Cheylin Parker
Communications Officer
Health Science
Cheylin.parker@bison.howard.edu
www.howard.edu/newsroom
 WASHINGTON (April 20) – Three faculty members from the National Institute of Training for Medical Technologists (INFAS) from the Ivory Coast recently completed a two-week educational and experiential training with the Department of Clinical Laboratory Science in the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences.
The American Society for Clinical Pathology asked Howard University to host the Ivory Coast faculty members and funded the training program.
To overcome language barriers, undergraduate student Omar Haloui from the University’s Interpretation Unit translated French and English.
At the conclusion of their training, the faculty members and Howard staff discussed developing an ongoing relationship between the two organizations.
INFAS Director Kouame Benoit Konan said that there are a lot of techniques used at Howard University that he wants to implement in the Ivory Coast.
“In the Ivory Coast, we don’t follow the undergraduate, masters, doctorate structure,” Konan said. “We want to implement that system.”
Konan also said that although there are many similarities between the two institutions, there are also several differences.
“We’re not really equipped on the same level as Howard,” he said.
 Marguerite Neita, Ph.D., chairman and program director of the Department of Clinical Laboratory Science, oversaw the visit of the Ivory Coast delegation.
Neita agreed with Konan that the University could help by improving laboratory capacity in the Ivory Coast and supplying staff to better train students and professors. Meanwhile, the best students from the Ivory Coast would come to Howard and Howard University students would be able to study at INFAS.
Howard University students would benefit by seeing how other students in another part of the world learn and do research on diseases and that do not exist in America, she said.
Konan said he would like to see the methods used by the Department of Clinical Laboratory Science duplicated in the Ivory Coast.
“We appreciate the techniques and resources at Howard University,” Konan said. “We are trying to have a win-win relationship.” |
