West Shore CTE students earn top rankings in international competition.

June 27, 2019

From left: Brooke Mallison, Ty Wehner, Zech Kmiecik, and Emma Althouse

West Shore CTE students earn top rankings in international competition.

Recently, four high school students from the West Shore Educational Service District’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) Allied Health program along with their instructor, Sally Wright, traveled to the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) Future Health Professionals International Leadership Conference (ILC) in Orlando, Fla.

The team of Mason County Central High School students Zecariah Kmiecik and Ty Wehner finished sixth in the world. The team of Ludington High School’s Emma Althouse and MCC’s Brooke Mallison finished in the top 28 in the world.

Both teams competed in the CPR and first aid competition. The event started with a written test, which included anatomy, physiology, CPR and first aid, AED, basic life support and a multitude of emergency techniques. Based on test scores, teams were narrowed down and the top 28 teams went on to compete in the skills portion of the event.  In this round, students were given a secret scenario in which they would take care of two patients. This year’s scenario included patients suffering from severe bleeding and shock.

 “I am so proud of these students, said Wright. “They put in a lot of extra work and they were extremely dedicated and for both teams to make it to the second round is a huge accomplishment.  For Zech and Ty to be top six in the world is remarkable.  Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact placing of Emma and Brooke yet, they may have placed 11th.”

HOSA-Future Health Professionals is the largest international organization for middle school, high school, and postsecondary/collegiate students with an interest in health professions. There are over 250,000 members and 55 chapters including 48 in the United State/countries.  There are also chapters in Canada, Mexico, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, Italy and Germany.

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