In the past three years, a new club has assembled at Westside. The Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) club has been around since 1976, but became official at Westside in the 2015-16 school year. Senior co-presidents Gabby Henderson and Jordan Rhyner led five other students in the club’s first competitive experience this year at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

“[HOSA] is basically the medical version of DECA or FBLA,” Henderson said. “When we started it my sophomore year, we went and watched the competition just to get acclimated with it. This year we wanted to actually compete in the events so we started doing that.”

Before members participated in their first competition, they spent time preparing their projects and studying for the other events and tests. The club also held the “Pie in the Face” fundraiser to raise money for their competitive experience.

“Over the weekends we met at the CAPS building where we studied and worked on our projects,” Rhyner said. “Our advisor met us there and we would go over quizlets that we found or work on our projects.”

The competition often has tests beforehand, consisting of things such as medical terminology and medical math. There were also people from Westside’s chapter that created a medical poster to present to the judges. Rhyner, Henderson, and fellow club member junior Neha Khalid participated in HOSA bowl, or quiz bowl, where they won the category and earned a bid to nationals.

“It was a bunch of questions,” Henderson said. “They threw medical terminology in there, diseases, medical stuff, and then there were also like parliamentary stuff.”

Both Henderson and Rhyner are proud of the way the club has succeeded this year, and hope for the success to be continued into future years.

“It’s cool to see it grow,” Rhyner said. “Like having other people join, and see that they’re actually doing well in the club too.”

By being co-presidents, Henderson and Rhyner have not only led the club to success, but have also helped prepare themselves for their futures. Henderson said she wants to be a nurse, and Rhyner said he might see himself in a career along the lines of healthcare administration.

“It definitely has helped me, learning about all the different aspects of the medical field there are,” Henderson said. “It’s also just helped my leadership skills and working together with a team.”

The team isn’t sure yet if they will be able to attend the national competition in Dallas this June.