The Fayette Institute of Technology (FIT) has set high standards over the years. And once again, the Health Occupations program proudly sent their class to participate in the annual state HOSA competition on March 8th and 9th at Marshall University to keep the tradition of excellence prevalent.
Five seniors (Abby Carte, Cassidy Roles, Asia Davis, Alexis Franklin, and Rheanna Murray) and four juniors (Amanda Flint, Karen Coleman, Alexis Hysell, and Zachary Kirk) placed in this competition and are now headed to the international competition held in Florida.
HOSA stands for Future Health Professionals, which is an organization that promotes career opportunities in healthcare. Each competitor in the county worked on different job interests, such as Health Career Photography, CPR, First-Aid, Dental Terminology, and even Forensics. This competition is an opportunity to promote careers in the healthcare industries as well as leadership and teamwork skills.
During the HOSA competition, there are many challenges that students face.
“We had to compete in our county, and we each did a different category, some of them were skills- while others were tests that had to be taken,” says Abby Carte from the FIT Health Occupations Program.
The competitive event program is designed to encourage HOSA members to improve their knowledge and skills. It also recognizes students that want to pursue a career.
All of the preparation and hard work paid off as the students placed in their fields to now compete at the international level. The students used a lot of the resources that were provided to them in their FIT Health Occupations classroom, and they said that their instructor Ms. Ashley was very helpful to them when it came to studying and preparing, “Ms. Ashley even bought special books for us” says Abby Carte.
Cassidy Roles placed third in Dental Terminology her junior year and first this year with Alexis Franklin for the EMT course; Abby Carte got first place her junior year in Persuasive Writing and Speaking and also got first place this year in Medical Law and Ethics, and Rheanna Murray placed second her junior year in Behavioral Health Knowledge and third her senior year in Health Career Photography. Asia Davis won second place in Home Health Aide her senior year.
Amanda Flint won first place in Clinical Nursing, Alexis Hysell and Zachary Kirk won second place in Public Health, and Karen Coleman placed second on the Extemporaneous Health Poster.
The seniors had a lot to say about their experience competing at the international level their junior year. Roles offered great advice to the incoming juniors and seniors of the Health Occupations program.
“I would encourage [the underclassmen] to do their best because you only get two chances, and I recommend everyone to try to get to internationals. It is a lot of fun and basically like a paid vacation, and if you do well you get to go Disneyland in Florida.”
If the students could do it again, they would.
Roles added, “The experience of going and meeting new people at internationals is especially fun. Everyone received state pins and would trade their pins for other state pins. There is a lot of friend-making, and you definitely learn a lot.”