Westminster High School students interested in careers in the healthcare industry took full advantage of a statewide leadership conference last month with six of them walking away with opportunities to compete at the international level.

The HOSA (Health Opportunities  Students of America) State Leadership Conference brought students from around the state to the Sheraton Hotel in Downtown Denver from February 22-24 for a series of seminars and friendly competitive events focused on careers in the health care industry. 11 Westminster High School students spent several months working on their projects before presenting them to the judges.

Students that finished in the top 3 in their competitions qualified to attend the International HOSA Conference in Nashville. Not all students who qualify will actually attend depending on funding, schedules and other variables.

These students are:

Karlee Padilla: 3rd place in Home Health Aid and 3rd place in Community Awareness

Kaydence Pettid: 3rd place in Research Poster

Alinn H. Enriquez: 3rd place in Community Awareness

Lillian Phimmasorn: 2nd place in Home Health Aide and 3rd place in Community Awareness

Lindiwe Manyothwane: 3rd place in Healthy Lifestyle and top 10 in Epidemiology

Hannah Nguyen: 3rd place in Community Awareness and top 10 in Job Seeking Skills

While WHS students performed well, the conference is about much more than the competition. Among the symposium topics were sessions on suture clinics, various careers in the medical field and clinical pharmacy.

 “Students were able to network with professionals and other students in the healthcare field,” said Pat Lineberger, Chair of the Career Technical Education (CTE) program at the high school. “Students took full advantage of the learning opportunities.”

The high school CTE program provides 17 career pathways and will be expanded in the near future with the expansion of CTE programming through the Ranum Reimagined initiative.