Twenty one HOSA students qualified to go to a state leadership conference event that took place on March 27-28 at Rolla High School and included various activities such as medical competitions, award ceremonies and trivia contests.

Liberty’s chapter received silver in HOSA Service Project Recognition.

There were also multiple individual awards the group brought home. Emma Thomas received the Barbara James Service Award for completing more than 100 hours of community service. Liberty students who placed in the top three and will
be advancing to compete at the international level:

First place – Cultural Diversities and Disparities: Leah Dudley
Second place – Parliamentary Procedure: Fiona Do, Sophia Fiorino, Amelia Huebbe, Ian Widlacki, and Julia Wiley

Freshman Loukya Vaka speaks on what she enjoyed most about the conference.  

“I really enjoyed the educational symposium which were just like I guess where we learned different things. So I guess my favorite would be the educational symposiums. I did win second place in a competition and that was really fun, but my favorites would probably be the symposiums, HOSA Trivia Night and the educational symposiums.”

Freshman Lorelai Wise believes that HOSA is such an important club to aspiring leaders in the medical industry, citing the numerous opportunities the organization promotes.

“HOSA generally gives many opportunities in the way of service as well as having particular speaker and just generally get engaged with the field as a whole,” Wise said. 

Wise explains some of the pressures that come with the HOSA competitions.

“It is a competitive field, in a way where it can feel just like it’s a metaphorical aspect to how you’re going to present in the real world even though that’s not necessarily true. I think it’s still fun,” Wise said.