Eleven Republic High School students competed at the Missouri HOSA State Leadership Conference this spring, and two of them came home with top-five finishes. For senior Ava Lewis and sophomore Gabi Hillygus, the results capped a year of preparation — and for Lewis, they marked the payoff of work that started long before the competition season.
HOSA — formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America — is a global student-led organization focused on healthcare careers. Republic didn’t have a chapter until last year.
“At Republic, we have a lot of big clubs for people who are interested in business, teaching, agriculture, and more, but until last year, we didn’t have one for people interested in the medical field,” Lewis said. A group of seniors heard about HOSA and approached faculty sponsor Mr. Jeff Strider about starting a chapter, and they recruited Lewis, who had been taking every medical-related course she could find…