Arcadia High School’s (AHS) Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) club recently made changes during the chartering process. The club meetings were on hold for a month after Clubs Day, during which aspects of the club were discussed and newly developed.

HOSA is an international student organization whose purpose is to encourage those who will become healthcare leaders and professionals in the future. The organization provides opportunities–such as competitions–for students to develop their knowledge about topics in the healthcare field, and start building the skills they need for their potential careers. Their competitions have hands-on activities and scenarios in fields such as health science, clinical nursing, biomedical sciences, and dental sciences.

Originally, the HOSA club at AHS had been chartered under the official HOSA organization, but this was unbeknownst to the current officers of the club. HOSA Co-President junior Jodie Tran provided details about this.

“From our knowledge, it has been quite a few years since the high school has had an active HOSA chapter, and there was nothing publicized that we were aware of that indicated there was ever a HOSA chapter at AHS,” Tran stated. “Thus, my Co-President Sameeka and I decided to try and start a HOSA chapter unknown that the school already had one.”

Once the idea was developed, they searched for an adviser who had the credentials to oversee the club. One of the athletic trainers (Jack Sessions & Matt Nielsen) at AHS currently holds the credentials, but was unable to provide enough time to oversee the club with a competition team as well. In the past, building a competition team for HOSA proved to be a time consuming task, which was one of the reasons the old HOSA club had grown inactive and paused their participation in official competitions.

The officers discussed the matter with both the athletic trainer and the Activities Director (Peter Vo), attempting to come up with a solution where the HOSA club could exist within AHS, but have some alterations made to its purpose.

Now, the club is no longer chartered under the official HOSA organization, and will not take part in competitions anymore. However, it will still present useful information about healthcare jobs and open up opportunities for future professionals and still uphold the original mission of HOSA.

“So for us, this will look like doing job presentations on different fields in healthcare, presenting sample study cases, providing members information and ways to enroll in other local medicine related competitions, doing activities like medical ethics debates, and hosting speaker panels to allow members to get a feel for different jobs in the healthcare field,” Tran added.

New club members value HOSA and enjoy the club meetings. In their latest meeting, HOSA shared details about the Genes in Space competition, which provides an opportunity for participants to design a DNA experiment to be performed in the International Space Station. Finalists of the competition will receive mentoring from scientists at MIT, and the winners’ experiment will be held at the ISS in 2025.

“I think the Genes in Space contest sounds really interesting, and I’d definitely love to try to participate! I like that I’m able to learn about contests and activities through HOSA, and it’s definitely a really useful and fun club to be part of,” stated freshman Sai Sruthi Banala, a member of HOSA, when asked about her opinions on the meeting.

Although the HOSA club no longer takes part in competitions, they maintain the same mission and provide the same amazing opportunities for members to participate in. Members of the HOSA club will continue to move forward in their endeavors in the healthcare field.

Photo courtesy of HOSA Club