Keiser Pride: HOSA Awards Taken at the 2015 National Competitions

HOSA stands for Health Occupations Students of America. HOSA’s primary mission is “to enhance the delivery of compassionate, quality health care by providing opportunities for knowledge, skill and leadership development of all health science education students, therefore, helping the student meet the needs of the health care community.”. This is accomplished through a series of testing and competitions, meant to encourage higher level learning and to foster healthy relationships in the process. Students choose an area of study and compete regionally. The top 3 winners in each region then progress to the state competitions. The top 3 in the state progress to the national competitions.

This year, Keiser University Port St. Lucie took 4 students to nationals: Lala Stoller, Elizabeth Roper, Francesca Maglione, Nicole Klein. Keiser West Palm Beach had one student: Angelica Jaramillo. The HOSA National Leadership Convention was held in Anaheim, California, from June 23 – 28 for more than 8,500 participants. It included concert-like gatherings with inspirational speakers, educational symposiums, exhibits presented by professional healthcare associations, business meetings, workshops, competitive events, social learning activities and opportunities to network with like-minded students around the nation and even across the globe.

On the first day, we had a few hours to ourselves before festivities began. Keiser students were found sitting around the pool, books in lap as they studied and prepared for their competitions. During the rest of the week, the students helped one another to prepare, were considerate and protective of one another, and became sisters as only an extreme environment (4 adults in one hotel room) can ensure. As an advisor and an educator, it made me so proud.

In the end, having already placed in the top 3 for both regional and state competitions, all five students achieved top ten status for the entire nation! To clarify the enormity of this accomplishment, there were more than 150,000 competitors at combined regional and state levels, as well as an additional 8,500 crème-of-the-crop competitors at the national level. Even more, Keiser Port St. Lucie’s students also won two medals: Diet and Nutrition major, Francesca Maglione, took the first place medal for the Nutrition Knowledge category and Medical Assisting student, Liz Roper, took the third place medal for the Extemporaneous Health category. Each student in attendance gained confidence and professionalism like never before, bringing pride to the Keiser name.

We are proud of all of the Keiser students that participated in HOSA and look forward to another year of success and accomplishments with James Van Alan next year!