UNMC HOSA students show skills at state meeting

When Beth Alexander arrived at UNMC to join the UNMC Community Academy at the Youth Learning Center, the campus didn’t have a chapter of HOSA, an organization for students interested in becoming health professionals.

So the Bellevue East senior helped start one.

“I was just looking for a student medical group I could join,” said Alexander, currently also a member of the UNMC High School Alliance.

After contacting the state HOSA advisor, Alexander went to the group’s annual conference in Lincoln in 2013, where she shadowed speakers and talked to state officers. She is planning to attend the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the fall, where she will study psychology and biology on a pre-med track.

“From the time I was young, I knew I wanted to be in medicine,” she said.

Thanks to the new HOSA chapter, other teens will have a path to begin their medical journey, as well.

“Beth and one of her fellow students, Stephanie Purcell, were instrumental in starting the chapter at the UNMC Youth Learning Center in 2014. The chapter, though based at UNMC, is open to students from all over the metro area, particularly those whose home schools do not offer a HOSA group,” said Lisa Jewell-Hardesty, director of the UNMC Youth Learning Center.

At this year’s HOSA State Conference in March, the students did a fine job representing the UNMC chapter, bringing home six awards:

• Beth Alexander (Bellevue East) and Aysha Hussain (Millard North), both also alliance students: 2nd place — EMT
• Tatiana Bullion (Omaha North): 2nd place — Knowledge Test: Pharmacology
• Oliver Niu (Russell Middle): 2nd place — Medical Photography
• Stephanie Purcell (Bellevue West): Outstanding Member
• Fern Thaisetthawatkul (Omaha Burke): 3rd place — Medical Reading
• Aisha Zahid (Omaha North): 2nd place — Physical Therapy

Next up for the HOSA group — helping host an April 19 event, “Teen: Learn to Save a Life Day.”

“This is something all the members of HOSA are really passionate about,” Alexander said. “It’s important that people in the community our age are able to save a life.”

The annual event is a free class on cardiopulmonary resuscitation training (CPR), open to youths between the ages of 11 and 18. The event is one hour in length and will teach skills on how to recognize and respond to life threatening emergencies. This program is offered every other year. For further information, please visit the Youth Learning Center website.