CHS Welcomes New Faculty – Meet CLS Alum Alva Rodarte

Published September 27, 2023                                                                                                                            By Darlene Muguiro                                                                                                                                                UTEP College of Health Sciences

This fall, the College of Health Sciences (CHS) is welcoming new faculty members across several departments.

We are pleased to present the fourth profile, featuring Alva Rodarte, clinical instructor in the Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) Program. Rodarte received a Bachelor of Clinical Laboratory Science degree from UTEP and a Master of Public Health degree from UT Houston School of Public Health. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Science degree from UT Galveston.

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Alva Rodarte, a 2017 graduate of the Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) Program and current clinical instructor, says that she didn’t always think she would become a medical laboratory scientist. Rather, her unconventional path to CLS was bumpy and had a few unexpected turns.

“When I was younger, I never thought I would do anything for a career related to studying anything that comes out of the human body, and that somehow randomly changed,” she said. “I saw an advertisement for the CLS Program as a senior in high school, when I was wondering what to do next, but I was advised to think about other options, because the degree is so rare.”

After several changes in her major, Rodarte landed in forensic science, only to be told that it might be difficult to find jobs in the field. But her newly found passion and determination to eventually get into forensics led her back to her original idea of pursuing a CLS degree.

“At that time, my brother was dating a girl who was in the program, and she gave me a presentation about what they were doing, and I really liked it. So, I came back to UTEP to visit the advisors to get more information, and eventually enrolled,” she said.

After graduation, Rodarte worked for the Hospitals of Providence in their blood banks and then began working full time for a separate ER laboratory in a generalist role. It was during this time that she realized she wanted to continue her education.

“I was going head-to-head with some of the doctors in making decisions about what they should or shouldn’t be doing in ordering tests, and I felt that the only way that they would listen to me is if I had a background that would cover me and reflect that I knew what I was talking about,” she said. “I decided to pursue my master’s degree in Public Health at UT Houston first and then immediately began my doctorate in CLS at UT Galveston a few months after graduating, while working at El Paso Children’s Hospital and The Hospitals of Providence.”

Rodarte was drawn to the idea of teaching at UTEP during her preceptorship role at the hospitals, where she worked one-on-one with CLS students, advising them on specific topics. She ultimately accepted an adjunct position in the UTEP CLS Program after asking about potential volunteer opportunities.

In her current position as a full-time clinical instructor, Rodarte says she feels most motivated when she sees her strategies working well in the classroom. She says that her experiences as a former student in the CLS Program affords her the opportunity to relate to them on a very personal level.

“These students are wonderful. This is an intense program, and yet, they’re able to go through it and still have a smile on their face every day and keep trying, even though they might not have done well on a test or quiz,” she said. “They have a sense of perseverance that maybe students in other colleges may not need to have, because they have to take an intense load of required courses, and I know how stressful it can be.”

Rodarte says that she hopes her students will come to know her on a human level, particularly because she understands the stress that they feel on a daily basis.

“I know what they’re feeling, because I’ve been there before, and I hope that they don’t get too stressed out when I’m watching them doing something in the lab,” she said. “I continue to feel that myself as a doctoral student, being critiqued on everything that I do. But I truly believe that they can do whatever they put their mind to, no matter what others may think. Anything is possible.”

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Go Miners!

For more information about the Clinical Laboratory Science Program, please visit: www.utep.edu/chs/cls.