HOSA STUDENTS BRING HOME NATIONAL HONORS

Two students from Berks Career and Technology Center’s Dental Occupations program brought back high honors from the annual National HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) Leadership Conference. The conference and national competition was held in Atlanta, Georgia in June.

Sarah Hoover, a 2003 Exeter Township graduate, was awarded first place in the category of Speaking Skills. Sarah had to develop a speech related to this year’s National Conference theme -“From Lending Hands and Open Hearts, HOSA plays a Caring Part.” The objective was to encourage students to improve their skills in speaking and their ability to organize and present facts or information about a topic, which is related to a specific theme. At the state competition held in April, Sarah took second place in this category. She plans to purse a career in dental hygiene.

Shauna Correll, a Hamburg Area senior, placed in the top ten in dental terminology at nationals. Students competing in this category had to take a written test dealing with selected terms, common to all dental occupations and others unique to the varied dental specialties. The competition encouraged students to improve their ability to identify, spell, define, and apply the terminology and language of occupations in the dental field as it relates to prefixes, suffixes, roots, and anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology, and occupations. Shauna captured the gold medal in the category at the state competition.

The National Conference gives HOSA members a chance to meet leaders in the healthcare community and talk about college, careers, and more. The competitive events are curricular and provide an opportunity for future healthcare professionals to develop and showcase their skills. An estimated 27,000 HOSA members participated in state and regional competitive events in 2002-03. Over 3,000 state recipients competed in 49 different events at this year’s HOSA National Leadership Conference.

Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) is a national student organization endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Occupations Education Division of the ACTE. HOSA's two-fold mission is to promote career opportunities in the health care industry and to enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people. HOSA's goal is to encourage all health occupations instructors and students to join and be actively involved in the HOE-HOSA Partnership.

HOSA provides a unique program of leadership development, motivation, and recognition exclusively for secondary, postsecondary, adult, and collegiate students enrolled in health occupations education programs.