In 2016, Pine Creek established a chapter of HOSA, a Health Occupation Students of America club, which gives students experience in the medical field. This organization was designed to help students who have interest in a career in the medical field. “Back in freshman year, I took BioMed with Mrs. Newcomb, and she kept talking about how awesome of a club it was,” said senior Timothy Balon, Vice President of HOSA. “Two years ago, we did a biomedical debate, where we had to write a debate on the ethics of vaccines, and how they would eradicate diseases. Then we had to pass a knowledge test based on examples of history, finally we went out and did our debate.” Balon’s team placed third in state and competed in nationals. HOSA isn’t just about competitions, it is also about helping students prepare for entering college and having volunteer hours. “If we are not doing our events, we are hosting biomedical fairs for the elementary and middle schools, where they get to come out and get to see and do fingerprinting labs or burns and help teach more people about science.” 

HOSA, which started with only 16 students in the first year, now has 81 students enrolled.  PCHS teacher Kelly Newcomb started HOSA because she “just wanted a change from teaching biology all the time” Newcomb also said she started HOSA because she “wanted to bring something new and fresh to Pine Creek”. 

The main component of HOSA is the competitions. Students start by registering for events and then studying for them.  For the State Leadership Conference, students share a hotel room in Denver with other students and then meet in conference rooms for their competitions. If students do well, they will advance to the International Leadership Conference held next summer in Nashville, Tennessee. Newcomb says, “ it’s something that they’ll remember for their high school career”