For Middlesex Community College alum Joshua Moreaux, a job in biotechnology has never been more relevant. A United States Air Force veteran who worked with hazmat and hazmat materials during his tenure, Moreaux was looking to go back to school to get a degree in the sciences. At Middlesex, he was inspired by professor Dr. Mariluci Bladon to enter MCC’s biotech program.
In 2025, Moreaux was voted in as the Alumni Representative for the Board of Trustees.
Though he is from Lakes Charles, La., Moreaux was stationed at Hanscom Airforce Base and moved to Lowell. With benefits from the GI Bill, he was able to start at Middlesex – right down the street from where he lived. MCC offered a convenient location – and while he intended to start slow and take his time with one class – he flourished on his new path.
“I really fell in love with it – the teachers, the hands-on activities, everything was just phenomenal,” he said. “I really just threw my whole self into my studies and got involved with the PDA (Parental Drug Association). Anytime we had to do displays for people to come and see, I was involved in all of those things. I immersed myself into the entire program.”
Moreaux started taking classes in Environmental Studies, but after meeting with Dr. Bladon, she talked to him about the benefits of working in biotechnology. Though he had not known much about the field before, he was fascinated by the science of biologics and cells. Dr. Bladon won him over and after graduating from MCC in 2013, he continued on to earn his bachelor’s degree from Boston University and started work at a pharmaceutical company that is now Takeda.
Having started at MCC, Moreaux felt prepared to go to school and work in the field despite a grueling schedule that included working from 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., then heading to classes until 9 p.m. It was a lot to balance at once, but he kept reminding himself to “focus on what’s right in front of me.” MCC was his perfect starting point, as the biotech program offered him both foundational knowledge and high-quality practical experience.
“I compare my lab experience at MCC to my lab experience at BU, and the lab, hands-on experience that you get at MCC far exceeded what I got at BU,” he said. “MCC has a very organized and robust program, so you’re able to take some cells and see them double and grow, and it far exceeded my expectations and the amount of clinical experience I got at BU by far.”
Now a Senior Trainer at Takeda, Moreaux works with new employees to get them onboarded. Takeda is a partner company to MCC’s Biotechnology Learn and Earn Experience where Middlesex students have the opportunity to work full- or part-time as Manufacturing Technicians while completing their associate degree in biotech at Middlesex. Having experience from his time at MCC – as well as a passion for helping newcomers in the field – Moreaux recently met with the cohort of students.
“Having someone like myself be a connection for them is valuable, it’s all about networking,” he said. “All I told them was, ‘just focus on what you need to do, show that you can be proactive and take initiative – and all of those things help to build trust. Before you know it, people will start noticing that and they’ll start looking for positions to put you in.’”
In MCC’s biotech program, Moreaux believes students learn all about the industry – making the Learn and Earn Experience even more valuable as students can see in real-time how their skills transfer to the workforce. These skills include following standard operating procedures, using a lab book, writing down steps, and working in the lab. He also believes that because biotech is used everywhere – especially to fight the pandemic – the field provides students with job security.
“This is definitely an industry that’s always going to be beneficial for the public and for everyone,” he said. “Looking at this pandemic and dealing with COVID-19, the biotech industry is coming up with these therapies to treat for viruses and drugs for whatever diseases that we haven’t even seen yet.”
Moreaux enjoys keeping in touch with Middlesex and visited MCC’s new biotech lab to help students learn about the new clean room. He enjoyed being able to see the space in person – calling it “state-of-the-art” and comparing it to what he would find at his company – as MCC was in the discussion phase of building the lab while he was in the program.
“It’s good to give back and it gives me great pleasure to be able to give back to a program that gave so much to me,” he said. “The unfortunate part about being at MCC is that it ends before you know it. Knowing that, get involved, immerse yourself into the program, and look for all opportunities that are available to you.”