On Friday, Nov. 19, 12 members of Polk County High Schools HOSA traveled to Sylva, NC, to compete in the Western Region HOSA Competitive Events.

Junior Matthew Walker and sophomore Brandi Bumgardner presented a career health display about surgical services after researching the careers of surgeon and surgical technician. They also participated in the career shadowing component of introduction to medical science to learn more about these careers. At the competition, they presented information about the careers and then answers questions asked by the judges about the careers.

Juniors Gabby Clark and Erika Bailey wrote speeches about the current HOSA Theme, HOSA: The hearts that believe and the hands that achieve. They presented their speeches for the Prepared Speaking Competitive Event to a panel of judges. Clark won first place and Bailey won second place.

Alicia Brewington, a freshman and new to HOSA, made time in her schedule to learn math facts on her own and competed in medical math. Brewington took a 50-question test, which was composed of math problems that would be used in health care careers. She learned conversion facts for household and metric and then used those facts to solve three step problems. Brewington placed in the top 10.

Tori Pritchard competed in job seeking skills. For Pritchards competition, she wrote a letter of application and a resume before going to competition. At the competition, Pritchard filled out a job application and then was interviewed by two judges for a job as a nursing assistant. Pritchard won first place.

Creative problem solving was a team competition that required the team to read, discuss and plan a solution for a problem related to health care. Sophomore Allison McCraw and juniors Tiffany Hill and Diana Silva competed in this competition and placed third.

Polk Countys HOSA Bowl Team is made up of seniors Rebekah Hyder, Peyton Habenicht and Selma Neel, who only lack one course to complete the medical science pathway. These students placed first in the Western region. This was possibly the first time Polk County has had a first place HOSA Bowl Team.

Competitive events give students a chance to strengthen their skills and use them under pressure. They also give students a chance to meet other students interested in the same careers as themselves and help studentsbuild self-confidence.

Students who place in the top three will continue in competition at the state level in Greensboro in March of 2011.

Students were accompanied&bsp; by Deanna Harris, career and technical coordinator, and Cam Lawrence, medical science instructor.