This year in the HOSA Area competition, seven students advanced and will be competing for State in Galveston April 14-16.

“HOSA State is a great platform to meet other people who share the same interest as I do,” junior Miloni Joshi said. “A common ground for everyone there is pursuing a career in the medicine field.”

Sriya Reddy, Sana Khan, Miloni Joshi, Edward Zhang, Ayaz Hafiz, Kriti Garg and Daniya Sheikh will compete with other students from all over the State in order to qualify for the National competition in Nashville, Tennessee June 22-25.

“I’m super excited because HOSA State is in Galveston this year,” junior Sana Khan said. “Last year, State was in Dallas so we didn’t get to travel and experience another city. I’m excited for Galveston beaches. Also, my siblings are in their first year of college and they are going to be at HOSA State, so it will be exciting to see them there.”

HOSA competition brings together students who have the common passion to save lives and better the world. The competition consists of six main events: Health Science, Health Professions, Emergency Preparedness, Leadership, Teamwork and Recognition. Each of these events have smaller subdivisions that the students compete in. Each event is different. Some competitions may require group entries or individual competitors consisting of an online test or events that could have more than one round and activities where skills can be tested.

“My event is Medical Assisting, and I primarily chose it because it is a single-person event and I did not want to rely on other people,” Khan said. “In my event’s first round there is a written portion where you learn everything about what a medical assistant does and you take a test on basically general medical assisting stuff. The second portion is the skills round where you have to dress up in proper attire and get tested on specific skills in front of seven judges and three volunteers.”

State is different from Area because it is a more competitive atmosphere where the stakes are higher and the competitors are more qualified.

“It is the best of the best in the entire state of Texas,” Leigh Ann Field, Health Science teacher and HOSA adviser, said. “Everybody that is going to be there worked really hard, which makes it a little different from Area.”

Students are in full preparation mode now, so when State rolls around they will be confident and successful at their events helping them qualify for Nationals.

“To do better at the State competition, my group and I are getting feedback from our teachers on how we can improve our presentations,” Joshi said. “Our main areas of focus are creating better visual aids and practicing more so we can gain confidence because we got really nervous during Area competition.”

The competition can be really stressful for the students, but it makes them work hard and appreciate the outcome.

“I believe that a competitive attitude can be very beneficial to students as long as it is healthy,” Joshi said. “Healthy competition allows students to work hard to be the of the best but also encourages them to try again next time if they do not succeed.”