Senior Riya Doshi and junior Jenny She competed at HOSA’s (Health Occupations Students of America) International Leadership Conference which took place June 27-30 at Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.

“This was my second year at the ILC, my first time was my freshman year,” said Doshi. “It’s very different from all of the other conferences because it’s a lot longer, so they bring in keynote speakers and hold workshops related to all different aspects of medicine.”

Both She and Doshi placed in the top 50. “HOSA doesn’t release any placings after the top 10 finalists, so I’m not entirely sure what place I got,” said Doshi. Since we both made it to the second round, I know Jenny and I made it up there.”

Doshi started the school’s HOSA chapter her freshman year and has been competing every year since. On the contrary, this was She’s first year at the International Conference.

“Last year was my first year competing in HOSA, so I was unfamiliar with many of the workings of the [international] competition,” said She.

Both She and Doshi competed in the category Researched Persuasive Speaking and Writing. According to She, for the category the two of them competed in, “[we] wrote a two page paper and presented a 4 min speech on my opinion on Gene editing.”

“Essentially, you write an argumentative paper and speech about one of the two topics HOSA chooses every year,” said Doshi.  

During the conference, the two of them met competitors from across the country and interacted with “different medical groups show you what they do, such as technology they developed, classroom activities they designed, and even teach you how to do things,” said Doshi

“My favorite part about competing at nationals was meeting other competitors who were also so passionate about medicine and science,” said She. “I shared so many similar interests with the other competitors, we were able to easily bond and I made so many new friends that came from all around the world.”