Health Occupational Students Association (HOSA) students attended the Area One Spring Leadership Conference at Connally High School in the Austin area from Friday, March 1 to Saturday, March 2. HOSA is a health science competition club, in which students can compete to attend the State Conference, and later the National Conference.

“As a senior, I feel really proud of myself for picking an event that I really enjoyed,” Satweka Nammi ‘19 said. “Creating a PSA [Public Service Announcement] with Tarun Arumugam ‘19, Divya Nair ‘19, and Maanasa Cherukuvada ‘19  was an amazing experience because I was laughing the entire time while we were shooting the scenes. Even though we didn’t make it to State, I really enjoyed working with my friends at my last conference and I will miss them a lot.”

Students arrived at the conference at 1 p.m. and after receiving their respective badges, and meal cards for dinner, they headed inside for the opening ceremony, taking place between 2 and 3 p.m.

“Area was a really cool event to experience because it really secured the fact that I wanted to go down the medical road,” Julia Fang ‘22 said. “I really enjoyed working with a partner because I competed in a group event, Forensic Science. We had a case study and had to crack that case and provide evidence for the victim. The opening ceremony was pretty different and interesting. Overall, I enjoyed the competition a lot.”

Friday night, students competed in their first rounds. Most events had presentations or role-plays, but others, like the Public Service Announcement event and the Health Career Displays, involved simply showing a finished product. Students who either advanced or only needed to compete in one round came Saturday to compete. At the end of the day, all competitors attended the closing ceremony in which students who advanced to State received medals.

“It was fun because I got to talk to more people like different people from our school. It was a little stressful though because of our host school and the situation,” Ananya Anand ‘20 said. “Overall it was pretty fun. My event was a little stressful too because 70 people were competing and only three make it to state, but I thought I did okay and it was fun.”

44 students advanced to State this year, which was a 10 percent increase from last year. The HOSA State Leadership Conference will be from March 28-30.

“I think we did very well at Area. The kids were wonderful and they’re always a joy to be around. How smart they are always just amazes me,” HOSA sponsor Dr. Stacy Germany said. “We had seven more people qualify more than last year so we are qualifying more and more each year. The state convention will be in San Antonio this year, so it’s right on the riverwalk, and kids will have the chance to have fun and compete.”