The room was filled with people and medical supplies were floating around the room. The HOSA club’s next health project was eagerly waiting to be announced.

HOSA, formerly known as the Health Occupations Students of America and currently called the Future Health Professionals, was originally founded in 1976 as an organization for students interested in healthcare. Since then, it has grown a tremendous amount with over 200,000 members in about 51 chartered organizations across the country. At Wayne Valley, the club is run by Mr. Yale with help from President Nicole Antonio and Vice President Jaclyn Ellis. The club also contains an executive board including Jenna Sisto, Julia Schaeffer, Deyanna Abedrabo and Kyra McAllen. This makes the organization mostly student run, which gives the members a lot of leadership experience!

Although the idea of creating a medical club has been around for a while, the club is a new addition to Wayne Valley; in fact, it was just created last school year! Antonio and Ellis both thought it would be a great idea to introduce the club once school was back in-person. Additionally, the HOSA club at Wayne Valley is affiliated with the National HOSA Organization.

Mr. Yale believes that Hosa will help “…students further their interests in the medical field, and overall build their leadership skills.” The club provides volunteering opportunities, guest speakers who work in the healthcare field, and even gets them CPR certified!

The club participates in medical conferences that Antonio and Ellis have brought back a few wins from, including placing at the Northern Regional Conference and the State Leadership Conference which opened up new opportunities for both of them! Unfortunately, Covid caused all of the conferences in 2021-2022 to be held online. Once more in-person conferences take place, the members of HOSA will be able to meet more of their peers who share similar interests in the medical field from all over.

HOSA is a great way to allow students to give back to their community. According to Mr. Yale, this is “…a value essential to going into the [medical] field.” The club has already helped out their community by collecting and donating first aid supplies with help from NHS and making felt hearts to lift the spirits of people currently in local hospice centers.

“I believe that this organization will continue to gain traction, as I know that we have many students interested in the health sciences who may not be members just yet,” Mr. Yale explains. Once the club continues to grow, they will be able to become more involved in the community and continue to win at some of the medical conferences! To learn more about the club, follow their Instagram account @wvhosa_.