Bigfork students compete at state health care conference in Bozeman

For the first time Bigfork High School was represented at the Health Occupation Students of America Future Health Professionals State leadership conference.

Five Bigfork students attended the conference last weekend in Bozeman and were given the opportunity to learn more about health care professions and work as a team to show off their problem-solving skills.

The goal of HOSA is to develop leadership skills in future health care professionals.

The students competed as a team in creative problem solving. When they arrived they were given a prompt and had 30 minutes to figure out how they would address the topic.

The prompt they received was about Molly, or Ecstasy, and how to raise awareness about the drug.

“Our idea was to start at home,” senior Cassie Cislo said, to encourage parents and caregivers to warn their children about the dangers of Molly. “At our school there are a lot of kids who don’t learn this stuff at home, they learn it at school,” she said.

“In the end I think it was good we all ended up being in one team event,” junior Kassandra Butterfield said.

While most of the group decided to start off their first year in the program by just competing in one category together, sophomore Cameron Pancoast also competed in medical photography.

Pancoast had to prepare ahead of time and take photos of local medical professionals in action. He then had to present the photos at the conference.

Junior Alyssa Wallen also competed in medical spelling, by taking a test ahead of time.

While the students learned more about the health care profession one of the things they really enjoyed was getting to know other students with similar interests and career goals. They travelled to the conference with students from Whitefish High School.

In addition to competing, the students were also given tours of labs on the Montana State University campus. Students were able to participate in some hands on experiments, like pricking their fingers and then looking at their blood under a microscope.

“MSU was a great area to try and get them more educated about health care careers,” advisor Rhonda White said.

“It ended up being a really good time,” Cislo said.