Service High senior says Providence lab internship confirmed interest in medical-testing work

Emma Kechel, a senior at Service High School, said she completed a Career and Technical Education internship in medical laboratory services at Providence and that the experience helped her decide whether to pursue that career path. "I don't have a medical license, so that makes it a bit hard, but it was a lot of learning and observing from a lot of the staff members within the lab," Kechel said.

Kechel told the meeting she learned about testing for bacteria, viruses and other pathogens and observed how specimens are handled. A staff member described the lab workflow: "I receive culture specimens. We process those and set them up on plates, then analyze and read those plates doing biochemical testing to isolate and identify bacterial agents of disease," the staff member said.

Kechel said the hands-on observation and mentorship were central to her learning. She singled out a staff member named Dawn for mentoring and said working with Dawn and others was "a really crucial part in getting patients through the hospital, getting their testing done." The staff member added that the internship made an impact and noted ongoing learning opportunities from new technology and training.

Kechel said the internship gave her firsthand exposure to a professional environment and helped her evaluate whether medical-lab work is a fit: "You get to meet a lot of new people, see what the professional environment you wanna go into is like, and get kind of that just firsthand experience of like, oh, is this what I wanna do or is this not what I wanna do?" The session closed with Kechel summarizing that she had gained practical insight despite not holding a medical license.