21 BOHS students in the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) chapter qualified on Feb. 9 to compete for placement at the State Leadership Conference (SLC) in Anaheim from April 4 to 6. 

“It makes me so happy to see that our club has grown so much in the last year. We went from eight competitors qualifying for SLC [in 2023] to almost triple moving on to SLC this year,” Aubrey Fessler, senior and president of HOSA, said. 

To qualify for SLC, members had to pass the first round of Regional Competitive Events (RCE), which took place at BOHS on Jan. 24. 40 HOSA members competed in various categories depending on their medical interests — emergency, veterinary, and physical therapy — and could compete individually or in groups of two to six. 21 members had qualifying written test scores to proceed to the next round. 

“I’m excited for everyone who made it, and bummed out for those who didn’t. But, I think it’s going to set a standard for next year that you’re not guaranteed an ‘in’ and that you better start preparing early,” Ken McCall, HOSA advisor and Patient Care pathway teacher, said.

For the individual events — medical reading, medical spelling, medical terminology, and physical therapy — students had to pass a multiple choice exam. 

Lily Lemieux, senior, qualified for SLC in the medical reading event, which consisted of a 75-minute, 60 question multiple choice comprehension test on five books about public health, cognitive neurology and neuroscience, and recounts of renowned surgeons.

“I don’t think I imagined I would go to the next round. It’s like finding out you passed one of your AP tests because you spent so much time studying that you start doubting yourself,” Lemieux said. To get through a lot of content in a short time frame, she “used audiobooks at three times speed while reading” so she could listen while following the lines.

Some students pursued group events like CPR/first aid emergency preparedness and health career display.

For the health career display category, pairs created a trifold board on a health profession of choice and recorded a five-minute speech on the benefits, challenges, career outlook, and education requirements of the career.

Juniors Sahaana Mehta and Jonai Keys created a poster on radiologic technologists, embellished with a hand-made diagram of a CT scan. Mehta was inspired to choose this career after shadowing her aunt, who is a radiologist. “Getting a deeper insight into that career was really interesting because I could better understand all the work I saw her doing,” Mehta said.

At SLC, chapter members will experience workshops, career fairs, and networking opportunities. Members who qualified for the next round at SLC will present live speeches or perform hands-on skills to be scored by judges depending on their competitive event.

The top three winners in each division will have the opportunity to compete at the International Leadership Conference (ILC) from June 26 to 29 in Houston.