“What do you want to be when you grow up?” is a simple question that has plagued many minds for generations. Fortunately, career and technical student organizations (CTSOs) like HOSA–Future Health Professionals (HOSA) are not only helping to answer the existential query but also addressing healthcare workforce shortages while doing it.
HOSA is a membership-led CTSO that supports health science career and technical education (CTE) and biomedical students by providing opportunities to develop leadership skills and explore healthcare careers.
Leading community change
For Benjamin Blanco, M.D., participating in HOSA during his undergraduate studies helped him progress his goal of addressing healthcare disparities in small rural communities like his hometown of Clovis, NM.
“My early exposure came from going with my parents to the doctor’s office and interpreting for medical visits at such a young age,” Blanco said. “Every single time we’d go into the waiting room, all the chairs were filled.”
According to the 2020 Census, Clovis’s population was just shy of 40,000 people, and about 50% of the population identified as Hispanic. Nonetheless, residents like Blanco and his family struggled to find culturally competent and compassionate care.
To address the gap, Blanco double-majored in biochemistry and Spanish, with a concentration in medical Spanish. At the collegiate level, he helped establish a HOSA chapter that would later lead to his position of vice president of programming of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA).
“I learned conference planning through HOSA, and that prepared me to become the VP of programming at LMSA. [Being VP] was the best thing I have ever done for my career and life,” Blanco said.
Empowering students through mentorship
Rahma Mkuu, Ph.D., M.P.H., launched her healthcare journey in high school as part of a clinical nursing program. She said as a ninth grader, HOSA was a “big deal” on her campus, and she saw it as a way to pursue her goal of becoming a physician.
“I never envisioned myself in research,” Mkuu said, “but after I got ‘weeded out’ by the hard sciences, I had a mentor, Dr. Adam Berry, a HOSA alum, who introduced me to research through volunteering in his lab.”
With Berry’s mentorship and support, Mkuu pivoted and became a leading implementation science and health outcomes researcher. On Google Scholar alone, she has over 500 citations and 15 published works, ranging from topics including but not limited to children’s healthy eating habits and unrecorded alcohol in East Africa.
“Mentorship is one of the most fulfilling aspects of my career. I’m able to help others to pursue their dreams, just as my mentors inspired me to pursue mine,” Mkuu said.
Inspiring future health professionals
Today, members contribute to the legacy and impact of career and technical education at the annual Washington Leadership Academy. In the capstone event, State Officer Teams meet with their representatives to advocate for Perkins Funding, a federal investment in CTE, with CTSOs supporting those programs.
For Maggie Ansert, the Georgia HOSA vice president of innovation, this experience allowed her to meet with the legislative aide of her local representative and discuss how Perkins funding helped her discover her passion for medicine.
“I fell in love with the skills of the healthcare staff as I watched a surgeon save a life in 45 minutes,” Ansert said.
She said the experience inspired her to pursue a career in cardiothoracic surgery.
From small towns to laboratories across the country, HOSA is helping to shape the next generation of health professionals. For many, what begins as a health science class becomes the first step toward answering that age-old question — not just of what they want to be, but who they want to become.
