NASSP

Regina St. George and Claire Lucas

For the past several years, National HOSA is represented at the annual NASSP Conference. NASSP is an organization for middle and high school principals. Past HOSA Inc. Chair, Regina St. George, and National Officer, Claire Lucas, traveled to San Francisco for this year’s conference.

Mrs. St. George and Claire spent the days sharing HOSA with the principals. It was great to hear of how many schools already had a chapter or had a chapter on their way. Others did not know what HOSA was, but as soon as they heard all the opportunities, were thrilled to share it with teachers at their school.

Claire’s favorite part of the conference was meeting Mrs. St. George. Regina St. George has an undying passion for HOSA. HOSA has made such progress in the past years because of individuals like Mrs. St. George. 

Institute for Emerging Issues

Claire Lucas did not have to travel far to attend the IEI, Institute for Emerging Issues Forum on Healthcare. The 26th annual conference took place in Raleigh on February 7-8. The Forum is designed as an idea exchange between leaders in healthcare. At this conference were leaders in politics, industry, and nonprofits. Also in attendance was N.C. State University Chancellor, Randy Woodson. Chancellor Woodson introduced Claire at the Opening Session and explained her role in the nation's largest healthcare organization for students.

Some key sessions were: Building a Healthier North Carolina by Govenor Purdue, A Healthy Bottom Line by Indrya Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, Global Medicine and Media by Sanjay Gupta, and Planning for a Healthier Community by Mayor of Oklahoma City, Mick Cornett.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Global Health and Media

It was no surprise to Claire that many discussions revolved around the disparities of quality health care professionals. It was a great opportunity to represent HOSA at this idea exchange and there will be more discussions to come.

2010 ACTE Annual Convention and Career Tech Expo

Greetings from the fabulous city of Las Vegas! The HOSA National Executive council represented Health Science Career and Technical Education at the Association of Career and Technical Education annual conference located in Las Vegas, Nevada. President Elect, Sean Sheffer, Postsecondary Vice President, Rahma Mkuu, Region III Vice President, Chase Edwards, and Secondary Board Representative Shayna Mooney had the opportunity to attend the conference.

The ACTE Convention was held at the Las Vegas Hilton and Convention Center.

December 1, 2010

Today Rahma Mkuu attended the Region 1 meeting at the ACTE Convention. She addressed teachers, advisors and supervisors from the Region 1 meeting. Rahma addressed the delegates about how HOSA has impacted her life. She described how HOSA has motivated, inspired and given her opportunities to grow as a Health Care Profession. She shared her goal of fighting health care disparities in developing nations and utilizing HOSA’s partnership with the  United States Public Health Service. Rahma had the opportunity work with Ms. Mary Ann Bittner, the Region 1 President.




December 2, 2010

Rahma Mkuu worked with Miranda Terrell, 2nd Vice President of Nevada HOSA. Rahma and Miranda greeted ACTE convention delegates at the door along with other Nevada CTSO officers, prior to Opening Session.  

Dr. Gary Moore, ACTE President, opened the General Session. The Mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman, spoke of the importance of Career and Technical Education. He especially emphasized on the importance of Career and Technical Education to the economy.  Following Goodman was Assistent Secretary for the Office of Adult and Vocational Education from the US Department of Education, Brenda Dan-Messier.  She emphasized that “CTE and success are one in the same.”

Nie Wing, the CEO of KP Education Systems spoke at the ACTE opening session, of the importance of ‘Knowledge and Power’ and offered to give away a $100 gift card to Bestbuy for any audience member who guessed his date of birth within the closest range. Participants had to twitter at # KPEDU with a date.

Tim Sanders, New York Times  best selling author, public speaker and former Yahoo executive, spoke about the importance and value of networking. His message empowered the crowd that the most powerful tool, no matter how advanced the technology, people will always be the greatest resource. “Your network is your net worth.” “Relationships are about network of investment.”

Following the opening session, The National Executive team had the opportunity to inform ACTE delegates about HOSA by working an information booth. Rahma Mkuu took delegate’s blood pressures and informed them about the importance of maintaining a normal blood pressure. Delegates watched the HOSA thinkback video as well as picked up information on HOSA.The National Executive council met HOSA advisors from all over the nation that visited the booth. Delegates received HOSA hand sanitizers.



Rahma taking the blood pressure of an ACTE delegate.



December 3, 2010

Sean Sheffer and Chase Edwards had the opportunity to greet delegates at the door from 7:00 a.m. until the start of the awards session with other CTE student organization state officers from FBLA and DECA. The Friday General Session was hosted by the CTE Foundation.  The Chairman, Greg Rintala, spoke of engaging government, business, and education leaders to focus on how to utilize best practices and programs to improve CTE for students.



Sean greeting delegates for the general session.


Special Guests of the session were the Principal and two students from Southwest Career and Technical High School. A panel that included: Bryan Albrecht, President, Gateway Technical College, Gregg Betheil, Executive Director, School Programs & Partnerships, New York City Department of Education, John Lock, CEO, Project Lead the Way; and Felicia Nemcek, Principal, Southwest Career and Technical Academy discussed the importance and the redefinition of the significance between ‘learning’ and the ‘educator’. Without limiting students to the brick and mortar institutions with heavy circulation of books, educators can make a leap in inspiring students to learn from challege-based learning to project-based learning.

Shayna Mooney had the prestigious opportunity to be the Mistress of Ceremonies at the Awards Ceremony, which recognized the best career and technical educators in the country. The awards presented were the Outstanding Teacher in Community Service Award, the Carl Perkins Outstanding Service Award, Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Teacher of the Year.



Shayna presenting at the Awards Ceremony

 At noon, National HOSA sponsored a Health Science CTE luncheon. Mrs. Shelia Carlton spoke on behalf of the MRC internship with the Office of the Surgeon General, and future events to come in HOSA. Ms. Grace Decken, the Vice President of the Health Sciences Division of ACTE, made updated the advisors and instructors the goals of the division, and also helped raise funds for the ACTE sponsored scholarship in a raffle. Lastly, guest speaker Mr. Byron Garrett spoke on behalf of the importance of all educators to this nation’s youth. Of the many accomplishments of Mr. Garrett, he is the former CEO of PTA, a child advocacy association of over five million members, a previous K-8 charter school teacher and current CEO of Lifeworks. He has appeared on the Dr. Phil Show, MSNBC and written articles for USA Today. With spoken resilience on behalf of education and a future for today’s youth, he inspired the crowd to take steps for a productive and impassioned future. 

Mr. Byron Garrett speaking during the HOSA luncheon. 

The National Officers met many inspirational educators at the conference, with a call to action, the future of HOSA and CTE’s come one step closer to improving America’s future.

Health Policy Symposium

Phenomenal.

That’s the word HOSA National Officer, Claire Lucas, uses to describe her day at the Aspen Heath Stewardship Project Health Policy Symposium in Washington, D.C.. Claire received an invitation to attend the event because HOSA is one of thirty-one members of the Aspen Institutes Coalition.  The Aspen Institute is the premier think-tank for health care policy. The goal of today’s symposium, and the Stewardship as a whole, is to bring together professionals in all aspects of health care to create real dialogue on the next steps to health care reform.

The day began with a keynote from Doug Schoen, an influential campaign consultant, strategists for Penn, Schoen, & Berland and a Fox News Contributor. 

Following Schoen was a panel to discuss implications of the new federal health law. The audience was joined by leaders in health care policy: Shannon Brownlee from Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy, Dr. Judith Feder, Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, and Mark Ganz, CEO of Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield.  Remarks were made addressing the future of the health care work force. Will there be enough health care professionals in all regions of the country to deliver quality care? What can we do today to prepare the future workforce of the health care industry?  

Claire felt privilege to also hear remarks from the Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Secretary Vilsack addressed his concerns for childhood obesity and answered questions regarding the federal governments response to the issue.

One of the final discussions was on the Implications of CER, Comparative Effectiveness Research. CER is noted frequently in health care discussion because it is designed to inform healthcare decisions by providing evidence on effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different treatment options from clinical trials and research. Key leaders: Dr. Kavita Patel, a supporter of HOSA and current Director of Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, along with Robert Honingerb of URAC, Karen Friss of Eli Lilly and Andrew Sperling of NAMMI answered questions regarding the implications of CER.

Congresswoman Donna Christensen and Claire Lucas

Also in attendance was Congresswoman Donna Christensen. Congresswoman Christensen is the first woman medical doctor elected to Congress and is also a supporter of HOSA. She serves on several committees of the House of Representatives, one as Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust. Congresswoman attended the symposium to hear and weigh in on the importance discussions surrounding health care policy. 

Claire uses the word phenomenal to describe her overall experience at the Aspen Institute’s Health Policy Symposium. The panelists were phenomenal as were the leaders in attendance. 

2010 National Consortium on Health Science Education

Hello from the Twin Cities! National Officers, Nicole and Claire, traveled to Minnesota for the National Health Science Curriculum Conference to share HOSA with health science educators from across the nation.  The conference is designed to bring educators together to share ideas and resources to bring back into their health science classroom.

Nicole and Claire with Dr. Canady

 Nicole and Claire introduced two keynote speakers: Dr. Canady and Mr. Bill Sanders. Dr. Alexa Canady is a scholar, a mentor, and an educator. She is the first African American woman to become a neurosurgeon and her work directly impacts lives every day by healing in the operating room and inspiring many with her story. Bill Sanders plays a significant role in students’ lives as he travels across the nation motivating students to be their best.

Nicole introducing Mr. Sanders

Minnesota HOSA presented a forum for advisors in the state to discuss ways to share ideas, address common challenges, and develop strategies for establishing chapters at the secondary and postsecondary divisions.  Nicole and Claire then presented the workshop, “Operation: HOSA!” The officers facilitated discussion with advisors, health science educators and specialists.  Great discussion was initiated and Nicole and Claire plan to continue the momentum following the conference.

Claire and Nicole with Ms. Mason, health science teacher from Maryland

During the conference, participants raised funds to sponsor a HOSA scholarship. HOSA is grateful to all advisors and educators for donating to the scholarship. The scholarship will be awarded at the 2011 National Leadership Conference in Anaheim, California. To apply: http://www.hosa.org/member/scholar.html

The National Consortium for Health Science Education was an amazing opportunity to share HOSA with the many professionals in health science education. Nicole and Claire enjoyed traveling to the Midwest and cannot wait to experience the works that escalate from the conference.