The Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) competed and participated at the Area One Spring Leadership Conference on Friday, Jan. 13 and Saturday, Jan. 14. Students not only had the chance to display their hard work against competitors from across the state, but were also able socialize with peers with similar passions and vote for new officers.

“I think it’s an awesome experience because it gives us a real life situations to work with,” HOSA Co-Advisor Ms. Kathryn Treviño said. “We have anything from physical therapy to medical innovations, it really gets students thinking about their future.”

The opening ceremony commenced with an introduction of the 2017 area officers, including secretary Saket Myneni ‘17. It also featured a powerful talk from Evan Wesley of the Thirst Project, who spoke regarding the impact of youth on the future.

“I loved that, that was really interesting; we had someone come from The Thirst Project, and ironically, and we already support that mission here at Westwood,” Ms. Treviño said. “He talked about how the lack of water nationwide is a crisis, and so many people don’t have clean water, and how important it is, and how little we can do to help in such a great way.”

Over one hundred Warriors participated in the competition itself, and 49 finished among the top five of their event. Those who placed in the top three will advance to the state conference, while the following two are considered alternates.

“I wasn’t expecting to win because I competed with a lot of seniors so it felt really good,” Sindhuja Uppuluri ‘20 said. “I think state will be really fun because even more people will be there.”

All state advancers are listed below.

Biomedical Laboratory Science

1st Place-Aditi Merchant ‘19

Community Awareness

2nd Place-Eva Ghandi ‘20, Riya Shah ‘20

Creative Problem Solving

1st Place-Devika Patel ‘18, Srija Reddy ‘18, Niti Malwade ‘18, Khira Patel ‘18

Forensic Medicine

1st Place- Hamsi Nathan ‘18, James Yan ‘18

Health Career Display

3rd Place-Tanuj Mahendru ‘18, Aliya Arni ‘18

Healthy Lifestyle

1st Place- Sindhuja Uppuluri ‘20

Medical Art Poster

3rd Place- Katie Lakey ‘18

Medical Innovation

1st Place (original)-Arjun Jain ‘18, Rohith Mandavilli ‘18, Prathyush Shankar ‘18, Rishabh Shah ‘18

MRC Partnership

2nd Place- Srishty Pareek ‘20, Anjali Suresh ‘20, Satweka Nammi ‘19

Physical Therapy

3rd Place- Yash Purohit ‘18

Researched Persuasive Writing and Speaking

2nd Place- Sana Khan ‘20

3rd Place- Krishna Vaidynathan ‘18

Sports Medicine

3rd Place- Kelly Kim ‘17

Veterinary Science

2nd Place-Michael Phipps ‘18

The closing ceremony included not only the announcement of all the winners, but also the induction of the new 2018 area officers. Saavan Myneni ‘20 ran as vice president, and was officially inducted with the rest of the office at the conclusion of the conference.

“We had to write a resume and go through an interview. The interview was more nerve-wracking because I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Myneni said. “[The vice president] is in charge of helping the president and filling in when the president isn’t there.”
Those who advanced through the area competition, along with those who moved up directly from online testing, will attend the 2017 State Leadership Conference in Corpus Christi on March 31 through April 2.