Harrisonburg High School’s first Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) team attended the 39th annual Virginia HOSA State Leadership conference. Students who represented HHS were Sheila Escalante-Lopez, Leslie Mondragon, Malak Bani-Hani, Kevin Arostegui and Skala Barakay. The team was led by healthcare teacher Jennifer Glazer.

The HOSA bowl team advanced to the second round in the conference and Arostegui was installed as the new Region 5 Vice President for the Virginia Executive Council. Mondragon also placed second in the state under the interviewing skills strand. Both Mondragon and Arostegui are eligible to compete at HOSA nationals in Orlando, Florida in June.

After leading HOSA for the first time, Glazer is satisfied with the results for their first competition and is now working to prepare for the upcoming national competition in the summer.

“Everyone did great. Everyone prepared and did the best they could… I will help [Kevin and Leslie] prepare [for nationals] and I promised them this week I’ll look into what the costs are going to be [for nationals], so we can start working on fundraising. I really want them to be able to go,” Glazer said.