Despite numerous obstacles during the last school year, HOSA and FCCLA members wrapped up their competition season over the summer with a lot to celebrate. Senior HOSA members Sophie Cross, Caren Huynh, Tiffany Nguyen, and Kristofer Garcia competed in the HOSA Bowl Team competition and ended up as one of the top 10 teams in the international round. Meanwhile, FCCLA members Hannah Matthews and Juliette Flash received gold in Interior Design Level 3 at the FCCLA National Conference. 

However, both FCCLA and HOSA still faced challenges and did most of their preparation virtually.

 “To prepare for the competition, we did a lot of studying over Zoom calls together,” Cross said. “This was my favorite part because I got to spend time with my teammates and friends.”

The team competed in a trivia event that normally is in person, but because of the pandemic, they had to compete over Zoom. 

“I competed in the HOSA Bowl last year, and it was a lot different this year,” Cross said. “This year there was a video playing with questions, and we had to answer in a certain amount of time. Last year, they had a buzzer round format.”

FCCLA competitors Matthews and Flash tapped into their artistic skills.

“To prepare for nationals, we initially worked on the more creative side of the project first.” Matthews said. “We reworked floor plans, decided on a design style, and made 3-D renderings on Chief Architect.”

Flash and Matthews faced new challenges because of the pandemic, but it paid off in the end.

 “I feel great about earning gold at Nationals,” Flash said. “Honestly, it’s something that I didn’t really expect, but I could not be happier about the outcome.”