Future Healthcare Professionals-HOSA and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) have each won numerous awards in a competitive year at their respective organization’s State Leadership Conference (SLC). Through competitions recognizing students’ knowledge in the healthcare or business field, HOSA received 115 awards, and FBLA received 56 awards.
For HOSA, SLC was hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center from April 4 to April 7 this year. In its 115 awards, senior Adeline Vo placed 1st in American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Family Medicine; Omid Panahbarhagh placed 1st in Allied Health Statistics and Math for Health Professionals; and 7th grader Niharika Goel placed 1st in Extemporaneous Health Poster. Senior Megan Lloren received the Board of Directors Leadership Scholarship, along with seniors Luqman Mohammed and Adeline Vo who both received the Merit Scholarship. OA-HOSA hosted five statewide workshops, facilitated by students from all grades.
“SLC for OA is known for being that school that is always winning, not to brag or anything. Our name always pops up consistently. We always excel around the range of competition. We have 2 state officers, and held 5 workshops this year. Not only does our chapter do really well but excel in the area,” Oxford Academy’s HOSA chapter president Adrielle Federico said, a senior.
In addition to awards, junior Matthew Kim was elected State President, and junior Diana Nguyen was elected State Vice President for HOSA. Senior Kaili Nguyen and eighth-grader Joelle Kim, who was the first middle-schooler to perform in front of a crowd of around 4,000, performed patriotic renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner and God Bless America respectively during SLC.
FBLA’s SLC was hosted from April 11 to April 13. Although Oxford’s FBLA placed 7th this year compared to placing 2nd in the past years, many students were recognized as state champions, such as junior Dy Nguyen who placed first in Journalism; sophomore Linda Liao who placed first in Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure; and 8th grader Sathvik Akula who placed first in Exploring Economics. FBLA also placed in the Top 8 for both chapter projects and Top 15% in state chapters for activities. Oxford’s FBLA chapter advisor, Mr. Rylaarsdam, says that placing 7th overall is a major accomplishment.
“[During] the last couple years when we’ve placed 2nd, it’s because we’ve performed so much more strongly at the section level,” Mr. Rylaarsdam said. “This year we didn’t perform as strongly at the section level but that is more because of our local competitors [becoming] stronger, so it wasn’t necessarily anything that we did differently.”
Students are welcome to join the clubs next year to learn more about professional fields or compete in SLC. While HOSA and FBLA have each earned their well-deserved awards and rankings, they expect to achieve more accomplishments at HOSA’s International Conference and FBLA’s National Leadership Conference in June this year.
“Next year our National Leadership Conference is being held in Anaheim, so it’s going to be local. So it’s going to be a lot easier to participate in and a lot less expensive for our members, so my goal is to really focus on maximizing the people that can qualify for nationals,” Mr. Rylaarsdam said.
