As mentioned in a previous article, this marks the first year that the Future Healthcare Professionals of America club (FHP) is competing in the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) State Conference, a national competition where each student can pursue a healthcare area of interest in which they are passionate, which took place virtually during the week of March 15th; all 29 students in FHP qualified for the HOSA State Conference.

“The purpose of HOSA is to complement the numerous opportunities we have at FHP by allowing students to truly delve into a healthcare topic of their personal interest in great depth,” senior Rishi Ray, Future Healthcare Professionals President, said. “The entire purpose of FHP/HOSA is to allow students to foster curiosity and find their particular areas of deep interest.”

At this time, FHP is proud to announce that 20 of their students placed in the top 10 for their division and of them, nine students qualified for the HOSA international competition, allowing them the opportunity to further their knowledge, education and practice in their professional field of interest.

“We are preparing for HOSA internationals in a variety of different ways,” senior Om Kolhe said. “The main method we are using to memorize the information we will be tested on are quizlets, but we are also supplementing this study tool with others such as practice questions, textbooks, and other online resources.

HOSA offers a wide range of events for students to compete in, from skill-based events to actions in the community and country; there are three major subsequent qualifying HOSA events through the year: Regional Conference, State Conference, and National Conference. Each conference is one week in length, and students compete on specific days for their individual event.

“I feel like participation in HOSA helped me greatly in finding out that I really enjoy learning about the medical field,” Alana Hamwi said. “I competed in Medical Terminology, and I feel that what I learned will help me tremendously as I pursue some medical field internship opportunities over the summer.”