Over Spring Break, 28 Brahmas attended the HOSA - Future Health Professionals State Leadership Conference in Anaheim, CA, competing against 3500 high school students from around the state. These students were also able to engage in a variety of workshops (ex. STOP THE BLEED certification, Key to Leadership, Texting and Driving with the Jacob Hefter Foundation) and gain valuable skills that will largely facilitate every member’s journey in medicine.
Our 28 students put in months of preparation through self-studying, group study sessions, leadership activities, and a rigorous gauntlet of testing. Each student participated in 1 or more events, many participating in 2 or 3 events. Some were online Knowledge Tests (KT), others were skill-based tests in a given area of medicine, and third were the leadership and team events. The TOP 3 students in each event earn their way to the International Leadership Conference this June in Dallas, TX.
Our chapter was thrilled to have many students find success at the conference. The following students placed in the Top 5 in their respective Knowledge Test:
Doah Shin, 2nd place KT Medical Reading
Megan Chen, 3rd place KT Human Growth & Development
Kevin Hsieh, 3rd place KT Behavior Health
Alice Yip, 4th place KT Epidemiology
We had many students compete in skill-based tests that required a Round 1 online test prior to the conference. In order to move on to Round 2 the student must pass the online test with a 70% or above. The following students made Round 2 in their skill-based competition:
Aadarsh Bellinganud, Dental Science
Dhruv Chawla, Dental Science
Loretta Cheng, Medical Assisting
Additionally, the Leadership event category was full of successful students earning the right to compete in Round 2 of their event:
Sara Phung, Healthy Lifestyles - placed 2nd overall
Alice Yip, Healthy Lifestyles
Megan Chen, Prepared Speaking
Austin Hyun, Prepared Speaking
Ian Lee, Extemporaneous Writing
Sharon Lee, Extemporaneous Writing
Jamie Liang, Extemporaneous Writing
The following students were recognized for performing community service hours in the Barbara James Service Award event:
Danny Mansour - Gold (250.0+ hours)
Christine Zhou - Gold (250.0+ hours)
Ian Lee - Silver (175-249.9 hours)
Justin Hsu - Bronze (100-174.9 hours)
Austin Hyun - Bronze (100-174.9 hours)
Our team events had great success as well:
The team of Nitin Murali, Dhruv Chawla, and Aadarsh Belliganud made Round 2 in their event Creative Problem Solving.
The team of Kevin Ramirez, Kevin Hsieh, Christine Zhou, and Hannah Zhang competed in the HOSA Bowl event taking home 3rd place!
We were thrilled to see our past president, Ajeet Paul Bhatia ('17), present a workshop on "Stop the Bleed" from the UCI Anteater EMT group. During his two workshops Ajeet certified over 400 high school students in mass casualty bleeding control. Way to go Ajeet!
And lastly, we want to share the accomplishment of our Chapter President, Megan Chen. Megan decided in January to apply for a position on the Cal-HOSA State Officer Board. There were 33 applicants to fill 10 positions, and Megan Chen was elected by her peers to serve as the Cal-HOSA Region 4 Vice President! Region 4 comprises all of LA and Orange Counties, and her duties include arranging our Regional Leadership Conference as well as handling the Cal-HOSA social media accounts. We are thrilled to have a Brahma represented at the State level of leadership. This accomplishment is a true reflection of her dedication to our DBHS HOSA Chapter for the past two years.
Officers: Megan Chen (President), Sharon Lee (Secretary), Danny Mansour (Treasurer), Jamie Liang (Event Coordinator), Justin Hsu (Tech Rep), Christine Lee (Public Relations), Kevin Hsieh (Leadership Associate of Finance), Christine Zhou (Leadership Associate of Outreach), and Nitin Murali (Leadership Associate of Visual Communications).
Attendees: Saamir Appali, Aadarsh Belliganud, Dhruv Chawla, Dereck Chen, Ethan Chen, Loretta Cheng, Queena Deng, Karyn How, Iris Hsu, Kathleen Hsu, Austin Hyun, Rahul Karki, Ian Lee, Junho Lee, Sara Phung, Kevin Ramirez, Doah Shin, Alice Yip, Hannah Zhang.