DECA. FBLA. FFA.
Although Jefferson’s catalog of clubs is almost never-ending, if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that few of these hugely popular clubs are offered. This year, another beloved Jefferson club will be joining the list: Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA).
HOSA is an international organization that provides students with the opportunity to get involved in medically-related experiences, compete in medically-related events and network with professionals. Often described as the medical version of Science Olympiad, students can compete in events ranging from Dental Terminology to Biomedical Debate.
“It’s a place to grow because you meet a lot of people and you can network,” junior Shirdi Palle said. “You can’t really network just in class so it’s even more valuable [to be] able to connect with people with similar interests.”
HOSA is one of eight of the Virginia Department of Education’s (VDOE) Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSO). Being under the department, participating schools are required to offer Career Technical Education (CTE) courses to host the club. For example, one of the required classes for HOSA is Anatomy, a course that Jefferson does not currently offer.
“As soon as the school commits to a federal program, it is very restrictive,” principal Ann Bonitatibus said. “Right now, a lot of our courses that are considered engineering courses have so much flexibility and adaptability because of the level of education that all of [Jefferson students] aspire to. We would not have that same flexibility if we adopted the CTE courses.”
Jefferson’s HOSA application was originally overlooked by the VDOE, which is why the club was able to be started despite the school not offering the required CTE courses.
“It was kind of a surprise because we didn’t know about this requirement at all,” senior Arnav Bhalla, the Virginia HOSA State President, said. “We only found out once Virginia HOSA reached out to us.”
Although HOSA is off for now, former members are pushing for reconsideration. Efforts have reached as far as passing legislation with the Virginia government. In April, the SB 707 bill was passed. This bill allows for “each public middle school and high school to establish career and technical education student organizations, regardless of whether such school offers career and technical education courses.” The bill recognizes all VDOE clubs, meaning that Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) and Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) could also become possible future clubs at Jefferson.
“Since the [Jefferson] chapter was removed, we are currently working to try and get it reinstated,” Chadha said. “We have to work with the administration and work with the Virginia sponsor.”
Although the club is qualified to be established at Jefferson again, if reinstated, it will only be able to participate in events at a local level.
“The state level and national organizations [are] not governed by governors. They are their own groups and they make their own rules,” Bonitatibus said. “And so what happens is that they say, ‘Well, that’s really nice, Governor Youngkin, that you are allowing clubs to be in schools. However, we’re still not going to let them be part of our state and national organizations.’”
Despite HOSA being canceled at Jefferson, there are still numerous opportunities offered for students who want to participate in biology-related activities. Clubs like Biology Olympiad, Science Bowl and Science Olympiad will have more emphasis on providing students with platforms to explore their passion for biology and compete at high levels.
“We don’t organize our classroom experiences to fit clubs, and I think most people agree with that. So when we have two hundred-some club offerings, there’s something for everyone,” Bonitatibus said.
From the October 2024 Issue of tjTODAY