HOSA Regionals Competition

Students from PHU who competed in January 2016 at the HOSA Regionals Competition delineate their experience.

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Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) is a club organization that aims to develop leadership and technical skills in high school students. It is intended for teens who have a desire with pursuing careers in the medical field. Palm Harbor University, having a medical magnet program, holds meetings for the club after school monthly.

Recently, on January 19, 2016, the Regionals Competition took place at the Hillsborough Community College. Many students from PHU, both upper and lower classmen participated, and a few won awards by placing better than competitors from other local high schools.

In the competition, members of the club are either in groups or on their own. They present their planned shows categorized into different medical-regarding fields, ranging from sports medicine to dental terminology. Ashley Cinotti, a sophomore student, is involved in the club and has been for the past two years. She contended in a group and did well enough to make it to the States Competition. Cinotti recapped the beginning of her day below.

“We went to Hillsborough Community college and had an orientation about what we would do throughout the day. The event didn’t start until 12:30 so we had two hours to practice our presentation,” she said.

After the long day of practicing, waiting, and performing, the students who performed found out whether they will have the opportunity to compete in the States Competition.

Ashton Stappert is another sophomore student who competed. “The overall experience at Regionals was really interesting and fun. I met a lot of new people from different schools and we played ice-breakers throughout the day,” Stappert reminisced.

Along with her group who is moving onto states, “a couple people and groups from the upper divisions, like seniors and juniors had gotten first place,” she said.

It can be concluded that whoever is involved in HOSA has a great time doing it. If one has been considering joining but was still on the fence, they should consider this as a decision maker.

“I would recommend it because preparing for it is so much fun and it also looks good on college applications and the experience as a whole was just really exciting,” Cinotti concluded.