Health Occupations for Students in America, also known as HOSA, is a national organization to help students on their healthcare career pathway.
Students at WRHS who are thinking about a healthcare career or who just have a small interest in being a part of it, have the opportunity to join the HOSA club. Whether they want to go into health science like being a surgeon, health educator, paramedic, or a nurse, HOSA is the club to help create a pathway and guide students through the process of whichever healthcare career they are interested in.
While at a debate tournament in Lawrence, students discovered a club called HOSA. They decided to do some research about the club and thought it was interesting and shocked that Washburn Rural did not have a HOSA club.
After that Rural began a HOSA club. Mrs. Wichman and Mrs. Bunck, have been the club’s sponsors for five years. Wichman believes that students succeed and get great things out of being a part of the club.
“To see the diversity of jobs available in the health profession, to get to hear from the experts first hand, to get the opportunity to go on field trips to the hospital and see how the laboratories function, to be able to volunteer at the hospitals, to be able to job shadow and to be able to explore possible health care pathways, to be able to get a start on their journey early in high school and get ahead is a great opportunity,” Wichman said.
This year’s president of HOSA Bristol Karr and vice president is Hailey Davin, who are both interested in health science careers. Both have been very helpful this year with organizing and setting up the social media for the club.
“HOSA informs students of volunteer opportunities and informs students interested in the health profession what classes at Washburn Rural would benefit them the most on their pathway. It also gets the students networking, to meet Mrs. Golden (CTE Coordinator), to meet Mr. Steinert (the final courses in the Science pathways are his domain) and to help students find CTE schools to offer technical certifications while they are in high school,” Wichman said.
This is Karr’s second year being a part of HOSA. HOSA has helped Karr discover her specialties and become involved with volunteering.
“I have gained a lot out of HOSA, but the main thing is probably just all of the resources it has provided me. HOSA is a great community of people who have the same future goals as me, who I can talk to about classes and our future plans! HOSA is also what got me involved with volunteering at the hospital, which has been huge for me. I have made so many relationships with patients and learned so much,” Karr said.
