This fall, seven students launched a Townsend Harris chapter of HOSA, or Health Occupations Students of America, an organization with thousands of chapters across international middle schools, high schools, and universities that seeks to empower students to “become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration, and experience.”
Since its kickoff this September, the team has averaged approximately 70 members in attendance per meeting and has about 150 participants in its Google Classroom, student leaders told The Classic. One of those leaders, junior Ethmi Uyanwatte, said that HOSA was able to attract its members “through a combination of promotional flyers, bakesales, and a social media presence,” and that the founders are “extremely proud of this turnout and hope to maintain this excitement for years to come.”
While the chapter was unable to attend HOSA’s Fall Leadership Conference due to its newly-founded status, it plans to attend the Spring Leadership Conference next April. The Spring Leadership Conference is the team’s biggest event, and “truly what we’ve been preparing for and the aspect of HOSA that makes it so different from other health clubs,” said Meriam. She said that the chapter’s members are currently trying out for the different competitions part of the event in order to help prepare the team for it. The competitions run in various categories, such as health science, health professions, emergency preparedness and more.
Sophomore member Maryam Ansari said that she is “looking forward to the health science and collaborative team competitions” and “thinks health science events sound so fun.” Junior member Nour Mohamed said she is “looking forward in competing in different events, specifically related to medicine” and “for many more leadership opportunities.”
However, preparing for these competitions requires fundraising for the conference and for equipment needs. Junior Meriam Alamarie, one of the student leaders, said that because the team “requires so many supplies, we’re really having issues fundraising and saving up for the endless supplies that we need for Emergency Preparedness, like CPR mannequins and first aid kids.” To help with fundraising, HOSA has hosted popular matcha and other bake sales throughout the building. It will continue to “open fundraisers online and outside of school,” said junior Saniha Jasrah, one of the leaders.
Before HOSA made its debut, its founders faced challenges in establishing the chapter. Advisor Abid Choudhury said, “In the proposal stage, there are challenges; these are several different students and several different visions of what it should look like.” He also said that HOSA faced an obstacle in establishing itself as a competitive academic team and “launching and getting into a place where it’s enough of a known entity to have consistent guidance from staff.”
Looking ahead, HOSA plans to implement new programs and initiatives to support its growth in its first season. Meriam said that plans are underway “to implement membership dues and have members participate more in bake sales,” and that the team is working to “get settled so we [the student leaders] could properly launch our motivation driven team with the supplies and preparation we need.”
Mr. Choudhury said that because so many THHS students are interested in pursuing careers in medicine, he thinks that it is important to “explore that, learn that and compete in that, outside of the classroom setting.” He said, “For this season, honestly, my expectations are just that the kids are happy, and they’re able to compete at any small level.”
