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Eleven students in the Copper Country Intermediate School District’s Career and Technical Education Program traveled in April to Traverse City to participate in the HOSA State Leadership Conference.
The students earned the opportunity after qualifying at the Regional Leadership Conference in Marquette.
Formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America, HOSA is a national career and technical student organization.
Houghton High School junior Marya Julio earned a gold medal for her hard work collecting and writing articles for the chapter newsletter, HOSA Happenings.
Julio said, “The trip overall was a very positive, amazing opportunity. The amount of people there was a little overwhelming, but everyone there had amazing energy and great attitudes. I am very fortunate to have had this experience. We were very busy, and I met lots of new people. I hope to attend States again next year with my Nurse Aid Class.”
CLK seniors Celia Peterson, Annie Tervo, Karissa Johnson, Kelsey Tikkanen and Emily Erkilla placed in the top 10 for their Public Service Announcement.
Karissa said, “Going to HOSA states means accomplishing a project that we put time, challenging work, and team effort into.”
That couldn’t be more true for all that participated. Madison Rajala (CLK, junior), Lauren Mattila (CLK jr), Megan Hauswirth (Hancock, sr), Madelyn Romps (HHS sr) and Alix Gaffney (HHS, jr) also enjoyed the experience.
Amanda Hermanson, Health Careers Instructor and HOSA advisor couldn’t be more proud of the students, “The students work hard, they develop leadership skills and act as role models. It is a great experience for the students to attend a professional conference, I believe it opens doors for their future.”
Michigan HOSA is the second largest chapter in the nation, and this State HOSA conference was the largest to date with over 2600 attendees.
The CCISD students were able to attend thanks to a $3750 grant from the Portage Health Auxiliary, which nearly covered the cost of the trip.
This is the second time Copper Country Hosa received a grant from the Portage Health Auxiliary.
The auxiliary sees the future of health care workers in the CCCISD Hosa students and supports Hosa’s mission, “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.”
