Hixson High School’s HOSA Club continued its history of success over the summer when the group of future health professionals sent six students to compete in the annual International Leadership Conference.
Recent HHS graduate Alex Condra brought home first place in the nursing assisting category, while Tes Cherian took fourth in transcultural health care and Tiffany Cross placed eighth in home health aid.
Such accolades put them at the top of their fields among high school students across the world.
Renee Parker, one of the club’s faculty advisers, along with Bethany White, mentored the club’s students through the school year, and guided their studies all the way past the school year and into the conference.
The international competition followed regional and state-level contests from which only the best students advanced. Hixson High had 26 students place high enough at regionals to compete at state, and the top three in each category at state advanced to the international conference
“We’re talking about competing with the best of the best,” Parker said. “We prepared them under our guidance, but much of the tremendous effort they put forth was done on their own time.”
Rising HHS senior Kate Bossong was one of the six to advance to the international level, competing in epidemiology. The conference tested both book knowledge and hands-on skills. Bossong said she studied for hours every night in preparation for each level of competition.
“It was really intimidating walking into the conference room and knowing that all the other participants had studied just as much as you,” Bossong said.
She, along with most other competitors, hit the books nonstop during the week preceding the conference.
While Bossong did not place in the top 10, she said she was inspired to study and practice even harder for 2017.
“I know that everyone, regardless of whether they placed or not, seriously tried their best,” she said. “It was definitely worth it.”
Parker said the public speaking, time management, health care knowledge and leadership skills the students develop during the hundreds of hours of practice for the event set them up well for the future.
“We’re competing against schools that are purely health care schools,” Parker added. “That our students care so much shows the desire and strength of will to really want to be the best.”
Hixson’s success at the event comes on the heels of former student Bailey Harding’s first place win in 2015.
Contact Shane Foley at sfoley@timesfreepress.com or 757-6506.