Medical Laboratory Science students to compete in academic bowl at state CLS meeting

Time & Date

Thursday, February 23, 2017

By Kate Hunger

They don’t do it for money and certainly not for widespread fame. But for students like Alan Matthews, competing in the Academic Student Bowl at the Texas Medical Laboratory Science Annual Meeting will be a chance to try something new and test his know-how mere months before graduation.

“It just sounds like fun, a new experience for me,” the clinical laboratory sciences senior said.

Contestants will face off in 30-minute rounds in a double-elimination format.

“I always tell the students it’s a little bit like ‘Jeopardy,’ only the categories are disciplines in medical laboratory sciences,” said Cheryl Burns, associate professor and director of the Medical Laboratory Sciences master’s and bachelor’s programs. “Rather than having a geographic category we have a category on hematology or clinical chemistry or micro.”

Burns will be serving as one of the bowl judges. UT Health San Antonio students took second place in the competition last year, she said.

The meeting, which will be held March 29 to April 1 in Dallas-Ft. Worth, offers continuing education for professionals in the field and also academic panels for students and first-year professionals.

Although he attended the meeting last year, Matthews will be paying particular attention this year to panels with tips that will help him in his job search.