The HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) team competed in the HOSA State Leadership Conference on the weekend of March 27, taking home multiple wins and qualifications for HOSA nationals.

HOSA co-sponsor Ali Sayed-Ahmed has been involved with the program for three years. This season has been record-breaking because the team has never had as many wins as this season. Sayed was pleased with both the results of the competition and how the season went.

“Ten students placed in top three, and the students who placed in top three made it to nationals,” Sayed said. “There are multiple competitions that a student can do and it depends on what they choose.”

Sophomore and HOSA vice president Arush Sharma won the Family Medicine event at the state conference. He will be competing in that same event at nationals and hopes to learn a lot throughout the test.

“I won the Family Medicine event; I felt confident and I’m happy that I’m going,” Sharma said.

Despite the successful season, Sayed believes there are aspects that the team can always improve on. He is already looking towards next season and came up with new ideas that he hopes will help the team improve.

“Students can do a little more practice,” Sayed said. “We could have students present their competitions in front of their peers more frequently so that they get more competition experience.”

Junior and HOSA secretary Zainab Shamsi also qualified for nationals. She placed first in Human Growth and Development & Epidemiology, as well as placing third in Occupational Therapy. She will be competing in Occupational Therapy and Career Development at nationals.

“Overall I’m pretty happy with how the competition went. I put in a lot of effort preparing, and I feel like that showed,” Shamsi said.

Shamsi still recognized that there are still some parts to improve. Similar to Sayed, she felt that working on speaking would help her to do even better in the next competitions.

“I believe I could improve on time management during the event and be more confident in my speaking for my Research Poster event,” Shamsi said.

Sayed had many positive comments about the weekend and was happy to see the teamwork and fun among students.

“The highlights were seeing the students getting recognized on stage for their hard work, as well as students having fun and enjoying the company of their peers,” Sayed said.

The HOSA team will compete at nationals on June 17-20 in Indianapolis and looks to finish with a successful performance.