Students from all over the U.S. and Puerto Rico will be competing at Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) internationals leadership conference. Seven students from Pittsburg High School qualified for the competition. This is the largest amount of HOSA qualifiers that PHS has ever had

Junior Paul Worsley qualified in Medical Math, junior Rachel Ruiz qualified in Healthcare Photography, freshman Emily McGown qualified in Exteptaromous Poster, and juniors Madison Nagel, Haley Garzone, Keiara Duncan and Madison Davis qualified in Biomedical Debate.

To qualify for the tournament, competitors must attend the state competition and place first in their event. They also must pass a written test.

The PHS HOSA team had 19 students place at state. Internationals will take place on June 27-30 in Dallas, Texas.

“I’m excited to see all the kids from around the country and see how good they are and how I stack against them,” Worsley said.

Along with competing, HOSA students also get the chance to attend educational workshops at the tournament to help them improve their skills.

“[It’s] really fun to interact with other students that are interested in the same stuff that I’m interested in,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz is this year’s Kansas president of HOSA and was elected to be state vice president next year.

This will be the first time these students will attend internationals.

“I’m just excited for the group of students that get to go. I think they’ll represent PHS really well,” HOSA adviser and science teacher Stuart Perez said. “It’s been a great group of students to work with. They’re highly motivated in their events and I’m looking forward to doing it next year.”