A new Medical Technology summer course, titled "Anatomy of Professionalism," has given two CHNS students the opportunity to attend a five-day meeting featuring the largest exposition of lab equipment in the world.

Derrick Smith and Keorapetse Bene Maidi, both CHNS 2003, along with Prof. Mary Ann McLane, who taught the course, traveled to Orlando, Fla., from July 30 to Aug. 3 to take part in the annual American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) meeting. Also attending were Prof. Mary Beth Miele, Instructor Deborah Costa and Laboratory Coordinator Victoria Maduskuie, all of the Department of Medical Technology.

More than 1,500 vendors of the latest medical instruments were present at the international conference, including Dade Behring, Olympus America and Johnson & Johnson. McLane says the one-credit class is based entirely on participation at the meeting, which included daily sessions encouraging students to continue their studies as postgraduates.

"This provides students with exposure to professionalism at its best," McLane says. "Being in a place where 10,000 people are as passionate about a topic as you are. It's almost impossible to duplicate an experience like this in the classroom."

McLane defines professionalism as the way that a person makes what he or she is doing a career, not simply a job.

"I don't teach button pushers," she says. "Students have to be growing and developing the characteristics of professionalism and making important choices while still in school."

Maidi says she enrolled in the class "to meet and interact with medical technology professionals and learn more about the international aspect of the field."

McLane says she also believes that the ASCLS meeting was a good opportunity for the students to network with others who belong to a professional society. It's quite possible, she says, that such networking can lead to a job.

"I look to students as possible future colleagues--medical technologists in whose hands I will eventually place my family's life," she says.

--Elissa Serrao, AS 2003