Headlines
- Grove Park Inn donates $20,000 to hospitality education scholarships
- RENCI at UNC Asheville and A-B Tech Celebrate GIS Day Nov. 12
- Craggy Correctional Institute graduates students in four programs
- From Uzbekistan to North Carolina, Medical Laboratory Technology graduate makes his dream happen
- deVries represents A-B Tech in Aruba
- Chess taking off at Holly
- Early College students perform at book reading
- Educators in Industry event at A-B Tech
- GIST Webinars in conjunction with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF)
- A-B Tech walks for Heroes for Hope
- Invitational Education activities
- First year students benefit from mini grant project
- A-B Tech instructor selected for Rauschenberg tribute exhibition
- Award-winning author presents latest book
- Experience a nineteenth-century Carolina Christmas
- Tech Notes
From Uzbekistan to North Carolina, Medical Laboratory Technology graduate makes his dream happen
Alex Serdyukov and Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Medical Laboratory Technology Chair Melissa Hyatt.
It was a long and difficult journey from Uzbekistan to the medical lab at Mission Hospital, but Alex Serdyukov survived barriers and tragedy to create a fulfilling life for himself and his family.
Alex, born in the former Soviet Union, was 11 when he watched the USSR collapse on television. "I remember watching and thinking this was the end," he said. His stepfather made plans to move the family to the United States in four years. He prepared the family by insisting Alex take intensive English language classes.
By that time his family lived in a town known for mining copper and other metals. The city dump was less than a mile away, the copper mine two miles and factories next door. "The town was very polluted. I had to stand in the bread lines for my family. It was hard, as far as the food shortages, even after the Soviet Union collapsed," Alex said.
In 1995, Alex, his mother, stepfather, two sisters and brother moved to America. One month after arriving, they were involved in a car accident. "I lost my stepfather and baby brother who was 1. I was the only one who spoke English," he said. He started working second shift at a cafeteria full time to take care of his mother and sisters while he was in high school. "I got interested in the medical field before I graduated from high school. I took a health education class in high school and that's where it started," he said.
Knowing he had to get an education after graduating from high school, Alex entered the Medical Laboratory Technology program at A-B Tech. "He would arrive every day in a trot with a huge smile on his face. He never complained or whined. He was so thrilled to just be here," said Medical Laboratory Technology Chair Melissa Hyatt. "His presence made the other students ashamed to grumble after they had heard his story."
After Alex successfully completed the program he went to work in the lab at Mission Hospital as a medical technologist, where he also volunteers as a Russian Interpreter. While working, getting married and having children of his own, he completed his bachelor's degree in Clinical Laboratory Science at Western Carolina University. "It was really hard with family, school and working.
It was hard and I made it through," he said. "But I like what I do. I like automation and high-tech."
Tech Talk is published by the Communications Office for employees, students, and friends of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College.
Editor: Mona Cornwell, Writer: Martha Ball, Designers: Justin Page, April Sides
Send submissions to: Mona Cornwell, Director of Communications, at mcornwell@abtech.edu
Publication of the next issue
is scheduled for December 1.
Deadline for submissions is November 16.