Not every student who graduates from college receives hands on experience conducting enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs), but as a University of Minnesota Medical Laboratory Sciences (MLS) program graduate, Hannah Jeffers did. That, along with the overall education she cultivated in the program, caught the interest of medical device maker Medtronic.
Medtronic had written to the program about an internship opportunity during Hannah’s senior year. She was quick to apply. “They were looking for someone with an MLS background who had worked with ELISA methods,” she says. “I was like ‘this sounds perfect’. I really wanted to be somewhere that’s super hands on.” The hiring manager replied, “OK, when can you start?”
The 2019 MLS program graduate interned at Medtronic from May to September of her senior year, prior to fulfilling the MLS program’s clinical rotation requirements at a lab and two hospitals, where she focused on microbiology, clinical chemistry, hematology and blood banking, respectively. Following graduation, Medtronic hired Hannah full time to work in its blood laboratory.
Her role there is to draw human blood and test it against the company’s devices to see if there’s an adverse outcome, like clotting or hemolysis. She conducts her tests in a lab setting – not on people or animals – to give the company an early sense as to whether the devices are safe before they advance to animal studies or clinical trials.
“I feel very grateful that I was able to get this position,” she says. “I’m able to help people every day, even if it’s not in the typical MLS sense.”
The University of Minnesota’s MLS program equips graduates to work within myriad fields and organizations. For example, Hannah says other classmates from the program work in states such as Oregon and Utah, in settings like microbiology and commercial laboratories. “The MLS program is rigorous, but it prepares you so well,” she says. “A friend who graduated with me wanted to be a generalist. She was like ‘I want to do everything, I just want to help in every way that I can.’”
The program sent Hannah out to succeed within the exacting and meticulous framework and standards of a company whose mission is ‘to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life’. “This program prepared me for anything. I felt very prepared for the boards, and just really prepared for everything even if I didn’t come to Medtronic,” she says.
Yet soon after she ventured out, Hannah was drawn back, to contribute to the program that left a profound imprint on her professional path. She agreed to lead a virtual clinical rotation for current MLS students who are interested in the work she conducts.
“It makes me happy,” she said. “I hope people were inspired.”