[Susan Gallagher]  The M-L-T program at Erie Community College is very demanding.  The science level is very high.

[Marcia Bermel]   The students that are in the M-L-T program begin with their basic biology’s, chemistry’s, math and advanced through those.  In their first semester they should be at the upper level in all those areas.

[Cynthia Huer]  We train them to be a generalist in the field, so they would take courses not just in clinical chemistry, the area I teach, but also hematology and microbiology and immunal hematology, and each of those they have lectures and they have labs.  In the lecture we would present the theory involved in the field and in the lab they put that into practice.  

[Pam Huber] The students working in the small laboratory setting really learn well the particular techniques.  They can ask a lot of questions, we are always there to guide them.

[Cynthia Huer]  Each of the faculty in the Medical Lab Technology department has extensive experience in the field that they teach.  

[Susan Gallagher] I can prepare all my blood bank labs like we are in a hospital.  And that's what our chemistry teacher does, that's what our hematology instructor does.  That's what our microbiology, our microbiology professor worked in a hospital as a microbiologist, has her master's in microbiology; everyone has their specialty.  And it's nice that the students have reference then in experiences in those specific areas versus someone who's worked in all the areas but not in depth.

[Sonja Miller]  Ok, this is the neutrophil.

[Sonja Miller] In order to reinforce the on-campus learning activities, the students go to the V-A hospital and Buffalo General Hospital in the hematology coagulation clinical chemistry department.

[Pamela Huber]  And the students go in there to actually work on patient specimens and also to observe certain procedures, which we are not able to set up and duplicate on campus.  

[Cynthia Huer]  And there will be numbers that indicate the volume being pipetted.

[Cynthia Huer]  Once the student graduates from the medical lab curriculum, they would take an examination to become licensed and would then be able to be hired to work in a clinical laboratory.  There is a lot of diversity as to what the graduate can do once they've received a degree.  Not only to work in a hospital laboratory, but also a physician’s office laboratory, to work in an industrial laboratory.

[Marcia Bermel]  A basic science, hands-on laboratory oriented degree can take you into research, it can take you into any of the medical profession degrees, students can go into education, they could go into veterinary tech, they can go into environmental testing.  There's just many areas that students need to think about outside just clinical hospital setting.

[Sonja Miller] The neutrophil has fine, specific granules who's overall net effect is pink.

[Marcia Bermel]  Our graduates leave the program with a certain level of self esteem that they didn't have prior to coming into the program, a feeling of accomplishment and know that they can take on the next step.