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Sponsored: Labs Are Vital Video Contest

Updated: January 15, 2009

Find Your Inner Peter Parker (for a chance to win $2,500!)

The deadline for entries has been extended until 11:59 PM Friday, March 13th, 2009.

You know that scene in "Spider-Man" when Tobey Maguire visits a laboratory on a class field trip? Did you see all those people working in the lab? Yep, every one of them was a lab tech. While we're not claiming that by pursuing a career in a lab you'll necessarily be distilling spider venom into life-altering potion that can make you and all of your friends superheroes, there just might be something to the idea of a job in science. And when you apply that focus to healthcare as a clinical laboratory scientist, you become part of a highly sought after profession that also has a direct effect on people's well-being.

What's more, becoming a clinical laboratory professional allows you the flexibility of working in virtually any community that has:

• a hospital or large clinic -- where most people who visit doctors have tests run.
• a blood bank -- where donated blood is screened before it goes on to hospitals to save lives.
• a public health lab -- where things like rare diseases and illness are tracked and studied.

It also provides superior training if you choose to go on to medical school, and affords you significant opportunities for career advancement. If you're a student who enjoys science, working with high-tech equipment and is good at problem-solving, becoming a clinical laboratory professional is the perfect job for you.

To get you thinking about the possibilities of a career in lab science, Channel One News is holding a video contest. Create and upload your own commercial (up to 2 mins in length) telling other students why a career in the clinical lab sciences is vital. Enter for a chance to win a $2,500 grand prize from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (www.ascp.org) or one of two $1,000 grants, one sponsored by the Association for Public Health Laboratories (www.aphl.org) and one sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Labratory Science (www.ascls.org). The grand-prize winning video will also air on Channel One News -- making you famous long before you discover that Spider Man potion.