From March 10 to 12th, The Health Occupations Students of America Club at Lambert attended the HOSA State Leadership Conference at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown Atlanta. Lambert was just one of the branches alongside many other chapters from across Georgia. Middle school, high school and college-level students attended. 

This event allowed students to compete in many events and also let them attend workshops to learn about different medical occupations. 

A typical day for each student varied depending on their interests. Scheduled competitions, practicing for their event, or attending a meeting with experienced health-related workers are all typical HOSA SLC activities. Students stayed in their hotel throughout the duration of the event, as HOSA permits students to leave the premises. 

A variety of awards could be won in all different categories, such as medical terminology, Epidemiology and many more categories. The way students competed ranged from tests to competitions. The students that place in the top 3  move on towards the International level. 

Two students who won the top three for their events were Laisha Dharni and Nicole Moon. 

Nicole won first for Nutrition. She won her event by receiving the highest score after taking a knowledge-based test with around a hundred questions. 

Laisha won second for medical terminology. For her competition, it was a knowledge-based task on piecing together medical suffixes and prefixes to guess the meanings of complicated words.

Not only was the event an experience for those pursuing the medical field, but it also served as a fun event where HOSA clubs all across Georgia could interact. There were parties and celebrations all throughout the hotel.

Laisha’s favorite part of the event was her experience of Lambert’s HOSA club representing their school with school spirit. 

“Every second we would chant or scream really loud,” Laisha said. “Everybody basically knew who Lambert was and where they were.”

Nicole’s favorite part was activity night. 

“You just get to meet a lot of other members from different chapters and get to talk at a hosted dance,” Nicole said. “There’s like board games, karaoke, just a lot of fun things that we can interact with other members from.”