BROKEN BOW—Several Broken Bow students have been named state champions following the HOSA Future Health Professionals State Leadership Conference held in Omaha last week.
Nebraska HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America) Future Health Professionals work to develop leadership and technical skills within the global health community. Students from Broken Bow showed off their skills in the areas of medical terminology and innovation, PSAs, problem solving, writing, and human growth and development, among others.
The following teams qualified for the national competition this summer.
State Champions
Ava Williams—Medical Terminology
Ava Williams, Molly Staples, and Keifer Anderson—Public Service Announcement
Halle McCaslin, Camryn Johnson, and Emma Taylor—Medical Innovation
State Runner-Up
Callie White—Extemporaneous Writing
Taylor Schaaf, MaKinley Tobey, and Cassidy Schweitzer—Public Service Announcement
Daine Wardyn, Kailyn Scott, and Emery Custer—Creative Problem Solving
3rd Place
Brynn Custer—Human Growth & Development
HOSA is for anyone interested in learning more about the healthcare field. Sophomore Emma Taylor told KCNI/KBBN the organization allows students to learn about health careers, problem solving and other skills that students can add to their résumés and use later in life.
“I just think it’s a really good opportunity for all high schoolers to join [HOSA] even if you’re not interested in going into the healthcare field when you’re out of high school, it’s still a really good opportunity because you get to look at a lot of stuff, choose if you want to go to state. They had all these break-out sessions and there’s just so much you can learn,” Taylor said.
Emma Taylor said she, Halle McCaslin, and Camryn Johnson created a mobile app in the Medical Innovation category of competition.
“We made an app about mental health for women. Last year we had it as a website but this year we upgraded it and just made it into an app that you can download and [we] put a lot more work into it this year, presented it, and ended up getting first place,” Taylor continued saying the mental health information she and her teammates put together is relevant and useful in everyday life. “It was a perfect thing for us to do right now and we knew a lot about it and so it was really easy for us to put it all together.”
The Broken Bow students will be working on fundraising and perfecting their presentations in order to prepare for the HOSA Future Health Professionals International Leadership Conference to be held in Nashville this June.
“We’ll all get on a plane this summer and head to Nashville!” Taylor told KCNI/KBBN.
Broken Bow science teacher and HOSA Sponsor Suzie Smith shared on Facebook she is, “Super proud of these kids! Can’t wait for Nashville!”
All photos courtesy Broken Bow Public School Activities Department Facebook page
