WA’s Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) participated in the recent Massachusetts HOSA Competition against other HOSA members from throughout the state. 18 of them came back with a top three score in their respective events and are eligible to compete at the National HOSA Competition in June.

Dubbed “Medical DECA” by many club members, HOSA covers everything in the medical field, and expands into some science fields. Led by senior president Abhinav Wadhwa and the rest of its cabinet, the club has had great success over the years, consistently placing in many different events. This year’s winners and the events that they competed in are:

• Muskan Bansal (2nd place) Behavioral Health
• Diya Jayaraman & Varnika Alla (3rd place) CPR/First Aid
• Prajna Upadhyaya & Arineemal Kaul (2nd place) CPR/First Aid
• Cathy Zhu & Priyanka Rajaram (1st place) CPR/First Aid
• Tanvi Kodukulla (2nd place) Cultural Diversity
• Deepa Gautam (1st place) Cultural Diversity
• Harshitha Simhadri & Shreya Ambekar (1st place) EMT
• Emily Wang (2nd place) Epidemiology
• Spoorti Tadakamalla (2nd place) Human Growth and Development
• Sai Datla (1st place) Job Seeking Skills
• Ritu Venkat (1st place) Medical Assisting
• Bhavya Vemuri (2nd place) Medical Law and Ethics
• Abhinav Wadhwa (1st place) Pharmacology
• Prajna Sajjan (3rd place) Prepared Speaking

“The competitions vary depending on what event you do,” Wadhwa said. “Some people do a knowledge test that have 100 multiple choice questions, some make a video, others present a speech, or do a debate.”

Now that the state competition results are in, the club will go to Dallas, Texas in June for the international competition, and those 18 students will compete again, going for the best possible score. WA HOSA congratulates the members who placed at states, and as they hope to repeat their successes at internationals.

“[At internationals] you [compete again] in the same event […]. They are giving a test to the best people in that event to find out who will place in first worldwide,” senior HOSA captain Muskan Bansal said.

Placing at internationals is a great achievement. Senior secretary Prajna Sajjan was able to accomplish this last year with a top ten placement in prepared speaking. She hopes to recreate her success this year as well.

“I like talking to others and getting to use my voice to show my opinions and make arguments. I found that [HOSA] combines my love for public speaking with my love for science and the medical field,” Sajjan said. “I found myself to be very successful at prepared speaking.”

However, nationals aren’t all testing and contests; there are still activities and new experiences as well. At the international conference, there is a tradition where people from each state have their own pin, and people trade them with others they meet to try and collect each pin from all 50 states.

“[HOSA convention leaders] hand out all of the pins and you get to [meet new people from other states to trade the pins]. It’s kind of like a black market,” senior treasurer Spoorti Tadakamalla said.

Members are very excited for the international conference because this is an opportunity for members to become closer with each other. They get to meet people that they have never met or formed any sort of relationship with before. In addition, they get the opportunity to meet people from all over the world.

“Internationals is really amazing because you meet people from all over. We met a group from American Samoa last year in Tennessee,” sophomore Catherine Zhu said.