Wiregrass Ranch Students Grab Awards At Statewide HOSA Event!

Congratulations to the Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) students who won awards at the Health Occupations Students of America (aka HOSA-Future Health Professionals) State Leadership Conference held in Orlando Apr. 13-16.

These students have the opportunity to represent Florida at the HOSA International Leadership Conference in Dallas in late June.

WRH dominated the CPR & First Aid skills competitions, with Mahek Mody and Aizah Rahman taking first place, and Ava Sullivan and Angelika Domenech finishing second.

“They did a lot of practicing,” says HOSA sponsor Allison Wiley. “They were working every day to perfect their craft.”

In addition, Khushi Chitalia took second place in Veterinary Services and Jasmine Ahmed finished in second for Clinical Nursing. In Epidemiology, Tanmay Patil grabbed fourth place.

In the Public Service Announcement category, Calina Levy, Nuha Naveen and Chris O’Donell finished in second place.

Wiley says all of the students showed a lot of initiative when they chose to participate in this competition.

“They are very dedicated,” she says. “Most of them are taking AP classes and have a mindset of achieving their goals, and this is something that builds their self-esteem and looks good in their portfolios.”

In at least one case, a team that didn’t finish in the State top five is using the competition as a platform for something more. Junior Aleah Diaz says she and her teammates — Anda Tram-Lan, Tristan Pasquale, Maria Dsouza (photo, above) — took on a project they became passionate about.

It focused on public awareness surrounding endometriosis, a serious gynecologic disorder they learned affects one in 10 women and is often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. The group’s goal is to raise awareness of the problem so that more women get a proper diagnosis earlier. 

The four of them already have attended a medical conference, shown a documentary at their school and are sharing information via their Instagram account @endoawareness. 

Diaz says that although the four of them are done with the competition for this year, she will continue the effort to share what they’ve learned.

“I want to keep advocating on this topic,” she says. “I was interested in the medical field but not sure what I wanted to do specifically. But now, I think I’ll do medical research or maybe go the OB/GYN route.”

A team from John Long Middle School took home second place in the Middle School “HOSA Bowl” category, but the students’ names were not released.

HOSA Team Places First In The State!

Congratulations go out to Strawberry Crest High sophomores — and New Tampa residents — Elizabeth Chettipally, Aditi Nair, Anika Prasad and Netra Vijay (photo), who placed first in their category at the Health Occupations Students of America (aka HOSA-Future Health Professionals) State Leadership Conference held at Orlando Apr. 13-16.

The girls of “Project Pink” will next be representing Florida at the HOSA National Leadership Conference in Atlanta in late June.

The quartet’s project was an attempt to increase breast cancer awareness in our local community and obviously, their presentation at the Conference was effective, as they placed first in the “Community Awareness — Teamwork” category.

Strawberry Crest High, located in Dover, has an International Baccalaureate (IB) program attended by many New Tampa residents and is one of 30 Florida high schools with more than 100 HOSA members. Several other Strawberry Crest students also won awards at the State Conference, including a “Creative Problem Solving” team that also took home first place honors. I apologize that I did not have all of the other winners’ full names at our press time, or I would have mentioned them here, too.

Local HOSA Students Promoting Breast Cancer Awareness

Health Occupations Students of America, aka HOSA-Future Health Professionals, is a global student-led organization that actively promotes career opportunities in the health industry, and four New Tampa-area residents who all attend Strawberry Crest High in Dover and participate in the school’s International Baccalaureate (IB) Programme have created “Project Pink” to raise awareness about breast cancer.

Strawberry Crest sophomores Elizabeth Chettipally, Aditi Nair, Anika Prasad, and Netra Vijay (photo) will participate in HOSA’s Community Awareness competition by focusing on breast cancer, which affects more than 250,000 women (killing about 42,000) each year in the U.S. alone.

“Our team first felt the urge to raise awareness for breast cancer when we saw how fiercely one of our team member’s family (members) fought against breast cancer,” Anika wrote in the Crest Critique. “Being females and students, we saw the lack of education and awareness of breast cancer in our community and decided to make a change.”

To begin their quest to raise community awareness of breast cancer, the four friends spoke to Archana Nair, RN, an advisor in the Breast Clinic at the Moffitt Cancer Center, and Shilpa Sachdev, MD, an internal medicine specialist in Wauchula, FL. They also met with Shreya Shivan, a student at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. 

“Through these discussions, our team realized that the subject of breast cancer is extremely personal, and a strong support system is needed by women survivors to reclaim feminine identity,” Anika wrote. 

In October — also known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month — the quartet began their efforts by staging a “Pink Out” (getting students at their school to wear pink, including the cheerleaders at the Strawberry Crest football game that night). They also participated in the Cory Lake Isles Unity Walk in November.

“I feel like that even though a lot of people know about breast cancer, when it comes to the facts, to the details, we’re all lacking,” Netra says. “There’s also a lot of stigmatization about breast cancer because, when you talk about someone’s breasts, it’s a very taboo topic in our society, so I feel like it’s something people need to know about before the diagnosis.” 

Anika adds, “We also want people to know that just because you’re diagnosed, it doesn’t mean it’s the end. We just want to spread hope to them.”

The group also will participate in Dr. Helene Robinson’s “Hugs from Heaven for Sister Warriors” breast cancer awareness podcast. Dr. Robinson is a faculty member at USF’s Sarasota-Manatee campus.

In addition, the friends recently hosted a HOPE Kit packing party (photo left), in partnership with the National Breast Cancer Foundation — with donated items, such as makeup, wrist bands, notebooks, travel mugs and other “goodies” — that will be mailed to women who are struggling with breast cancer across the country. 

Their school reposted the announcements the girls made on their Instagram about the packing party and also has allowed them to set up tables in the school’s library and talk with other students after school assemblies. They also were permitted to broadcast the “Pink Out” at the end-of-the-day announcements for a week before that event. The school’s Student Government Assn. and PTSA also helped spread the word about the girls’ efforts.

And, while there are more than 100 HOSA students at Strawberry Crest, the four friends are the only ones participating in the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign. They all will travel to Orlando April 13-16 to participate in the State of Florida Leadership Conference for HOSA, where they will make a presentation about their project. 

For more info, visit “Project Pink” on Instagram, “CrestProjectPink/Videos” on YouTube or schshosa.wixsite.com/projectpink.