In her third semester in the MLT program, Emily shares why she decided to pursue the medical education program at Allegany College of Maryland (ACM).
Student Spotlight: Emily
Emily chose this program because of her deep curiosity and love for science. As someone who likes to ask “why”—why things happen, what processes are at play, the MLT program allows Emily to explore those questions in a meaningful way.
Watch this student spotlight of Emily, MLT Student on JoinMdHealth’s TikTok.
@joinmdhealth Being in the MLT program is hands-on. It’s science. It’s innovation 💡🔬🦠 #MLT #medicallabtechnologist #medicallaboratorytechnician #science #college #Maryland #AlleganyCollege #fyppppp ♬ Yasashi – CXSPER
Why did you choose to study in the MLT program?
“I chose this program because I wanted to explore my love for science and I always was a person who wondered why, why things happen, what occurs,” says Emily.
One of the things Emily loves most is that MLTs get hands-on experience doing the kind of work medical laboratory technologists actually do.
What does a MLT do?
Emily says, “we really get to explore in the MLT program and we get to provide doctors with results and all the testing. We are the people behind the scenes doing that and we are directly involved with people’s health without patient contact.
Currently, we are in microbiology and we are doing susceptibility testing. This is E. coli.
That’s one of my favorite things about the program is we are in in the depth of doing the actual work we would as an MLT. What makes this program so much fun is [that] we get to do what we would do every single day.”
What does your ideal future career path look like?
“The good thing about this program is you can do so many different things with it. You are not just, you know, slated to MLT. You can branch off into forensic science, You can do administration, you can do teaching, you can do all kinds of stuff. So this really opens up a world of opportunities in the in the medical science field. And you don’t even have to stay medical–like I plan to end up going to forensics.
I think this is a really cool and educational program.”
Emily finds it fascinating and exciting to be involved in real lab work that plays a critical role in patient care, even being behind the scenes rather than interacting directly with patients.
What makes this program even more exciting is the wide range of career opportunities it opens up. While it prepares us to become MLTs, it’s not limited to just that path. There are possibilities in forensic science, administration, teaching, and more. It’s not only a great foundation for a career in medical science, but it can also be a stepping stone into other fields.