Twelve health sciences students traveled to Galveston to compete in the State HOSA Medical Conference April 13 and 14, and two will advance to nationals in June.
Seniors Lauren Blackburn and Emma Green placed second in state in Career Health Display with their tri-fold poster on a medical career of their choice and qualified for nationals in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Our career that we chose was an RN flight nurse,” Blackburn said. “A flight nurse is the same as any other nurse except they work on a helicopter in the air. They perform life-saving tasks in the air to very critical patients and transport them to the hospital.”
Green said that at the Career Health Display competition, judges look for communication skills, people skills, confidence and demonstration of knowledge of their career.
“It definitely takes a lot of commitment, but it is also very rewarding,” Blackburn said. “If you’re interested in the medical field you learn a lot and meet new people who are interested in the same thing as you are.”
In April, the school hosted a Hat Day to raise funds for Blackburn and Green to attend the national competition. The girls will have to raise $7200 to travel to Nashville with their mothers and stay in the Grand Ole Opry hotel.
“We really appreciate the CHS students for supporting us,” Green said. “It turned out well. We raised $140 that we are putting in a fund for nationals.”
Blackburn said that the two girls will talk to the Canyon Lion’s Club this Saturday to solicit funds to go to nationals.
“Nobody from Canyon has ever gone to HOSA nationals, and that’s been our goal for the past three years,” Blackburn said. “That’s what we started competing towards, and that’s what our goal has been.”
Other participants in the HOSA State competition:
Abraham Tenorio- Helped run and complete multiple events at State
Taylor Gresham- Competed in Health Issues Exam
Cole Gwyn and Marisa Ybarra- Placed Top 10 in Sate in CERT
HOSA Bowl Team (Stephanie Gauna, Shawn Williams, Michael Ammons, Zane Crabtree)- 8th in State
Kim Davis- 6th in State in Clinical Nurse Specialty
Andres Casillas- 11th in State in Nutrition
