Getting hooked on HOSA

Today, EVIT health students are learning one sure way they can make new friends, build up their resumes and help others -- by getting involved in the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) organization.


HOSA is a student organization that promotes career opportunities in health care to enhance quality health care available to all people. EVIT health students are automatically enrolled as members when they pay their class fees, and they have the opportunity to get involved in the organization through a variety of competitions and community service projects.

The first event coming up is the state competition, known as the Fall Leadership Conference, on Nov. 12 at the Phoenix Convention Center. EVIT students who grab first place in those competitions can go on to compete at the national level in June in Anaheim.

Competition categories include:

• Exams (such as dental spelling or medical terminology).
• Health Professional Events (such as biotechnology, home health aide, physical therapy or medical assisting).
• Emergency Preparedness (such as CPR, first aid or EMT).
• Leadership Events (such as giving speeches, writing competitions or poster competitions).
• Teamwork Events (such as creative problem solving, forensic medicine, biomedical debate, HOSA Bowl, public service announcement or medical reading).

The competitions also feature recognition events, where students can win awards for their volunteerism and for raising money for HOSA's national service project, Juvenile Diabetes research. For more information on the competitions, visit the Arizona HOSA website.

EVIT has been involved with HOSA for several years now, and each year, our students bring home more and more medals! In June, EVIT student Laura Kulas won the school's first ever national gold medal, in the pharmacology competition.

EVIT students have also dominated the state's HOSA Bowl competition for several years and plan to keep that streak going! One of last year's HOSA Bowl teammates, Alex Rist, came back to EVIT today to talk to students about why they should get involved in the competitions. He told students that the hard work pays off when they get to travel to the national competition and have fun while competing and meeting all kinds of new people.

"Everything we did in class applied to our competition," Alex told the students. "And EVIT students are the best, so we have the best shot at winning!"