Health Occupational Students Association (HOSA) Area qualifiers competed at the HOSA State Leadership Conference in San Antonio from Thursday, March 29 to Saturday, March 31. Of the 44 students advancing from Area, 21 qualified for the International Leadership Conference in Orlando by placing within the top three places of their events.

“I learned a lot about healthcare related issues when I competed in clinical speciality,” Vikas Burugu ‘20 said. “[To prepare] I had to find a healthcare professional and follow them, and then demonstrate a skill I learned from that at the competition.”

HOSA is a club with competitive events centered around health and science knowledge. There are different types of competitions in each event, including presentations, testing, and role-playing.

“HOSA added a [new] second round in [the Medical Innovations] competition so we were a bit worried about not qualifying for the second round since the first round was purely aesthetics based,” Chris Fan ‘20 said. “In the end though, we ended up placing first in State and advanced to compete at the international level.”

Students got to the conference held at Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and competed in their events on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The competition ended with the awards ceremony on Saturday evening.

“Even though it was a little stressful, [State] was an interesting new experience because I got to go to San Antonio with classmates and my friends and compete,” Sarah Zeng ‘22. “My favorite part was going outside our hotel to the San Antonio Riverwalk.”

Below is a list of the students advancing from State to Nationals.

Sana Khan ‘20 – Healthcare Issues Exam, Barbara James Service Award

Muhammad Khan ‘21 – Healthcare Issues Exam, Barbara James Service Award

Adora Wu ‘21 – Healthcare Issues Exam

GaEun Kim ‘19 – Medical Terminology (1st place)

Pranavi Kolli ‘21 – Nutrition (3rd place)

Emily Peng ‘20 – Extemporaneous Writing (3rd place), Barbara James Service Award

Anika Chokhavatia ‘21 – Researched Persuasive Writing and Speaking (3rd place)

Vladamir Volobouev ‘19 – Health Education (1st place)

Emily Lu ‘19 – Health Education (1st place)

Evelyn Ngo ‘19 – Health Education (1st place)

Edward Seo ‘21 – Medical Innovations Existing (3rd place), Barbara James Service Award

Daniel Xiong ‘21 – Medical Innovations Existing (3rd place)

Hannah Liu ‘21- Medical Innovations Existing (3rd place)

Sandra Cong ‘20 – Medical Innovations Existing (1st place)

Brandon Qin ‘20 – Medical Innovations Existing (1st place)

Chris Fan ‘20 – Medical Innovations Existing (1st place)

Brandon Wang ‘20 – Medical Innovations Existing (1st place)

Elliot Kim ‘21 – Barbara James Service Award

Yashvi Reddy ‘20 –  Barbara James Service Award

Brian Lee ‘20 – Barbara James Service Award

Anjali Ashar ‘20 – Barbara James Service Award