Mackenzie Koch

Just like many others, Mackenzie’s path to IUPUI and to finding her major was a rocky one. After starting her college career at Indiana University East, taking classes at Ivy Tech, and transferring to IU Ft. Wayne, she finally found her way to IUPUI in the fall of 2015. Mackenzie says she “was all over the place,” switching from nursing to biology to dental hygiene to EMT, thinking she had no clue what she wanted to do in life.  

When Mackenzie started at IUPUI, she first sat down with Health and Life Sciences Advising Center career consultant, Keely Floyd. Keely went over a lot of different options with Mackenzie and eventually helped her find cytotechnology, which was a field that interested her and was also an area that provided her the potential to grow. Mackenzie feels that meeting with a career consultant was truly where her journey began!

After finding a field she was interested in, Mackenzie was faced with an even bigger task—getting accepted into a competitive program like cytotechnology. When she enrolled at IUPUI, Mackenzie had a 2.0 GPA. In order to even apply to the cytotechnology program at IUPUI, students must have at least a 2.5 GPA. Mackenzie sat down with Martha Marshall, an advisor in the Health and Life Science Advising Center, for over an hour, going through transcripts to decide which classes she needed to retake before applying to the program. Mackenzie said, “I had never had an advisor do that for/with me before. It was nice to get some actual guidance.” 

It is possible to accomplish any goal, but you have to really want it!