Medical technologists perform clinical laboratory procedures helpful to pathologists and physicians in the diagnosing the nature, course and treatment of disease. The Medical Technology Option at FMU can be done in two ways. The “3+1” option involves a cooperative arrangement with the McLeod Regional Medical Center, in which students complete their first three years at FMU and their clinical year at McLeod. The “4+1” option involves a student getting a bachelors degree in biology and completing a clinical year at the medical technology program of their choice. For more information on these two paths, see the options below. Once they have completed the program, the student is then eligible and must take the National Certification Exam from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).
Bachelor of Science in Biology-Medical Technology (3+1) Option First 3 years (90 hours) at FMU
In the 3+1 option, a student can complete the requirements for the degree to become a medical technologist in four years. Students take classes from FMU for the first three years and complete the fourth clinical year at McLeod Regional Medical Center. During this process, students earn a biology major and a chemistry minor with an emphasis in medical technology and is eligible to take the National Certification Exam from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). The cooperative program allows students to become medical technologists in four years. A bachelor of science degree in biology-medical technology (3+1) option requires 120 credit hours.
All General Education Requirements
English Composition (ENGL 101 & 102)
Math (MATH 132 or higher)
Statistics (MATH 134)
Speech (SPCH 101)
Political Science (POLI 101 or 103)
Social Science elective*
Social Science elective*
Literature
History: 100-level
Fine Arts Appreciation (ART 101, MUSI 101, or THEA 101)
Humanities elective**
Biology Requirements
Biological Fundamentals 1 (BIOL 105/115 or 107)
Biological Fundamentals 2 (BIOL 106 or 108)
Microbiology (BIOL 311)
Genetics (BIOL 401)
Immunology (BIOL 407)
Biology Elective****
General Chemistry (CHEM 101 & 102)
Organic Chemistry (CHEM 201)
Additional Chemistry (CHEM 203 or CHEM 203)
General Physics (PHYS 215 & 216)
Courses needed to get a chemistry minor or second collateral
Free electives needed to reach 90 credit hours***
*Social Science electives include: sociology, geography, political science, economics, and anthropology. **Humanities electives include: literature, history, art, music, theater, philosophy, & religious studies.***A course in computer science is recommended.****Recommended biology electives are human anatomy and physiology.
Bachelor of Science in Biology-Medical Technology (3+1) Option Fourth year (30 hours) at McLeod Regional Medical Center
During the Junior year, application must be made to the medical technology program. Acceptance is on a competitive basis and is not guaranteed. Students will be admitted to final year only if:
They have completed the 3 academic years (or the equivalent) of undergraduate requirements listed above.
They have scores >140 on the verbal and quantitative reasoning sections of the GRE.
They have a minimum GPA of 2.6 in their biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics courses.
They have minimum overall GPA of 2.5 in their undergraduate coursework.
Submitted 3 personal references.
If admitted to the program, students will complete their final year of study at the School of Medical Technology at McLeod Regional Medical Center. Courses will show up on the FMU transcript as Medical Technology Internship courses (BIOL 495 & BIOL 496). The final year involves 53 weeks, integrating classroom lectures with practical laboratory experiences. Students receive hands-on experience in each department of the clinical laboratory. Schedules are rotated to give students several weeks to learn the basic techniques of each department. A list of courses is shown below.
BIOL 430 – Clinical Hematology
BIOL 431 – Clinical Microbiology
BIOL 432 – Immunohematology
BIOL 433 – Clinical Immunology
BIOL 434 – Clinical Hemostasis
BIOL 435 – Instrumentation and Methods
BIOL 436 – Clinical Chemistry
BIOL 437 – Mycology, Parasitology, & Virology
BIOL 438 – Clinical Microscopy
BIOL 439 – Medical Laboratory Systems
Bachelor of Science in Biology-Medical Technology (4+1) Option
Students may also choose to compete a basic B.S. in Biology, and then apply to a medical technology program for their clinical year of study (4 + 1 program). Care must be taken to make sure all prerequisites for medical technology programs are completed. This option would require 5 years of study.
Detrek Browning stayed true to FMU and became the school’s all-time leading scorer
In an early January game against Clayton State, Detrek Browning waited calmly behind the three-point line while teammate Brandon Parker battled for a loose ball in the lane. Eventually, Parker swatted the ball towards Browning, who gathered it in, paused to set himself and casually flipped in a three-pointer that etched his name into a prominent place in the FMU record books. With that relatively unremarkable basket, Browning became something quite remarkable — the leading career scorer in the school’s almost 50-year-old history.
That the record-setter came on a routine play is not surprising. Browning’s calling card as a player is his ability to score, seemingly without effort; to make a unique ability to find ways to put ball basket appear quite ordinary.
What was remarkable about the play is that Browning was around to do it at all.
FMU Basketball standout Detrek Browning
The dynamics of college basketball at all levels have changed dramatically in the past decade. Players move regularly and easily from school to school, looking for the next bit of slightly greener grass; and there is not much hard-working coaches and schools can do about it. Their path is fraught with peril.
Bring a player along too slowly and he will leave for a situation where he can play/shoot/start more often. But, bring them along too quickly, develop them too well – and this is especially true for programs at Division II schools like FMU — and bigger schools will come calling. They can’t recruit a player, per se, until he puts his name on the NCAA’s official transfer list (which numbers each year in the thousands) but word gets around. Pssst. If your name is on that list. …
After he averaged 20.1 points a game for FMU in 2015-16, officially his sophomore season, word got around to Browning. There were schools out there – Division I schools – who were interested. And Browning knew the drill. Friends, foes, even some of his teammates, had gone that route.
“I was hearing from a few people,” Browning says, “and people were in my ear, telling me to go, that this was my big chance. But …”
But?
Browning shakes his head, shrugs his shoulders. The big decision, he says, was really no decision at all.
“Man, after all (FMU) has done for me … I mean, they were there for me when no one else was,” says Browning. “And the people here have always been great. This is where I belong. I wasn’t going anywhere. I guess maybe coach was worried, but I wasn’t leaving. “
Gary Edwards, Browning’s coach at FMU, admits to some nervousness during the spring in question. But those days are long past now and recalling them now brings a smile to Edwards’ face.
“Detrek’s done a lot of neat things here, made a lot of big plays, and he’ll always be one of my favorites,” says Edwards, “but if you ask me what I’ll remember most that’s it. It’s that loyalty that Detrek showed. That’s a rare quality. It’s better than all those points he scored.”
Things happen
Maybe Detrek Browning never should have wound up at FMU in the first place.
He wasn’t exactly a secret coming out of Irmo (S.C.) High School, just north of Columbia. Irmo, led by legendary coach Tim Whipple, is one of the premier high school basketball programs in South Carolina and Detrek Browning did nothing during his time with the Yellowjackets to lessen that.
Browning played three varsity seasons at Irmo and helped the team win two state championships. In his senior year Irmo went 29-0 — Whipple’s only unbeaten squad in 37 years at the helm — and captured Whipple’s fifth state title.
Browning may not have been — may being the key word — the best player on a team that also included University of South Carolina recruit Justin McKie. But he wasn’t a secret. He was receiving significant recruiting attention by his junior year and had a number of Division I programs giving him long looks.
But … things happened. One program that seemed like a sure thing signed another guard and never called Browning again. Another changed coaches. And so on.
Whipple says it was clear to him — then and now — that Browning belonged on a Division I roster.
“Oh, there’s no doubt that the could play at that level,” says Whipple. “But you know, coaches look at things … it’s tough. He (Browning) was a little small maybe, kind of got in that in-between thing position wise. Was he a point guard or a shooting guard? He didn’t play much point for us until his senior year. But maybe he’s a little small for a D-I shooting guard, maybe he’s not that fast … So …”
So, early that year, one Edwards’ assistants at FMU saw Browning play and suggested the Patriots make a run at him. Edwards saw him and quickly agreed — “best point guard I saw all year,” Edwards said.
Edwards found out Browning’s recruiting had taken a funny turn and put on the full court press. When Browning came for his official visit, Edwards offered him a full scholarship on the spot.
Browning held out for a little while, waiting for the “better” offer that never came. Eventually his own good sense — all who know him see him as an extremely well-grounded person — and a little hectoring from his mom made him a Patriot.
“I kept thinking, ‘maybe a bigger school will offer me something,’” Browning says. “Meanwhile, mom is saying, ‘are you crazy? They’re offering you a full scholarship. They really want you. You know what? She was right.”
Red-shirt tears
One more test remained.
Though a polished player for a freshman, Browning arrived on the FMU campus to find Evrik Gary — the number three scorer in school history — already ensconced in the point guard role. Edwards and the Patriot staff persuaded Browning that the thing to do was sit out — redshirt is the term — his freshman season, just as Gary had done.
The move made sense, but it’s easier said than done. Redshirts spend all the practice time that regular players do but don’t get to play in the games, can’t even travel with the team to away contests.
“You’re really on your own a lot of times and have to stay focused to keep working on things, getting better, on your own,” says Browning. “That’s a good thing. There’s a lot to get used to moving from high school to college. It helped with basketball, with school, with everything. I tell everyone now ‘Redshirt. That’s the way to do it. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.’ But it’s not easy. I’ll have to say there were a few nights where a few tears were shed. “
Conserving energy
One point — not the first point, but a point all the same — that Browning would make about his game, about the way he plays basketball is that he can dunk the ball.
“Most definitely,” says Browning. “I actually have two dunks in games (at FMU). I guess there could have been more — fans would like it — but it’s not something I was ever that excited about. A bucket is a bucket. I’d rather conserve my energy.”
Good at energy conservation. Now there’s a line that doesn’t show up on many scouting reports. But that aspect of Detrek Browning, basketball player, says about as much about his game as any. He glides around the court, under control, moving from place to place — moving from the right place to the right place — with a studied nonchalance that lulls opponents, fans and even his own coach into a state of disinterest.
“He’s one of those guys,” says FMU’s Edwards, “where you pick up the stat sheet afterwards and you say, ’Twenty-five points? How’d he do that? I didn’t see that.’ He’s very, very smooth.”
Browning’s chief skill is an absolute intangible. He has innate understanding of the game that allows him to see plays before they develop.
“It doesn’t just happen,” explains Browning. “I’ve had some very good coaches. And I do think about all the plays. I just think about them five or 10 seconds before they happen.”
Which is five or 10 (or more) seconds ahead of most.
Speed, shooting kill
The awards and honors are piling up fast in Browning’s final season. He’s been the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week four times (through January), set the FMU single game scoring mark (41 points) in early January and is clearly poised to post-season accolades as well.
It’s all well-deserved, but still surprising all the same for Browning seldom looks like the best athlete on the floor. The 6-0, 180-pounder is a little stocky as basketball players go, and doesn’t have the chiseled musculature of some. His two dunks aside, he is not a great leaper, and he’s probably not the fastest guy around either, although as dozens of oft-burned Peach Belt Conference foes would attest, he is plenty fast enough.
Browning comes from a very athletic family. His mom (Carlissa), various uncles and aunts and cousins all played college sports. His brother is a good bit heavier than Detrek, “but can still beat me in a race. He can fly.
“My uncle (Milton Kershaw) who played football in college and is just crazy fast, taught me early on that speed kills,” says Browning. “It’s the most important part of most sports. But it’s not necessarily who is fastest. It’s who can be fast when they need to be.”
Browning is a fine defender (he will finish his career among FMU’s all-time leader in steals, too), but what sets him apart are his offensive skills. In Browning’s mind — a good place to start for analyzing basketball — the key skill is shooting. He has simple mechanics and feel for the shot that came to him almost from the moment he took up the game — he hit a long buzzer beater to win the championship game in his first year of organized basketball at age 12.
“If you can shoot the basketball, I mean really shoot it, you are basically unguardable,” Browning says. “Try to stop the shot and it’s a fake and I’m by you for a pull up (jumper) or a layup. Try to stop that and …. “
His voice trails off. Another basketball thought has popped into a mind that processes such information at an astonishing rate.
“It’s always amazing to me the number of basketball players — Division I players — really can’t shoot,” says Browning. “That’s kind of the point of the game isn’t it?”
The Gary plan
Browning plans to follow in the footsteps of his former teammate Gary and play basketball professionally for as long as he can. Gary has been on an oddball world tour since he left FMU — Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Dubuque, Iowa and now, Cyprus — but he’s got a suitcase full of memorable experiences and … he’s still playing. The dream is still alive.
Browning understands. He knows he can play at a very high level and is eager to prove it, even if that means traveling some strange roads and learning even greater patience.
Whenever that is done, Browning suspects his long-term future lies … in coaching. He’s a Dean’s List student who’ll graduate in May with a degree in Psychology, and reservoir of knowledge that he thinks will translate nicely in that field.
“I seem to have a pretty good understanding of basketball,” says Browning. “I think that (coaching) could work out.”
