Graduate Profiles: Christine Wentt

Christine received her Bachelor’s degree in medical technology from the University of Maryland in 1999. Because of her experience on the clinical rotations that are an integral part of the medical technology curriculum, she was able to immediately land a job at the University of Maryland Medical Center as a medical technologist, a position also known as a clinical laboratory scientist. She works in the Blood Bank laboratory performing a wide variety of therapeutic tests to ensure the safety and suitability of blood products for cancer, surgical and pediatric patients, among others.

Within two years Christine was promoted to a supervisory lead technologist position in the lab. "I believe I was able to advance so quickly because of the training I received in the DMRT program," says Christine. "I was able to do an internship as part of my DMRT training, working as a student lab tech for six months, which was great hands-on experience. It allowed me to apply in the lab what I was learning in class and definitely helped prepare me for my current job."

Even better than the experience, though, was the people she met through the program. "My [graduating] class was the best thing about the program," she raves. "It had 60 people from all over the world, from all different backgrounds and of all ages. It was a diverse group, which was very beneficial."

Christine had originally applied to the program as part of her pre-med training, with the intention of going on to medical school after getting her degree. "I thought it would be more useful than a degree in biology or chemistry, because I could learn the clinical side of diagnosing as well as the science," Christine explains. "I didn’t realize how in-depth the program would really be, though, until I got into it. It’s a very intense program for a Bachelor’s degree. My plans changed about med school, obviously, once I started working."