Joseph Laulom
Medical Laboratory Technology
About Joseph
Working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week, being far from home for days and weeks at a time while working for a national sporting goods company eventually took a toll on Joseph Laulom and his family. He lost touch with his parents and when he finally had a chance to come up for air, he realized that his father’s health was failing and his sisters were already in high school, and dating.
FIVE FAVES
- Food: Baked fish with garlic butter
- Movie: Shooter
- Artist/Group: Journey
- TSC Instructor: Consuelo Villalón
- Place @ TSC: Gazebos
After some serious soul searching, he knew that he would have to make a life-altering change. Laulom came to the conclusion that going back to school to continue his education was the only way to accomplish his dream of becoming successful and getting reacquainted with his family.
“I was never home. I got to travel a lot and it was fun for the first three to four years, but the last two to three years just dragged and it had an impact on my relationship,” Laulom explained. “I lost a lot so I started thinking what can I do to make the same amount of money or more, and stay close to home. School was the only option. I let go of my job, moved back home and came to school.”
His desire to succeed while staying close to home led him to enroll at Texas Southmost College and is one semester away from earning an Associate of Applied Science degree in Medical Laboratory Technology.
Now that Laulom, who began his college career taking remedial classes, has had a taste of his academic success, he doesn’t want to stop at an associate degree.
“I wanted to concentrate on school,” he added. “My goal was to get an associate degree, but now I’m looking into a bachelor’s degree. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I even tell other students not to give up. I’ve met a lot of good people here that have pushed me.”
As an older student, Laulom embraced TSC’s smaller class size and has made the most of his first taste of college life.
“My professors have been really helpful,” Laulom said. “They told me that TSC would have smaller classes and more interaction with the professors, and that’s true.”
What’s your dream?
“My dream is to be successful. I don’t want to live check-to-check like my parents did and how I see family members struggling. I want to break that cycle. I want to do it to show my sisters that even though I’m older, they can still go to school.”
What does TSC mean to you?
“You can interact with a lot of people from diverse backgrounds. TSC is really family-oriented and the instructors communicate with you like they’ve known you for years.”
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