Medical Lab Techs Celebrate with Pinning Ceremony

Eight students were pinned in celebration of their completion of Beaufort County Community College’s medical laboratory technology program. The ceremony lauded the successes of Suzanne Ambrose, Lauren Armstrong, Stacey Bennett, Staton Chapman, Tammera Cooper, Mallory Ebner, Jalen Hill, and Kelli Phelps. While the students held their own ceremony, they also will also participate in the Class of 2024 Graduation at Washington High School on Friday, May 10.

The medical lab tech program is a two-year associate degree program in which students learn to work in a clinical laboratory setting. Students study topics such as blood typing and transfusions, how to identify and count red and white blood cells and how to measure chemicals within the blood. Not only do they deal with blood work, they also learn how to identify infectious bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

Medical lab technicians help identify illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, leukemia, and sickle-cell. Often when a patient visits a doctor’s office or hospital, from routine check-ups to serious illnesses, there is lab work involved. Without the work of lab technicians, doctors would have little to talk about with their patients besides their symptoms and outward appearance. Lab work helps narrow down the diagnosis, guide which antibiotic would be the most useful, and recommend a which type of blood to give to a patient.

During the pinning ceremony, Joshua Maynor, lead instructor for medical laboratory technology, highlighted the accomplishments of Lauren Armstrong, who earned the highest grade point average (GPA). Armstrong is graduating with 4.0 grade point average, summa cum laude. Suzanne Ambrose and Jalen Hill are graduating with magna cum laude honors, and Tammera Cooper and Kelli Phelps are graduating cum laude.

Maynor also acknowledged Suzanne Ambrose as recipient of the Art Keehnle Award, given to outstanding graduates of Beaufort’s medical lab tech program. The award recognizes students who persist in the program despite obstacles.

Graduates of the medical lab tech program may work in a hospital or physician’s office laboratory, public health agencies, veterinarians’ offices, and industrial, research, and pharmaceutical laboratories. To complete the program, students must take four semesters of coursework on campus and complete one semester of clinical rotations at local hospital affiliates.

Future students have until June 1 to apply for the medical lab technology program. For more information about the medical lab tech program, contact the Advising Center at 252-940-6353.