UTEP Clinical Laboratory Science Students, Director Honored
UTEP Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) Director Lorraine Torres, Ed.D, and four CLS students were recognized at the TACLS: Texas Association for Clinical Laboratory Science annual meeting March 22-24 in El Paso.
Torres received the Omicron Sigma award for outstanding service. CLS students Claudia Huereca and Erick Rodriguez earned first place and third place awards, respectively, in the research poster presentation, and Amanda Sanchez and Stephanie Santiesteban were elected to the TACLS 2018-19 student forum.
Huereca’s poster was based on research she conducted on parasites that cause gastrointestinal illness in humans found in drinking water in the greater metropolitan area of San Jose, Costa Rica. Huereca traveled to Costa Rica in 2017 as part of UTEP’s Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program.
She previously earned outstanding poster presentation in the 2018 Undergraduate Student Competition at the Louisiana State University Shreveport Student Scholars Forum on March 2, 2018.
Huereca is a member of UTEP’s 21st Century Scholars and the Alpha Chi Honor Society.
She was accepted into the Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (IPREP) at Indiana University-Purdue University. IPREP prepares recent college graduates who are students from underrepresented minority or disadvantaged populations for admission to graduate programs in the biomedical and behavioral sciences.
Rodriguez will graduate cum laude from the CLS program in May 2018. His research poster was on the presence of enteric viruses in surface water after water has undergone the treatment processes in San Jose, Costa Rica. Rodriguez traveled to the Instituto de Investigaciones en Salud (INISA) at the University of Costa Rica as part of the MHIRT program in 2017.
Sanchez will serve as the TACLS Student Forum Chair. She will graduate from UTEP in May 2018. Santiesteban, a junior in the CLS program, was elected Student Forum Officer. As student forum representatives, Sanchez and Santiesteban will be the voice for CLS students across Texas. They will help students gain a better understanding of their career field and become involved and stay active within their profession.
TACLS is the state meeting of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), which was hosted this year by UTEP’s CLS program.
More than 200 clinical laboratory professionals and students from medical laboratory science programs across Texas attended the three-day conference that featured presentations from faculty in UTEP’s colleges of Health Sciences and Science, the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and El Paso Community College.
These gatherings provide scientific and technical continuing education sessions, as well as networking opportunities with local and regional colleagues.