HOSA, or Health Occupations Students of America, is a nationwide club that’s offered here at Lincoln High. Since the name alone doesn’t tell us a lot about what they do, I interviewed Mrs. Beck, the current sponsor of HOSA, along with a couple students that are part of the club to figure out what it is and what made them decide to participate.
The club has been advised and sponsored by Mrs. Beck, the health sciences teacher, since it was first proposed seven years ago. Her reasoning for sponsoring it, however, was out of student interest. This has led to a major emphasis on the students leading the club rather than the club leading the students. There’s three levels of involvement in HOSA too depending on how active you want to be in the club. If you want minimal involvement, they recommend coming to a couple weekly meetings on Thursday. and showing up for a club day or two. Club days are generally better attended because the majority of people who are at all active in the club come to show up. They also have hands-on medical activities like learning how to wrap wrists, making heart pump models, etc.
If you want to be a little more involved, then you might enjoy attending the club days along with every weekly meeting. Thursdays help give members time to plan what to do for club days and larger events. “Thursdays are really our days to lay the groundwork.” Lina Dvorak, the student president of HOSA told me. This also means that activities are planned by the students rather than by the sponsor. No matter what the student wants to do, if it relates to the medical field, then HOSA will find a way to make that happen.
The highest level is actually going to those competitions. The conventions where those competitions take place have over 80 events and give several panels that you can attend too. Events can range from nutrition and medical terminology to anatomy and forensic science. This last level does come with a one- time $25 fee, but that covers travel expenses and lets you experience HOSA to its fullest. Fee-waivers are applicable to students on free or reduced lunch and some students have held fundraisers to help meet their waiver cost.
If you aren’t interested in competing, HOSA still has more to offer too. Students can also participate in service projects like Be the Match and Live on Nebraska which are encouraged by the larger organization, but aren’t done unless a student wants to participate in it. HOSA also offers an outlet in which students can see if they’re interested in medical lines of work. Alyssa, a HOSA member who joined this past year, is a good example of this. When I asked her why she joined, she responded “I started thinking about what I wanted to do in the future and realized I had no clue. So I joined HOSA to see if this whole career path was right for me.” Being part of HOSA has given members more than just medals, projects, and test scores, though. According to Dvorak, “It’s given me a lot of opportunities to think about what I want to do for a career. It’s also built a lot of leadership qualities in me as its current president and [HOSA] helped me learn the importance of community involvement.” Alyssa has had similar strengths given from her time in HOSA saying “I’ve learned to commit more… it [HOSA] has made me outgoing and willing to try new things.”
Even though I only talked to two members of the club personally, everyone was very nice and welcoming. It’s a nice atmosphere to see if you have an interest that HOSA can help enable. The more people that join, the more opportunities that can be provided to HOSA members due to minimum member requirements and certain events. If any of this has sounded appealing to you, or if you are interested in more information, HOSA meets every Thursday in room s133 and you can contact Mrs. Beck at abeck@lps.org.
