Beaufort County Community college proudly announces Lisa Robinett as the recipient of the statewide NC AACC Outstanding Student Recognition Award. These awards are given annually by the North Carolina local section of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Executive Committee to recognize aspiring lab leaders early in their career. Lisa Robinett was pinned as a medical laboratory technician on May 8 and graduated on May 10 from BCCC.

During the pinning ceremony, Fashikie Smith, lead professor for medical laboratory technology, highlighted Robinett’s accomplishments, including her 4.0 grade point average and drive to learn about technologies both new and old.

“Lisa is just the kind of student that helps to make our classroom a lively and safe place to take intellectual risks,” wrote Smith in her nomination of Robinett. “I cannot begin to tell you how refreshing it is as an instructor, to have a student who, so enthusiastically and fully, accepts that the onus of learning truly rests upon the shoulders of the student.”

Robinett started at BCCC as a nursing student, but she was so enthralled by her first chemistry class that she eventually switched programs.

“I enjoyed every minute of that course and was lucky enough to have an amazing professor who encouraged my curiosity and excitement with chemistry,” Robinett wrote in a letter. Her professor stoked her passion by allowing her to tutor other students in chemistry.

“In my nursing courses, I found myself focusing on the pathophysiology of diseases and the importance of the work done in the laboratory,” she continued. Halfway through her program she decided to follow her passion into the laboratory. “It was the best decision I have ever made and I’m so excited to start my career as a laboratory tech.”

The medical lab tech program is a two-year associate 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. Students take four semesters of coursework on campus and complete one semester of clinical rotations at local hospital affiliates. Graduates may work in a hospital or physician’s office laboratory, public health agencies, veterinarians’ offices, and industrial, research, and pharmaceutical laboratories.

The American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) is a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to clinical laboratory science and its application to healthcare. Its leadership in education, advocacy and collaboration helps lab professionals adapt to change and do what they do best: provide vital insight and guidance so patients get the care they need.