by Julia Kim
Staff Writer
On Jan. 15-16, 21 Coppell High School students participated in the HOSA Area V Spring Leadership Conference at Denton Ryan High School against students from 58 schools. Seniors Jeffrey Xue, Drew Hasson, Kevin Garza, Sharon Mathai, Jayla Moore and junior Sydney Kapp will advance to the state competition in April in Houston.
HOSA is an organization which educates individuals interested in pursuing a career in the health industry and further enhances their knowledge of medical studies.
“I am always impressed by my students,” HOSA sponsor Brenda Brinkman said. “HOSA is a student-led organization, so students have to dedicate time outside of the school day to prepare. The students seek extra textbooks and resources on their own.”
Xue participated in Medical Math, a written test integrating mathematical principles involving temperatures, weights and measures into the health care delivery system, and placed first.
“I visited several Web sites that [Ms. Brinkman gave me] with practice problems,” Xue said. “I already knew most of the material from previous math classes, so I didn’t prepare too much.”
Hasson, Garza and Mathai competed as a team and placed third in Creative Problem Solving which requires students to apply their problem solving skills in creating a solution to a hypothetical healthcare-related problem.
“It was a lot of fun,” Hasson said. “We didn’t really prepare for it. [Creative Problem Solving] requires speaking skills because you present to a panel of judges, so if you have decent speaking skills, it’s not too bad.”
Moore and Kapp ranked in the top ten percent in the area for the Kaiser Permanente Healthcare Issues exam, an online exam that tests the student’s knowledge of current events in medicine. Although this event started last year, there are many opportunities for students that participate in the national competition to earn scholarships because it is sponsored by the Kaiser Permanente health care organization.
“The test is basically a compilation of medical news,” Kapp said. “I was put in this event because I didn’t have any previous experience in medical terminology, nor have I taken any health-related classes. I read articles from the health section on CNN every weekend for roughly 30 minutes to prepare. There was a lot on the test requiring just common logic.”
Although seniors Suwetha Amsavelu, Shaylee Zaugg and Sowmya Kalathuru are not eligible for the state contest (they did not place in the top three), they placed at the area competition. Amsavelu and Zaugg also participated as a team in Forensic Medicine and placed fifth. Kalathuru earned fourth place in biotechnology.
“I really enjoyed it,” Amsavelu said. “This is my second year doing forensic medicine with Shaylee. Forensic medicine is just like CSI. We look at a case file with a police report and written information for six minutes and later write a conclusion to that problem. We learn fairly interesting [facts].”
