UW-Casper instructor Charlie Cruz, third from left, receives the 2019 America’s Finest
Teacher Award-Ulirang Guro Nov. 10 in New York. From left are Marcelo Inot, president
of the Association of Fil-Am Teachers of America (AFTA); a stage presenter, name unknown;
Cruz; Diosdado San Antonio, undersecretary of the Department of Education in the Philippines;
and Ferdinand Suba, AFTA legal officer. (AFTA Photo)
A University of Wyoming instructor with the UW-Casper Medical Laboratory Sciences
(MLS) program is the recipient of the 2019 America’s Finest Teacher Award-Ulirang
Guro, presented by the Association of Fil-Am Teachers of America (AFTA).
Charlie Cruz was honored during AFTA’s pearl anniversary gala Nov. 10 in Astoria,
N.Y. The award is in recognition of teachers whose commitment and exemplary service
seek to develop youth through quintessential competence and meaningful, progressive
and creative teaching practices.
“It has been an honor to be recognized for this prestigious national teaching award
and to represent the University of Wyoming in New York City,” Cruz says.
Cruz is one of four faculty members in the MLS program, which is part of the UW College
of Health Sciences’ School of Pharmacy. Students enrolled in the program take classes
on the UW-Casper campus.
Cruz earned a bachelor’s degree in medical technology at Lorma Colleges; a master’s
degree in medical laboratory science at the Lyceum of the Philippines University-Batangas;
and a second master’s degree in science education at Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State
University. He then earned a Ph.D. in management at Saint Louis College.
He holds professional licenses as an international medical laboratory scientist with
the American Society for Clinical Pathology and as a clinical laboratory scientist
with the California Department of Public Health. He also is a registered medical technologist
in the Philippines.
“As an educator, Charlie devotes time and energy to continually enhance his teaching
strategies and improve his learning materials,” says one of Cruz’s nominators. “His
use of technology-enabled pedagogies and laboratory informatics optimizes the learning
experiences among his students. Mentorship, peer evaluation and rubric-based laboratory
activities are the rudiments of Charlie’s formula in training students to become competent
medical laboratory scientists, ready for employment and career advancement.”
Students receiving a bachelor’s degree in medical laboratory sciences begin their
careers as highly skilled professionals, qualified by academic and applied science
education, using state-of-the-art instrumentation and methodologies to develop, perform,
evaluate and correlate medical laboratory testing while assuring quality and accuracy.
Medical laboratory professionals practice independently and collaboratively, and possess
skills for financial, operations, marketing and human resource management of the clinical
laboratory.
Successful completion of all required MLS course offerings results in a B.S. degree
from UW and candidacy for the national certification examination.
To learn more about the MLS program at UW-Casper, visit www.uwyo.edu/pharmacy/mls-program/index.html.
