Southwest High HOSA sweeps competition
EL CENTRO — A group of 31 Southwest High School students worked hard to continue their school’s success by competing against 3,500 other students from across the state at the annual Cal-HOSA State Leadership Conference held in Anaheim recently.
An especially notable achievement was made this year by SHS students Sowon Moon, Ariana Romo and Mildred Bernal, as they finished as the top three finalists and helped their school sweep the Dental Science category at the conference for the second year in a row.
Moon finished in first place, while Romo and Bernal finished in second and third place, respectively, among the 10 other finalists in the event.
“When I had got news that we won in dental category, I felt it was just an absolute tribute to our program and to our students,” SHS Principal Matt Phillips said. “It showed their hard work and dedication paid off, and it’s a source of incredible pride to go out and compete and come back with a big trophy.”
Last year, SHS students also placed as the top three finalists in Dental Science.
The three female students now have the opportunity to compete and represent Cal-HOSA at the International Leadership Conference from June 27 to 30 in Dallas, Texas.
For the past nine years, SHS has had at least one of its Health Occupations Students of America members qualify to compete at the international conference.
“I think overall, every year qualifying to go to the national conference has been like record-setting for the history of our HOSA chapter,” SHS HOSA advisor Jackie Valadez said. “But to do it in the Dental Science event is even more amazing because now we’re known statewide for the program we have in Cal-HOSA.”
Also worth noting was the efforts of Southwest High student Elias Romo, who finished in eighth place in the Dental Science event behind Moon, Ariana and Bernal. Among other state finalists were SHS students Bethamee Garcia, who finished in fifth place for the Nursing Assisting event, Christine Choi, who finished in fourth place for the Nutrition event and Hannah Zia and Rodion Voldman, who finished as a team duo for fifth place in the Forensic Medicine event. Southwest was the only local high school to compete in the State Leadership Conference this year. The annual state conference, which ran from April 5 to 7, is the premier leadership event for Cal-HOSA members, Valadez explained. The conference included college and career workshops, leadership building activities, professional networking, volunteer opportunities and the competitive events that students participated in. “I was very proud of my students because they worked very hard,” said Valadez, who also teaches the school’s dental assistant class.
“They stayed after school for tutoring, they came in on Saturday for skills practice and they were very dedicated to their studies, so I was very proud that they were able to achieve that success and be recognized on stage in front of 3,500 students and members of HOSA.”