Our Members:
Global Community Profile of an
ASCP Career Ambassador
<< Previous Page Next Page >>
Ms. McCoy
Medical Illustrator Switches Careers and Opens Minds
to the Lab Profession
Jesse McCoy, PA(ASCP)CM, moved from the sidelines to the frontlines of medical care when she switched careers from a medical illustrator to a pathologists’ assistant. Accidentally discovering the career online, Ms. McCoy left her job and enrolled in the two-year National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences-accredited master’s program to become a pathologists’ assistant at Quinnipiac University, Hamden, Conn.
“Cancer cells look amazing; every cancer has a different appearance,” Ms. McCoy said. “There are millions of people and millions of cancers, and I am on the frontlines seeing it firsthand. I can inform people about their diseases in real time.”
She has no regrets about changing careers. “Being a pathologists’ assistant is great because every day is different, and I’m always learning on the job,” Ms. McCoy said. “Every day, the pathologist and I are on the hunt for clues to diseases.”
Her enthusiasm for her second career bubbled over into becoming a volunteer for a job-shadowing program for high school students. When Ms. McCoy applied for the ASCP Career Ambassador program sponsored by Roche, she was already experienced and enjoyed talking about being a pathologists’ assistant.
As a 2011–2012 ASCP Career Ambassador, Ms. McCoy has made 14 presentations at five high schools, reaching several levels of students. She moved beyond being a pathologists’ assistant, however, discussing all aspects of the laboratory profession from pathologist to phlebotomist and using real organs for demonstrations.
____
Students were either amazed or horrified by the organs,” Ms. McCoy said. “But all the students seemed engaged during the presentations. I was surprised by how many students shared their family stories about cancer, such as ‘my mother had a hysterectomy’ or ‘my grandmother had breast cancer.’ I was expecting more technical questions than personal ones. Cancer is very personal to many students.
____
“Also, I learned that suggesting careers in the medical laboratory profession went a long way with high school students, even if they never knew these jobs existed before my presentation.”