Most high school students would freak out when offered the opportunity to practice sutures, EMT skills, and CPR. However, NCHS HOSA students choose to do this in their free time, competing at the HOSA State Leadership Conference in Spokane from March 14-16.
North Creek’s club HOSA (Health Occupation Students of America) provides the opportunity for many students interested in medicine to experience what actual healthcare professionals do in the medical field on a daily basis.
“There are a lot of different events that students can compete in, some are team events, some are individual events,” said Amanda Rainwater, the advisor of HOSA.
The opportunities range from veterinary medicine to EMT practice skills, it has anything to do with medicine that you can think of.
80 North Creek students from HOSA attended the HOSA State Leadership Conference, and 17 of the 80 students that attended placed within the top five in their category. Over 6,000 students from high schools across the state participated in the competition. North Creek students placed in the top five in 17 events, and 15 qualified to participate at the international conference in Houston, Texas at the end of June by finishing in the top three in their categories.
Students eligible for internationals include: Aashvi Shah, Fatimah Obaid, Dalya Obaid, Abhay Sankar, Amanda Zheng, Alekhya Akella, Tarun Krishnamurthy, Jiya Gupta, Aashi Patel, Guhar Rasuli, Anushka Bains, Thanishkaa Saravanane, Kushi Mathur, Danielle Mascarenhas, Bryan Nie, Afrah Dawood, Sruthi Alamuru, Bhavyahshree Navaneetha Krishnan, Hayley Hong, Sophia Kang, Arushi Chigurupati, Simi Saiganesh, Dhruv Mudaliar, Arjun Ramiah.
In addition to competitions, students have opportunities to participate in workshops.
“There are a lot of medical related workshops, like different degrees in the proffessions and there are different universities and colleges there (that) offer information about the program,” said Rainwater. “There are anatomy events, there’s like a suturing clinic, where they teach kids how to suture up cuts.”
