Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics

Community Engagement

Service to the community is required of all students enrolled in the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics (BLD) and Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) programs, in order to foster civic responsibility; enhance the hands-on learning experience of the student; and assist the student in identifying and meeting health and social needs of the community.

Students in both programs must complete a total of 50 hours of community service during their enrollment in the professional program, subject to the policies indicated below. Community service prior to the start of the professional phase does not count towards the HSC community service requirement. Community service must be entered and approved by the BLD/MLS program following the three-step process below: 

  1. Complete the approved community service under appropriate supervision.
  2. Record the community service activity on SOLE.
  3. Wait for the designee of the program/school to approve the service. 

Acceptable Community Service

Students can search for service partners via iServe. Acceptable service areas include, but are not limited to:

  • Local school or educational programs: read-aloud at school, health educational sessions in a school or community center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters
  • Healthcare: visiting the elderly (i.e., at nursing homes or hospitals), hospice, Morgantown Health Right, Child Life Program in a children's hospital, Ronald McDonald House, Health Fair
  • Camps: Asthma or Diabetic camps, youth development camps (e.g., 4-H)
  • Sports: Working with soccer, basketball, baseball
  • Organizational causes: Activities through churches or sororities/fraternities (e.g., Adopt-A-Highway)
  • Food, housing, and financial insecurity causes: Habitat for Humanity (e.g., building homes for people without shelter), soup kitchen, Bartlett House, Meals on Wheels, Salvation Army, United Way of Monongalia and Preston Counties, Christian Help
  • Blood drives: American Red Cross and Blood Donation Center, blood donation (one donation is equivalent to two hours of community service, limited to one donation per semester)
  • BLD Student Navigator

RHI-Kellogg community service experience will apply toward the 50 hours, but not the clinical or research activities. 

Policies

Community service may be completed outside of the United States; however, the program requires that students who wish to do so meet with their program director providing official documentation from the organization with which they are serving. In addition, all documentation must be translated into English before it will be accepted. 

Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics (BS) students must have 25 hours entered and approved by the end of the six-week summer semester of their first year within the professional phase of the program. If this requirement is not met, students will be placed on program probation. 

Students must have all 50 hours entered and approved by the last day of final exams of their enrollment in the program (which for undergraduate students is the spring semester of their second year within the professional phase of the program). If this requirement is not met, students are not eligible for graduation.