The HOSA competition team’s collaboration and commitment paved the way for a win at states. From April 3-6, 11 students represented the school at the HOSA State Leadership Conference, with the Creative Problem Solving Team placing third overall.
This placement also qualifies the team to advance to the HOSA International Leadership Conference (ILC) in Nashville, Tennessee, this June, where they will be able to represent the school and demonstrate their talents at an international level.
This feat is not only groundbreaking from our school’s history, but also deeply significant to the participating students as well. Abdul Sidani (12) is the President of HOSA and also one of the members of the Creative Problem Solving team.
He expressed how after three years of hard work and competing through this honor society, this moment made it all “finally worth it”.
“The win means alot to me, I feel like this honor society means the most out of all of them, especially given the leadership role that I have in it,” said Sidani.
Sidani highlights the key to their success: teamwork. He reminisces how he has known the majority of the members on the competition team since grade school, but HOSA solidified their friendships.
“We started our first year as an experiment and we have built that synergy since tenth grade,” said Sidani.
Bianca Maresma (12) is one of the fellow team members Sidani is referring to as well as Tommy dos Santos (12) and Esteban Chiquito (12). Another key factor in this year’s win was the fact the competition team changed categories. Throughout high school, this group competed in the Debate category but never made it past the first round of States so the group made the decision to switch to another category. Maresma discusses how Creative Problem Solving was the obvious choice as all the members were good on their feet and at problem-solving. This posed a new challenge as the team had to put even more effort into mastering a brand new category. The team had to study for a 50 multiple choice question test to pass round one and then in round two they were given a biomedical problem to solve with 30 minutes of preparation.
“I realized how important it is to have perseverance and never give up. Even after two years of not placing at States, we changed our work ethic in order to advance our senior year,” said Maresma.
HOSA or Health Occupations Students of America is an exclusive honor society for students excelling in the Biomedical Pathway. Both Sidani and Maresma plan on using their experience and lessons learned in HOSA into their future academic and professional careers. Sidani plans on drawing on the content explored in HOSA in studying Pre Med and applying to internships in the medical field. Maresma would like to join HOSA at the collegiate level and build upon her current competitive achievements.
The 2025 HOSA Competition Team excelled during States this year; simultaneously allowing the senior competitors to leave a lasting legacy before they embark on their next chapter.
