HOSA is a student organization that is composed of future health professionals. On March 27 and 28, students from FHN and other schools from the area attended the State HOSA conference held at Missouri S&T. FHN had 12 finalists and 17 nationalists. Nationals will be held over the summer at Disneyworld in Orlando, FL.

“I thought I performed really well for my first year and almost making it to nationals,” junior Caty Arnold said. “I felt confident the entire time and I was happy to have good competition.”

There was many different ways student indifferent events decided to prepare. A few of those ways were having group get togethers and listening to each other present, studying content of their event from different resources, and having study sessions at Bread Co. Students received one point for every hour they spent preparing for State in Mr. Riffee’s room.

“We prepared by studying for the written portion of the exam over the content of parliamentary procedures,” senior Gianna Sulzner said. “Basically, we worked and planned out our mock meeting and then we are just practiced and rehearsed that.”

Everyone’s goal as a whole for this year was to make as many people to Nationals as possible. The event of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), composed of Hannah and Sarah Zimmerman, were first place national qualifiers. Juan Alega and Maggie Cox received second place as nationalist qualifiers in CERT. August Wise was presented with first place nationalist qualifier in the event of Behavioral Health. In the Parliamentary Procedure event, Jessica Jones, Drew Lanig, Sophia Courteranis, Emma Eckhard, Gianna Sulzner, Lydia Harms, and Paige Highfill received first place national qualifiers. Jamie Schwartz took third place national qualifier in the Medical Law and Ethics event. First place national qualifier was awarded to Erin Stock in the Sports Medicine event, and Jesse George, Katie Henslee and Taylor Poirier were first place national qualifiers in the Public Health Team event. Many other students worked hard and were finalist in their events.

“I feel like Maggie and I performed great considering that it was our first time working together and we got 2nd place,” junior Juan Alega said.

While at the competition students received a swag bag (t-shirt, notebook, cup, stylus, earbuds) for going through all the college booths and symposiums. While at the competition, students practiced before their events as well as hung out with friends and walked to get Fro Yo.

“Overall, my favorite part of state was getting to spend time with a bunch of people who are all very serious about going on the same career path as myself,” Arnold said. “HOSA is definitely a place where I feel like I belong, and it’s where most of my best friends are.”