During her freshman year, Pachia Yang came upon the MLS program when she was deciding what major to pick.
“I took an introductory course to MLS and found that it was similar to something I did in high school. To me, it felt like playing detective.” Eventually she did more research and reached out to the program to get more information. Ultimately, she fell in love with the program and wanted to pursue being an MLS. “I love using my brain and putting the pieces of information together.”
Pachia’s biggest issue while attending college was being able to afford tuition and fees. She decided to go to school closer to home and applied for scholarships in hopes to get financial help. Receiving the Pathways Scholarship allowed her to relieve herself of the financial burden she was facing. She was able to free more time to study and less on trying to fund her education. “I remember during my sophomore year I was working two jobs during winter break and saving every penny I had to pay for my spring semester. With the Pathways Scholarship I was depending less on a second job and saving any scrap of spare change I had. I was also able to enjoy my undergraduate years because I had less of a financial burden on me.” Pachia was also able to do internships that were paid or unpaid without having to worry about money. This allowed her to gain more knowledge and skills in the field.
Currently Pachia is working as a generalist MLS at Woodwinds Hospital Laboratory. She hopes to become a travel MLS in the future.
Here are the specific qualifying guidelines for University of Minnesota MLS students to receive funding from The MLS Pathways Scholarship, and descriptions of the many other scholarships that students in the MLS program can apply to receive.