Angeli’s Story
When people reflect on their years in high school, they often think about the friends they made, the trips they went on and the lessons they learned. For me, HOSA captures the best of all my high school memories.
As a freshman in high school, I knew little about HOSA. It was just a club, which facilitated medical competitions. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. HOSA is an avenue that helps you meet new people, strengthen friendships, and find inspiration.
In the past three years, HOSA has helped me meet numerous wonderful students from across the country. By networking with great student leaders, I have been able to grow as a leader myself. Each student is passionate about his or her own ideas and their enthusiasm is invigorating. Though our aspirations in life may differ, we all have the common vision of helping to serve others. At the Washington Leadership Conference, State Officers from around the country and I participated in a scavenger hunt across D.C. Through our struggles to read a map and awe of the monuments, we developed a sense of unity and teamwork. It was here that I became friends with my HOSA sisters from North and South Carolina. Our love for HOSA serves as a common bond that created lifelong friendships for us to treasure.
For me, the HOSA State and National Conferences have always served as inspiration. Each guest speaker at our conferences was knowledgeable and provided valuable insight into both healthcare and into our lives. However, the State and National officer served as even bigger role models and inspirations. Since freshman year, I was honored to have so many leaders in my own school, willing to offer a hand if I stumbled along the way. Their constant encouragement and positive outlook enabled me to see what HOSA was all about- a community that pushes one another to reach their potential.
This year my best friend and I decided to compete in CPR and First Aid. We had competed the past two years in HOSA, but had not qualified to go to the National conference either time. We found out that while training for our competition we grew even closer. We bonded over memorizing the difference between treating a snake bite and bee sting and trying to remember how to treat a sucking chest wound. Our school HOSA community was very supportive and everyone from our HOSA advisor to our nurse and even our physics teacher helped critique our CPR technique. We placed first both in the Southern Regional and State Competition. I am so happy that I was able to attend my first National HOSA Conference with my best friend in sunny Anaheim, California. But, none of it could have been achieved without the help of our HOSA community.
This community teaches you nurtures your dreams, builds confidence in you, pushes you to become a better person and teaches you many important life lessons. As I enter senior year, I cannot believe that this is my last year in HOSA as a secondary student. But reflecting on my past three years in high school, HOSA has helped me blossom from a timid freshman into the NJ State President. For helping me realize the potential in myself and giving me the most amazing high school experience, I am forever indebted to HOSA.
Angeli Sharma, New Jersey HOSA
