3 Engaging Ideas for Teaching Students About Laboratory + Pathology Careers

One of the biggest challenges the laboratory workforce faces is visibility. Pathologists and laboratory professionals are facing staff shortages, in part because so many students don’t even realize these jobs exist. They see nurses, doctors, and X-ray technicians—but getting students to consider careers done wholly behind the scenes is difficult, to say the least. They don’t understand the breadth of opportunities available to them. 

The good news is that pathologists and medical laboratory professionals are in a unique position to reach younger generations and build a foundation that will inspire them as they choose their careers. They can help students discover a rewarding profession that, otherwise, they might have missed entirely. 

But if you want to do this, how do you even get started?  

Below, four laboratory and pathology professionals discuss their creative approaches to introducing students to laboratory professions. Their stories range from a unique collaboration with a professional baseball team to hosting hands-on mobile laboratories. And one doctor is so passionate about the field that he visits schools and hosts tours all on his own. 

Here’s a closer look at three unique approaches that might inspire your own ideas.  

Creating baseball cards for a sports-themed STEM fair 

A local STEM fair in Cleveland inspired two laboratory education specialists to create baseball cards and interactive labs for thousands of excited middle schoolers.  

Amy Miller, MLS (ASCP)^CM, Hematology Laboratory Education Specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, and Kaitlin Landfried, MLS (ASCP)^CM, Microbiology Laboratory Education Specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, were thrilled when they were invited to join 55 other vendors at a STEM fair hosted by the Cleveland Guardians baseball team.  

About 3,200 middle schoolers from 30 schools in the greater Cleveland area attended the May event, which was co-hosted by Swagelock, a fluid system management company. Booths were set up all around the stadium, both inside and outside, and the event took place shortly before a baseball game.  

Swagelock reached out to the Cleveland Clinic to see if they wanted to participate. With only two weeks’ notice, Mrs. Landfried and Mrs. Miller had to come up with a creative plan fast.  

They wanted the students to walk away with something tangible that they could take home, so they decided to make laboratory-themed baseball cards. 

Each card focused on a laboratory profession and included statistics on the career, day-to-day activities, and themed pictures. They designed the cards in Canva using ready-made templates.  

But they also wanted to provide something more hands-on. 

“We wanted something interactive, especially for that age range,” Mrs. Landfried says. 

So, they offered two experiments: one testing urine dipsticks and one forward typing ABO blood groups.  

Creating non-toxic urine and blood that could mimic a laboratory test was a challenge. They used how-to guides from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), making a few alterations based on the supplies they had on hand. The “urine” would give a positive diabetes result, and the “blood” would give results for specific blood types.  

Mixes of red food coloring, half and half, vinegar, and saline were used for blood typing. For diabetic urine, sugar products like Smarties could be added. 

“We chose those tests because they’re something middle schoolers can understand,” Mrs. Miller says. “Diabetes is something everyone’s heard about. As well as giving blood, because you see the Red Cross all the time.”  

On the day of the STEM fair, their booth got a lot of positive attention. The interactive element was perfect for middle schoolers.  

“That age range really needs hands on,” Mrs. Landfried says. “It was enough to keep them engaged and interested. It would be nice to incorporate more interactive activities in other events, not only for middle schoolers, but even high school and college students.”  

They encourage anyone with a similar idea to jump right in.  

“No matter how crazy your idea is for promoting the profession, you should give it a try,” Mrs. Landfried says. “Even if you have doubts about how successful it’s going to go or if it requires a lot of work, crazy ideas are often unique enough that they will stick with whoever you’re presenting to in the long run.”  

Reaching students through a grassroots approach 

Vihar Patel, MD, FASCP, is an assistant professor at UC Davis Health in California with a specialty in neuropathology and surgical pathology. He’s so passionate about his career that he began reaching out to schools all on his own.  

The source of his passion is personal. Dr. Patel didn’t discover that pathology was the perfect fit for him until he was already in medical school. Now he wants to make sure that other students get a chance to learn about the career earlier than he did.   

“I don’t want students to miss out on the opportunity or make the decision at the very end and then try to scramble to make something happen,” he says.  

Dr. Patel began his grassroots effort by reaching out to the high school he had attended.  

“I just said, ‘Hey, I’d like to introduce this career to students. Is there any way that we can do this?’” he says.  

The school invited him for career day. He hosted sessions with three classes, where he used a PowerPoint presentation to discuss medical careers involving pathology. He’s also visited high schools for ASCP Lab Week. He wants students to understand that there’s more to medicine than the surgeons or family doctors they always hear about—and these other careers can be just as fulfilling. 

“From phlebotomists to clinical chemistry to the person interpreting it,” he says. “All of that is laboratory medicine. These are other careers in healthcare where you can still have a great job, good pay, and be happy.”  

Dr. Patel also taught a one-week summer anatomy boot camp for high school students. The boot camp ends with a tour of the UC Davis medical campus.  

When developing his boot camp curriculum, he puts himself in the students’ shoes and starts with the basics, introducing pathology terminology and a general overview of the field. Then he delves into organ systems.  

“What are some things you should know about in terms of physiology?” he says. “What does it look like under a microscope? When disease happens, what does that look like? Keep everything somewhat brief but pertinent.”  

Reaching out to students doesn’t have to be hard, Dr. Patel says. Anyone interested in doing the same can start where they’re most comfortable. Talk with a school you’ve attended or attend a local career fair. The opportunities will grow from there. 

NEXTPO to Go brings hands-on laboratories to local schools 

Every fall, the ASCP Annual Meeting hosts an exhibit dedicated to teaching students about laboratory careers. Called NEXTPO, it offers hands-on stations that are engaging and fun. And while it’s a hit, it has a big limitation: it only reaches a small number of students once a year.  

Kerwin Kolheffer, MS, PA(ASCP)^CM, Associate Professor and Educational Coordinator of the Pathologists’ Assistant Program at Eastern Virginia Medical School, is part of a group that realized NEXTPO needed to go mobile. He helped develop NEXTPO to Go, a tool ASCP Career Ambassadors can use to make the laboratory come alive for students right where they are. 

“A few years back at the strategic planning meeting for the ASCP Council of Laboratory Professionals, we were talking about how to build on NEXTPO,” Mr. Kolheffer says. “I suggested, ‘We can have NEXTPO To Go,’ and that was it. We were off and running.”  

Anyone interested in hosting NEXTPO to Go will get a digital toolkit that walks them through putting together an event, including interactive stations and Q&As. And while the event is targeted to high school students, it can be altered a bit to fit older or younger students too. 

“It’s a hands-on experience to introduce students to careers in laboratory medicine and pathology,” Mr. Kolheffer says. “To pull back the curtain and see not only what the jobs are, but how important they are.” 

Mr. Kolheffer hosted the very first NEXTPO to Go as an EVMS-Old Dominion University collaboration (EVMS and ODU merged on July 1, 2024) and hopes to encourage others to host their own.  

The key, he says, is making the event interactive and engaging from the start.  

For example, you can invite students from the audience to stand in the front. Each student gets a sign representing a different medical laboratory profession involved in diagnosing a sick student. As the group grows larger and larger, it makes a big impression.  

“Students can see this huge mass of people who are holding signs, reminding you that it takes a huge team behind the scenes,” he says.   

Another fun activity is a PPE race where students race against each other to put on disposable PPE. Then you can transition to hands-on lab stations. 

For Mr. Kolheffer’s event, he brought in a cytologist, medical laboratory scientist, pathologist assistant, and histotechnologist to run hands-on stations. After each station, students received questionnaires about their experiences.  

“It’s not passive,” Mr. Kolheffer says. “From the very beginning, we have them involved in actively doing things.”  

ASCP’s digital toolkit makes it easier to host a NEXTPO to Go if you never have before.  

“We have planning sheets and organizational charts that help you work out the logistics,” Mr. Kolheffer says. “We’ve built out tools for planning activities, including questions to give students after a station. The toolkit is the framework for staying organized and not forgetting anything.”  

It helps keep you on task.  

“If you download these forms, you can just say, ‘OK, I need to make sure each one of my presenters on my team has this filled out,’” Mr. Kolheffer says. “And if they do, then you know what they need and what they’re going to do.”  

Anyone who’s a pathologist or laboratory professional can run a NEXTPO to Go if they’re interested, he says.  

“It’s not that hard, especially with the toolkit,” Mr. Kolheffer says. “The first time you do it, it’ll be more work because you have to build your team and come up with your activities. But once you’ve done that, the next one is easy.”  

Mr. Kolheffer hopes that as word gets out, he’ll start seeing NEXTPO to Go events pop up all around the country.  

Creativity can go a long way in reaching students 

Pathologists and laboratory professionals can do a lot to raise the visibility of their careers. Students are ready and eager to learn, especially if you can provide an engaging, hands-on opportunity for them.  

A little creativity can go a long way. If you’re interested, you can start by following one of the ideas shared above as a blueprint or coming up with your own. You’ll not only inspire students, but you may find that you inspire other professionals around you to reach out with their own events too.