Jessica Wang

Presenting a powerpoint to members in the Great Room, HOSA officers introduce the club’s main purpose and new club sponsor. The first meeting of the year had been postponed for two months during the search for a sponsor.

On Monday, Oct. 16, Future Health Professionals (HOSA) held their first general meeting in the library Great Room. HOSA is one of Westwood’s largest clubs focused on health science competitions and events. 

Earlier this school year, HOSA had been temporarily disbanded due to difficulty finding a sponsor. In past years, HOSA hosted various events for their members, including creating cards for children’s hospitals, canned food drives, health science trivia, movie nights, and health science speakers. This year, Westwood’s entire health science department welcomed new teachers, but many of these teachers denied sponsoring HOSA, due to it being a large responsibility for someone new to the school. 

“The officers faced a lot of challenges trying to find a sponsor,” Chapter Coordinator Rochela Sjariffudin ‘24 said. “We felt pretty dejected in the beginning of the school year when we kept asking teachers and they all kept telling us no. There was a really high chance that we just weren’t going to have HOSA this  year.”

Officers asked almost every teacher in the biomedical or health science department. After two months of diligent searching, HOSA  found their sponsor, Mr. Whaley, a new teacher in the health science department. 

“Now that we have Mr. Whaley,” Sjariffudin said, “I think we’re [all] extra motivated to have a good [experience] with the time we have left.”

Although Mr. Whaley is new to HOSA, both he and the officers are collaborating to ensure everything runs smoothly for the upcoming competitions and events.