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Published April 6, 2023                                                        By Darlene Muguiro                                                                Â鶹¹ÙÍø College of Health Sciences

In late March, a special group of Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) students was recognized for their community service at the 2023 Community Engagement Student Awards, hosted by the Â鶹¹ÙÍø College of Liberal Arts, in coordination with the Center for Community Engagement, Chicano Studies, and the Community Engagement and Leadership Program. The CLS graduating class of 2023, which accumulated well over 50 service hours per student in the fall 2022 semester, received the Community Engaged Course award.

Elizabeth Camacho, CLS Program clinical instructor and clinical coordinator, incorporates the service hours into her preceptorship I and II courses annually. She says that the program includes this in their courses to ensure students participate in what is referred to at Â鶹¹ÙÍø as “community-engaged learning,” or CEL, one of many components of the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Edge initiative designed to prepare students for their professional lives after graduation. CEL aims to provide students with outstanding communication, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, leadership development, global awareness and social service. The preceptorship courses, in particular, meet Â鶹¹ÙÍø’s CEL criteria for both community engagement and leadership skill-building.

“CLS students are required to participate in community service,” said Camacho. “This is in addition to the hours they complete in rotation, so they work very hard. The activities are recorded and put on their transcripts, so when they graduate, they have an official record of their service.”  

Camacho provides the structure for the annual activities, which include screenings and information sessions at community and campus health fairs spanning El Paso County. CLS students are regular attendees at the semesterly H.O.P.E. health fairs targeting vulnerable El Pasoans. This past fall, the CLS Program also worked with the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Diabetes Garage to provide health screenings to Latino men at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and served as science fair judges at several area elementary schools.

Cynthia Marentes, director of Community Engagement for the College of Liberal Arts, said the breadth and depth of services offered by CLS students truly stood out in their application.

"Professor Elizabeth Camacho’s Preceptorship class excelled in their community engagement by achieving a wide reach throughout El Paso,” she said. “The students were also able to experience making a positive impact through their course work by providing an essential service to the community."

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Go Miners!

For more information about the CLS Program, please visit: /chs/cls/