A 16-Year-Old Leads the Gen Z Charge into Clinical Lab World

March 28, 2024

by Bob Croce

For The Executive War College

If you see Isak Schmidley around the Hyatt in New Orleans in four weeks, please spare him of the Doogie Howser jokes. After all, this young man is no fictional TV character. He’s the real deal, and a remarkable, wonderful story right now in the clinical laboratory world. Gen Z is in the house!

Last summer the 16-year-old completed his Bachelor of Science degree and got his Medical Laboratory Scientist Certificate (MLS), and is now serving as the youngest member of the Christus Health lab team in Coushatta, LA.

Schmidley is also the youngest graduate ever from the LSU Health-Shreveport MLS certification program and will be on our Executive War College agenda by leading a session entitled, “Achieving Certification as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist at the Age of 16: One Gen Z’s Journey, along with Insights on Educating Zoomers about Careers in Laboratory Medicine.”

Isak Schmidley, at 16, is the youngest clinical lab professional at Christus Health in Coushatta, LA.

Schmidley enrolling in the LSU-Shreveport program even surprised the program’s director once she found out his age.

“Throughout that conversation, when he was looking at applying for our program, he asked, if there was a certain age you have to be to be a medical laboratory scientist,” Stephanie Blackburn, EdD, MLS, program director for the MLS program at LSU Health-Shreveport, told KSLA-TV. “I think ‘no, no specific age.’ But I had no idea it was a 14-year-old I was dealing with.”

Blackburn and the staff at LSU Health worked with Schmidley and his parents to make it possible for him to achieve his goal. “I thought it would really be a struggle and a challenge to get acclimated to such an environment, but all of my classmates, all of the faculty and the staff here have just been so welcoming,” Schmidley told KSLA. “And I really just appreciate that. I don’t think I could make it without all their help and support.”

So welcome Isak Schmidley to our little gathering, congratulate him on his remarkable achievement when you see him in New Orleans, and don’t miss his session to learn more about how he has achieved so much at such a young age. But please, no jokes about how he really does look like a young Neil Patrick Harris.

That’s it for this week. More dispatches to come. Hope to see you and your “krewe” in New Orleans.

(Bob Croce is Executive Publisher/General Manager of The Dark Intelligence Group, the company that brings you the Executive War College. Have a question or comment for Bob, you can reach him at bcroce@darkreport.com)