By Kiana Caranto

[email protected]

The Health Occupations Students of America-Future Health Professionals (HOSA) spent their summer preparing for the HOSA National Leadership Conference (NLC) which was held from June 26 to 28 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn. With the number of competitors increasing each year, MHS was still able to bring home a gold medal as well as achieve several top 10 honors.

“They were so worried. I know that they were stressing out because just waiting for the results, it’s something that is really hard to deal with if you don’t make it and you work so hard,” said HOSA adviser Candace Chun.

This competition was a culmination of a year-long project that the students were required to complete. Many of the categories required them to take a test in order to advance to the second round where they would present their project to the judges, and all of MHS’ competitors made it to the second round in their respective categories. In addition to this, MHS won a gold medal in Clinical Specialty, along with a fourth place finish in the same category. They were also ranked fifth in Public Health and seventh in Biomedical Debate.

The amount of states competing has risen from 37 to 49 states since the first NLC that MHS competed in. “Before where at least maybe a half of them went up to the second round, now it’s only a third or fourth of people that are competing that go up to the next round,” stated Chun, “I’m proud of them for making it up to the second round.”

Although this made it harder for the students to advance and place as high as possible, it made the positive outcomes of the competition more rewarding. “I felt when I went in to the competition I wasn’t as prepared as I was last year. So when I found out I took first it was a really, really big shock,” expressed MHS Alumna Teri Kawasaki, who took first in the Clinical Specialty category. Clinical Specialty requires students to shadow someone in the medical field throughout the school year, create a portfolio that talks about what they learned and reenact a skill they observed while shadowing the professional.

Not only did Kawasaki take home the gold this year, she also beat the gold medalist from the last year’s competition. “(Last year’s winner) was an extremely tough competitor just based off of her communication skills and selected career,” said Kawasaki, “To have beaten her this year it was just really interesting. It was exciting.”

This year-long project helped the students develop independence and many skills necessary to become successful in the medical field. “It helps you kind of get like a little chunk of what it would actually be like if you were that kind of doctor,” stated Senior Alyssa Fukumae, who placed fourth in Clinical Specialty.

Principal Fred Murphy accompanied them on the week-long trip and was given the chance to support the students. “Being able to share in that excitement and seeing (MHS) do well with other high schools from all these different places,” said Murphy, “That’s an endorsement of the hard work and the collective accomplishment of our students.”

With the start of the new school year upon them, the HOSA students have already begun studying and working towards repeating their success at next year’s NLC.