In January, 2024, a new club, HOSA, showcased its talent with 22 members of the club advancing into the State conference.
Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) is an organization recognized by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, that aims to globally combat the lack of skilled medical professionals and offers high schoolers medical experience before college.
There are many chapters of HOSA in Ohio, however, SHS’s version of this organization didn’t establish itself until two years ago. Despite being newly formed, SHS’s HOSA team qualified for the State Conference in Toledo.
According to officer and senior Sarah Dong, what sets HOSA apart from other competitive clubs is that it narrows down on a specific field.
“It focuses mostly on Health Sciences, and that’s where it kind of differs from clubs like Science Olympiad, where there’s a large genre of different sciences you can do,” Dong said.
HOSA invites people passionate about being future medical professionals. Freshman Falak Dahiya believes that HOSA, not as popular as Science Olympiad or Speech and Debate, is what makes it so interesting.
“I’m interested in medicine, and I thought it was like a really cool club that I didn’t think a lot of people knew about which made it really interesting to me,” Dahiya said.
HOSA consists of Regionals, then States and then International conferences, with the events being biology, chemistry, anatomy, forensic science, etc, and speech related events such as prepared speaking. From Dong’s point of view, it is helpful for studying and learning medicine.
Dahiya also said HOSA has helped her gain knowledge as she wants to major in medicine related fields, such as medical law.
“On a medical basis, this really helped me improve my knowledge of everything, like general medicine,” Dahiya said. “And I know for others it really helps them with specific topics as well.”
For Sophomore Samantha Friedland, the competition season was challenging, however, it benefitted her socially.
“It has been exciting to see people who have the same interests as you from schools across the state,” said Friedland..“ I have also had the opportunity to visit new cities and learn more about Ohio.
“When we weren’t competing in our events, we got to meet new people, try good food, and check out some interesting high school healthcare programs that were being represented.”
According to Dong, even though the officers are graduating Seniors, HOSA has many future plans due to the recent election of the future President and Vice President, along with the parent advisors being there for future support.
“HOSA itself has a bunch of different leadership communities that high school students can join,” says Dong. “There’s a state leadership commission that high schoolers can be a part of and so we can start going into more of it now that we’re more of a fully defined club.”
Dahiya said students should try out for HOSA.
“I love how everyone is really close with each other, and it’s just a really fun environment,” she said. “I think everyone should join.”
