Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) students joined more than 9,200 Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) members, advisors and guests at HOSA’s first International Leadership Conference in Nashville, Tenn., June 22-25.

HOSA-Future Health Professionals from all over the country, Canada, American Samoa and Puerto Rico came together to compete, learn and share their HOSA experiences. Conference highlights included 57 health-related competitive events, 147 educational workshops, keynote addresses from Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General and Brad Montague, creator of Kid President, and a special celebration for HOSA’s 40th anniversary.

This year’s conference was based on the theme “Innovate-Inspire-Ignite” and provided HOSA members the opportunity to meet people from across the globe with similar career goals.

Lacie Ligman, Aly Walters, Laura Canapa, Abigail Doxrude, Shelby Wagner and Jenna Menadue from SPASH were among the members attending the conference along with the chapter adviser Brett Lesniak.

The conference provided opportunities for the SPASH student members to attend workshops presented by professional partners that provide information about current health care issues. 

This year, 6,640 competitors competed in 57 competitive events demonstrating competencies developed through health science and biomedical science class instruction, technical training and HOSA activities.

Five members from SPASH were among those that qualified and competed. This included Ligman, Walters and Canapa in Community Awareness; Wagner in Job Skills; and Menadue in Nutritional Testing. The SPASH HOSA chapter was also recognized for its involvement in the National Service Project for the 2015-16 school year.