Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
Global Leadership Summit: Shaping Tomorrow's Healthcare: Stories of Aspiration and Growth with HOSA Future Leaders
Join us for an eye-opening journey into the world of HOSA: Future Health Professionals, where we explore how this organization is molding the next generation of healthcare leaders. Discover the unique stories of Dakota Fauntroy, Yexon Marquez-Argueta, Via’Shalaine Eisenberg, Alexandra Zarwell, and Charlie Irizarry as they reveal how HOSA has transformed their aspirations and personal growth. From pediatric surgery to travel medicine, our guests are forging diverse paths, united by the invaluable skills and networks they've built through HOSA. Expect to be inspired by their evolving dreams and the resilience they demonstrate in the face of challenges.
In this engaging episode, our guests recount unforgettable experiences from HOSA's competitive events, workshops, and conferences. Learn about the International Leadership Conference in Houston, Texas, where unexpected opportunities emerged, offering profound lessons in leadership and decision-making. Hear firsthand how these young leaders have gained confidence in public speaking, honed their networking abilities, and expanded their understanding of healthcare careers. This episode is a celebration of the dedication and passion these students bring to the healthcare field, showcasing HOSA's role in empowering them to achieve their career goals.
#HOSA #Ideagen #GLS
Learn more about HOSA - Future Health Professionals here: https://hosa.org/
View the entire Global Leadership Summit here: https://www.ideagenglobal.com/
Good morning. My name is Dakota Foncho. I'm from Friendship Collegiate Academy and my role in the host of chapter right now is I am a junior president and my future health HOSA chapter right now is I am a junior president and my future career in the healthcare field is I want to be a pediatric surgeon or a paramedic.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Vi. I go to District of Columbia International School. I aspire to be a pediatric dentist and my role within HOSA at my current chapter is at my chapter is an admin officer.
Speaker 3:Hello, my name is Alexandra Zorwell. I also go to DC International School, and my role in my local chapter is the curriculum chair, making educational activities for my members, and my aspiring career is something within emergency units. I'm not really sure what, though.
Speaker 4:Hello, my name is Jackson Marcus from Coolidge High School and my future career inspiration is being a travel doctor and my local role is vice president.
Speaker 2:Good morning. My name is Charlie Irizarry. I serve as the vice president at my chapter at the Advanced Technical Center and I aspire to be a pediatric surgeon.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's get started with our questions. How did you first get involved in HOSA and what has your involvement meant to you personally in terms of your growth and development.
Speaker 2:I actually got involved in HOSA in a kind of funny way. I was looking through a school registry of extracurriculars, saw it was confused and didn't know what it was, and looked into it, was interested and applied. It really has helped my leadership skills. I've gotten a community and built a network. It's given me a lot of opportunities. It's quite incredible.
Speaker 3:Like Vi, I also saw it through posters in the hallway, but also our local advisor at the time, mr Patel, helped introduce me to it and get me more involved in the actual chapter itself, as it benefits me and my skills. I gained a lot of networking skills, also learned how to reach out to certain positions and grab them, and also it opened my perspective into different health care careers, and that's why I'm still a little confused of what I want to do.
Speaker 4:So I got involved because my local advisor came to my human body systems class and she talked about it for a little bit. Then a teacher helped sign us up and that's how we got involved. That's helping with leadership skills like networking and getting to meet people who are interested in their field.
Speaker 2:I got involved through my college counselor. He applied me for HOSA without me knowing but it has really helped me with my networking skills, my leadership skills, public speaking. It has helped me both academically and personally with like motivation and it's helped me figure out what I want to do in life.
Speaker 1:I also got involved with my school and it's like when you're in the health science field I chose the health science field. When you're in the health science field it's like you're put into wholesale but like you don't really have to do the competitions and get involved as much. But I wanted to get involved because I see how fun and like how much it would help me grow in life, like right now, if I feel like I have grown with networking skills and speaking in front of a lot of people, because at first I did not speak. Like I did not like speaking in front of a lot of people. So I see that we all got involved through our school and stuff. Can you share your experiences with hosts of competitive events, workshops and conferences? What moments or activities had the greatest impact?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I think that the conference that had the most impact on me, or event hope so wide, was the International Leadership Conference in 2024.
Speaker 2:It was hosted in Houston, texas, and it was a very interesting experience. I got there as an officer and I was going for the leadership seminars, but I ended up having to substitute for somebody in a competition in the emotional well-being challenge, and participating in that was really inspirational. I was able to learn about what competing in wholesale was like and I was able to learn about alcohol abuse in teens throughout the emotional well-being challenge and I was able to learn how to make last-minute decisions and be like decisive and ready on the spot, as I was substituted a couple hours before the competition occurred. We got eighth place in the competition and after that we went to leadership seminars where I was able to learn how I can help lead my peers back when I got to my local chapter and I was able to network with other people who are also part of HOSA from around the world and learn how to speak in front of other people, which was my greatest fault originally.
Speaker 1:I feel as though that was a great opportunity for you. What leadership skills have you gained through HOSA? How have you applied those skills in your academic or personal work through HOSA, and how have you applied?
Speaker 4:those skills in your academic or personal work. So some of the leadership skills I've learned is how to manage my time and how to be respectful and help others in my community. That's helping my academic goals because I learned how to do my work on time and manage my time with the time I have so I can meet every day right there.
Speaker 1:For students who are unfamiliar with HOSA or hesitant to join what would you share your experience to encourage them to get involved?
Speaker 2:I would say it can be very scary and intimidating to join a new organization, especially when it's so academic based. I would say people are put off by HOSA because they think they're not academic enough or they don't have enough like leadership skills. And I want to say that these things develop over time. You are not born with them and I think it's important that we allow people to make mistakes and grow.
Speaker 2:I myself, when I joined HOSA, I was not quite ready to do all the giant competitions and be in a role of leadership. These things grow over time and if you have any interest in the healthcare, whether you think you're an academic, whether you think that you're gonna be a good leader, or even if you wanna an academic, whether you think that you're going to be a good leader, even if you want to do leadership, I would say join, because there is no negative side effect of joining HOSA. You can leave afterward, but the skills are transferable and it's very useful. You build a network, you gain opportunities and, at least personally for me, I would say I would go as far as to say that HOSA has been one of the biggest forces for a positive influence in my life.
Speaker 1:I agree with you because I feel that most people think that the word leadership is kind of intimidating and they think that they have to lead all the time, and that makes for health issues. What are you most looking forward into your involvement with HOSA this year? Personally, me, I'm looking forward to actually compete in competitions, because last summer I was at the competition in Houston but I was just starting golf at HOSA, so like I didn't compete and I didn't really know what was going on, but friends told me, like they did EMT, they did their different tests and they kind of had fun with it and then it wasn't really intimidating with them, like they pushed through and they.
Speaker 1:So I'm looking forward to learning more, having more networking skills, meeting more people and competing this year in the HOSA defense. What are your future plans in your education or career in the healthcare industry and how has HOSA imposed those goals?
Speaker 3:So, as I said before, I'm a little bit confused on what exactly I want to move into in the healthcare industry, but I know that I want it to be in emergency medicine and I learned this through, specifically, the competition that I competed in during my SLC time. I won first place in my phlebotomy competition during SLC, which is spring leadership conference or state leadership conference, which is coming up very soon, and that really showed me that I wanted to work with therapeutic services or diagnostic services within healthcare, which I also learned through my leadership position by creating certain lessons to guide our members at my DC international chapter and to open their perspectives on different healthcare fields. So I think that HOSA, in that way, has really opened my perspective into seeing like you don't just have to be a trauma surgeon to work in emergency medicine. You can also be an RN, maybe be an NP. At our last midwinter leadership conference we had a bunch of PA students from George Washington, I think it was come in and they talked to us about being a PA. I personally didn't really understand the difference between being a doctor, pa or MP, but they really described that to me and now I've also opened my interest to that because I can get an undergrad degree, which I plan to do in public health and environmental sciences, and then also add on to that a PA degree or a nursing practitioner degree. So I think that's really helped it in a way, and I think HOSA, as being this giant pipeline to healthcare, really just adds on to like our networking abilities.
Speaker 3:We have a lot of people within healthcare already that know about HOSA and we can reach out to them. I've gotten a bunch of shadowing opportunities within hospitals, within nursing schools, to be able to reach out and just ask them and say, hey, I'm part of HOSA, this great community of people. I'm sure you've heard of us. You've probably hosted us before. You know that we have dedication. You know that we have great worth ethic. You know that we're committed to whatever we do and we put our whole heart into it. So usually with that they're willing to take you on and show you amazing things. It's really worth it. Does anybody have anything else that they want to share with their career goals.
Speaker 2:I would like to say that take the risk. If you think that it's difficult, take the risk, go out there. If you think that competitions will be hard, I don't know if I can do it Do it. I have been in the position before of being too shy, of too scared, of like downplaying your abilities. Make sure to put yourself out there. You can really make change. Even if you think that you're not quite there yet. You can get there, and there is such a huge community in HOSA that is willing to support you and to help you go through those steps to get to where you want to be.
Speaker 2:I agree with Vi it is a risk to take, but you have nothing to lose with going into these competitions and these leadership seminars. The only thing that's going to happen is you gaining abilities. You're going to gain the ability to be a leader. To happen is you gaining abilities. You're going to gain the ability to be a leader. You're going to gain the ability to do public speaking and you're going to gain a bunch of opportunities that you didn't have before. I was able to be on the Washington Post, I was able to compete in competitions, I was able to meet some very important people and healthcare professionals, and without HOSA I would not have been able to do that. So it is worth it and, like Vi said, take the risk, because you have nothing to lose.
Speaker 3:I think. Also as the DC chapter, we're kind of a small chapter. We're a pretty new chapter. My local chapter was founded around three years ago, so we're relatively new, but we're very close knit and so all of us, like we just met today but we care so much about each other. We know partially about everybody's experiences and so I think the whole idea that you're competing in this national kind of organization and you're part of these chapters but you all have very similar interests, it helps bond you closer together and that's also a part of the networking which I think is really cool at Hostel.
Speaker 1:So that's it. We have all the questions we have for today.
Speaker 3:Thank you so?
Speaker 2:much. It was such a pleasure to be here and if you're interested in HOSA, do it.