This year at the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) area competition twelve out of the 17 Allen students who placed at the area competition are going to state.

Every year HOSA club competes in an area competition to test their knowledge of health science. This year’s competition was held Feb.19 to Feb. 20 at R.L. Turner High School in Carrollton. Over 1,700 students from Texas competed in a variety of healthcare-related events. Twelve out of the 17 students who placed at the area competition are going to state.

In order to compete, the students did not have to physically attend the area competition at RL Turner High School; some state qualifiers this year took online tests at Allen.

“So how the competition works is first there is an online test of 100 multiple choice questions, either asking what a medical term definition is, or it gives you a definition and asks what medical term it describes,” junior club member Uzoa Onyedi said. “Since there is no area for this competition, the top three test takers from each area automatically go to state.”

To prepare for the competition the HOSA club members trained for months.

“We studied our textbooks and made a quizlet,” senior club member Andrea Hastings said. “We’d go to the lab at least once or twice a week to practice all the CPR/first aid skills that were required, running through scenarios with, for example, splinting or heat exhaustion, practicing with an AED, all that jazz.”

In addition to reading textbooks and physical practice, students also took practice tests.

“In preparing for this competition, all I did was tests, tests, tests,” Onyedi said. “Constantly memorizing medical terms and their translations and exposing myself to as many words as possible.”

The HOSA competition allows health science students to improve their medical knowledge/ skills.

“Competition is an awesome way to show off something you love doing alongside really cool people, plus you get a free t-shirt,” Hastings said.

       The following students from Allen placed in the competition and will advance to the state competition in Galveston April 14 to April 16.

Andrea Meier- 1st place Medical Spelling

Augustine Nguyen- 2nd place Medical Spelling

Christina Dias- 2nd place HOSA Bowl

Sabrina Montemayor- 2nd place HOSA Bowl

Zalak Navadia- 2nd place HOSA Bowl

Bianca Mendoza -1st place Forensic Medicine

Keryne Skead- 1st place Forensic Medicine

Jenna Sigle- 2nd place Sports Medicine

      Additional State Qualifiers were:

Uzoa Onyendi- 2nd place Medical Terminology

Sabrina Haque- 3rd place Pathophysiology

Morgan McNew-3rd place Human Growth and Development

Joyce Tiong-  3rd place Medical Math

       Also awarded at the Competition were: 

Andrea Hastings- 4th place CPR/First Aid

Jessica Hudson- 4th place CPR /First Aid

Erica Olfson- 5th place Healthy Lifestyles

Frances Diane Mina-4th place Medical Terminology

Jennifer Odoi- 5th place Transcultural Health Care