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Preston Students Score Big at State Event

Posted on: Thursday, 30 March 2006, 09:01 CST

By Kathy Plum, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

Mar. 30--KINGWOOD -- Preston High's Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) are calling the shots at the annual state leadership contest, and giving shots in the workplace. For the second year in a row, the Preston group brought home awards for the top HOSA student of the year in the state and had three elected to state office. Competing against 350 students from across West Virginia, 23 of the 28 Preston students placed in the top three, 17 in first place. That's an honor, but instructor Cathy Alexander knows it's only the beginning for them. Last year, 10 students graduated from the PHS program as certified nursing assistants. "Every one of them is either employed or in a health-related program in college," Alexander said.

That trend looks to continue with this year's graduating class. Jenn Gilman, elected president of the state organization last year, will hand her gavel over to Preston High's Domenica Mancuso. Gilman has been accepted at Fairmont State in pre-nursing and is on a waiting list for the college's nursing program. "I've learned leadership, and I've learned a lot of helpful clinical skills," said Gilman, who traces her dream to be a nurse back to the days when she played doctor with her dolls. "I want to be a registered nurse, because I think it's better to interact with people and care for people than to sit around," she said. She's already trying out her skills, working part-time as a personal care aide for a 77-year-old man partially paralyzed by a stroke. Gilman said the experience has crystallized her desire to be a nurse. Alexander said her students win at the state level because they are as sincere about preparing for the contests and elections as they are about their career choice. To seek state HOSA office, students must give a speech before all the attendees, who elect the officers. Some students just show up without a prepared speech or without having practiced, Alexander said. "These guys," she said, pointing to her new state officers, "were phenomenal." She estimated they each practiced their speech more than 20 times. "We just like to speak," Gilman said with a grin. Students in HOSA are in a career cluster intended to prepare them for a career in health and sciences. HOSA I and II are among the courses in that cluster. Some students take only one semester, to sample the class or fulfill a cluster requirement. "It looked interesting, and I decided to take it, and it turned out I'm good at it," senior Alex Goughenour said. Goughenour took first place in the dental terminology contest. Despite his studies, "when I took the test, I got out of there and thought I did horrible." He was the only one to place in the state dental terminology contest who is enrolled in a general health occupations program. The other winners are in dental careers programs. Goughenour, who has been accepted at WVU as a pre-chemistry major, may see them again soon. He is considering applying to the WVU School of Dentistry.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, W.Va.

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Source: The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)

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