HOSA competition marked by victory
– They were mostly stressed, but at least they were well dressed.
It was seven o’clock in the morning when students were seen gathered at the bus circle Thursday, Jan. 23. Looking well dressed and much more awake and than the typical high school student, they piled into large busses rather than attending first period. Their destination – the 2015 HOSA competition at the USF Campus in Tampa.
The HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) Club’s ultimate goal is to gain insights into medical careers and to build practical knowledge in students’ respective categories. HOSA students spent the day at USF as they competed at a regional level in varying categories of medical topics, hoping to place and advance to the state competition. PHUHS is known as one of the top competitors at the state level.
From PHU overall, 13 groups placed first, 13 groups placed second, 9 groups placed third, and 10 groups placed fourth.
Medical Junior Krstina Mastilovic and Early College students Jordan Navarro and Hadley Koontz placed fourth with their poster in the Creative Problem Solving category.
“I feel as though it was fair; had we done better in the knowledge testing portion, we’d have likely placed higher.” Mastilovic said.
“It was a fun experience and I enjoyed the competition but it would have been cool to place,” Navarro said, “maybe one of the teams will drop and our team will move forward.”
After regionals is the time that students begin to take their work more seriously. Those who placed third or higher in a category are now preparing for the state competition in Orlando in March, now hopes that they can advance to Nationals – something that is no small feat.
If a student is interested in becoming a member of HOSA, they must meet a few mandatory requirements. Potential members must have a GPA of 3.0 and must pay the due fee of $55. If a student is unable to afford the fee, they may opt to raise money by selling chocolate bars instead.
Although the HOSA club is winding down it’s activity for the remaining school year, there’s plenty of opportunities for qualifying Medical students to join next year and compete.
