This week, future health-care providers from Great Bend High School traveled to Pittsburg for the HOSA Spring Leadership Conference.

HOSA stands for Health Occupations Students of America, and HOSA-Future Health Professionals is a global student-led organization, whose mission is to promote career opportunities in the health industry and to enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people. GBHS is part of the national and state-wide organization.

More than 440 students from across the state were in attendance Tuesday and Wednesday in Pittsburg, competing in various health-related competitions. GBHS took 12 HOSA members that competed in various testing, individual and team events.

Sophomores Cailyn Murphy and Eliana Teri advanced to round two and ranked in the top 10 with their Health Career Display Board and presentation. They chose the health career “pharmacist” for their presentation, said Andrea Stalcup, who teaches Life Science at GBHS and as an adjunct faculty member at Barton Community College. She is also a CTE (Career Technical Education) biomedical teacher.

“Two of our teams qualified for nationals,” she said.

• Seniors Gavin Hirsh, Kevin Gonzalez and Angel Palacio earned 3rd place and a trip to Dallas this summer for Nationals in the Creative Problem Solving Event. Round 1 was a multiple choice test. For round 2, they were given the secret topic of “Mental Health in schools” and had to come up with a solution in 30 minutes that they present to the judges. Researching is not allowed during the event. 

• Sophomores Jasmine Figueroa and Jillian Reimer earned 2nd place in Community Awareness event. This has been a project that they have been driving this school year, and they picked the issue of “Fighting Food Insecurity” in Kansas. They presented the community campaign to a panel of judges, using an uploaded portfolio as documentation of their accomplishments. This campaign will continue until Nationals in July.