From April third to fifth, Green Hope HOSA traveled to Greensboro to compete in the NC HOSA State Leadership Conference. HOSA is a student-led national organization that allows middle school, high school, and college students to compete in various health-related events and participate in career development opportunities that promote careers in the health industry.
136 Green Hope students traveled to the State Leadership Conference to participate in 40 different events. Green Hope performed extremely well at States with 62 students placing in the Top 10 of their events.
First-place winners, Caroline Nguyen and Charlotte Jeffries excelled in their “Community Awareness Event” as they walked up on the stage to accept their shining plaque. Months of work and preparation went into Nguyen and Jeffries’ feat at HOSA, and the pair are thrilled on the win. When asked about their feelings about their first-place win, Nguyen and Jeffries echoed a happy sentiment. “We’re so happy that we won first place in the States. We put in a lot of effort into curating our presentation, and think that it really paid off. Our event was Community Awareness, and the goal of that event is to present a community service project that has impacted people in our local and extended communities” Nguyen said.
For their event, Nguyen and Jeffries chose Period Project North Carolina, a local non-profit founded by high school students Rose Rosaleen (‘24) and Sarah Pazokian (‘24) to alleviate menstrual inequality within the North Carolina area. So far, Rosaleen and Pazokian have implemented period product dispensers in six different schools, impacting over 10,000 students across all schools. When asked about the presentation itself at the event, Jeffries explained the process saying, “There’s two parts – the first is a portfolio where you send in a timeline and a document with all your numbers and statistics, and the second is basically a condensed presentation version that you present to a panel of judges. The presentation had to be under 5 minutes.”
Another competing pair, Neil Parmar (‘24) and John Bramson (‘24), secured a Top 10 placement within their event, CERT skills. When asked about the nature of the event, Bramson said, “There were two parts to it, a multiple choice test and a demonstration where we had to respond to an emergency situation. Both aspects were definitely challenging, so we were glad to have secured a spot in the Top 10.” Bramson also added, “HOSA is just really fun in general, you get to meet a lot of people and hang out with people you maybe don’t get to be friends with at school. It’s also a really great way to immerse yourself in career development opportunities related to your field of interest.” Vibha Kestur (‘24) echoed this sentiment regarding HOSA States saying, “HOSA States was so much fun and you learn a lot through competing in your event. If you think you might be interested in a career in the healthcare field, HOSA would definitely be a worthwhile investment.”
Though Green Hope HOSA has wrapped up its events for this year, it will be back again for the 2024-2025 school year to compete in Regionals and States.
