Future health-care professionals attending Barton Community College earned state and national recognition this past school year through an organization called HOSA – Health Occupation Students of America.
At Tuesday’s BCC Board of Trustees meeting, HOSA sponsor Karen Gunther was joined by student Kaden Baird, who was named the Chapter Member of the Year at the State Leadership Conference and went on to the International Leadership Conference, June 18-21 in Nashville, Tenn.
At the state conference, Baird was a winner in the Respiratory Therapy competition and placed second in Medical Math.
Hannah Dapogny won the Clinical Nursing, Medical Math and Forensic Science.
Haley McCormick won in Phlebotomy and CPR.
Aaron Deason won in Sports Medicine.
Valeria Gallardia won in Biotechnology, Forensic Science and Behavioral Health.
The top 3 in each event from each state or country are invited to ILC. After sweeping the state competitions, all of these students qualified for the ILC, attended by 13,000 students from seven countries. It was five days of leadership, networking, short courses, demonstrations and competition in 97 events.
In Round 1, participants took a knowledge test and the top 30% advanced to the Round 2 skills events. The top 10 in each event were recognized on stage.
“All five of them walked across the stage this year; three got meals and all got in the top 10. We’re super-excited about it,” Gunther said.
Baird placed second in Respiratory Therapy, McCormick was in the top five in Phlebotomy, Deason was in the top 10 in Sports Medicine, Dapogny placed third in Clinical Nursing and Gallardia placed third in Biotechnology.
Gunther said health-care careers go beyond doctors and nurses, as the contest events show. “It incorporates a lot more than you would think.”
Barton’s HOSA students also had several service projects last year, as they promoted the national bone marrow donor registry and mentored Great Bend High School HOSA students. They logged individual hours for other projects such as Civil Air Patrol (U.S. Air Force Auxiliary), to help with crowd control for the McConnell Airshow at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita; church camps over the summer; and demonstrations at HOSA’s Fall Leadership Conference, where they served as mock patients.
Gunther serves on the national competitive event team.
Baird said Barton’s HOSA partners with local health providers. The group is opening doorways; for example, job shadowing opportunities allow students to see if a particular health profession is right for them.
“Nursing is not for everybody,” he said. “There’s a lot more out there than just doctors and nursing.”
Hoisington High School recently started a HOSA group and Barton’s students will host a skills event there.
Barton President Dr. Marcus Garstecki thanked Gunther for her leadership and congratulated the students for representing the college positively.
