clinic.  This is a free clinic run completely by students of the College of Medicine (med students, pharm D students, PAs, etc).  The clinic provides access to health care for the rather large uninsured population of Alachua County.  The cool thing is, we can start volunteering there right away.  The more we learn in class, the more we can do in the clinic.  It gives us a chance to get some hands-on experience long before we get to our hospital practicum or our second-year clinical rotations.

After that last little spiel, we all headed out to Lake Wauberg for welcome lunch with some 2nd year students and some of the faculty.  This place is pretty cool.  It's a lake owned by the university where they rent out kayaks and canoes and sailboats for free to students.  They also have a little beach with a roped off swimming area and picnic tables and whatnot.  I did remember to take pictures here :)

After talking to most everybody, it seems like many of us share a similar personality type, but our backgrounds and situations are really diverse.  It's going to be interesting to learn everybody's strengths and where I fit into the class.

And that was orientation.  Monday we jump right in with anatomy lecture and dissection lab in the morning (yes, we get to dissect our cadavers) followed by Medical Communications in the afternoon.  Wish me luck!!