New HOSA chapter at CMS first for school and state

The Carson High School Career and Technical Education program and Victoria Defilippi, a senior CTE student and HOSA state officer, helped Carson Middle School to create its own health science student organization, HOSA, the first middle school program of its kind for the school and the state.

The recent switch to a block schedule at the middle school opened up the need for more classes, so when Sports Medicine and Introduction to Health Science were brought on to help fill those gaps, a student organization to support those classes became a necessity. Working with Frank Sakelarios and Kelly Gustafson, CTE health science instructors and HOSA advisors at CHS, Defilippi decided to focus her senior project on the creation of the HOSA chapter at CMS.

“HOSA means a lot to me,” Defilippi said. “I started CTE and HOSA as a freshman and I want to share this great opportunity with others. I’m working as a liaison and recruiter with the middle students to help them navigate their chapter and enroll in CTE when they get to high school.”

In addition to helping the middle school chapter get up and running, CHS and Defilippi will assist CMS with other needs like preparing students for competitions, fundraising and other opportunities as they arise. Defilippi is specifically working to connect youth with mentors by speaking with students at CMS during their CTE classes and being involved in parent meetings.

“It is exciting to be starting a chapter here,” Victoria Jaacovi, CMS health science instructor, said. “It’s cool to see that students are interested in becoming members and competing. I also appreciate the support from CHS. We are hoping to grow this program each year.”

Sakelarios said the goal is to incentivize students to consider a career in the health sciences at a younger age. He also said if CHS has more freshman coming in having already taken classes that would traditionally be beginning classes at the high school, those classes can be eliminated and new classes can be added or others expanded. Currently, the middle school students won’t earn high school credit for these classes, but that’s the goal as the program moves forward.

“Not only will the addition of these classes be a great source of information for these young students, it will also prepare them to further their advancement in health sciences by joining our CTE program as freshman,” Gustafson said. “If they are going to feed into our program, they have to have the expectation to be part of a chapter, so this will be a great way to familiarize them before they even get here.”

Defilippi is part of the Jump Start college program at Western Nevada College, a dual enrollment opportunity for students in high school that allows them to earn both high school and college credit. She will graduate CHS in 2018 with an associate’s degree in science and plans to continue in the healthcare field by studying biomedical engineering at The University of Nevada, Reno.

For more information about Carson High School CTE, contact Michele Lewis, vice principal and CTE administrator at mlewis@carson.k12.nv.us.