Tiffany Patterson, a senior from Thorsby High School, recently represented the state of Alabama at the Health Occupations Students of America National Leadership Conference held in Dallas, Texas, June 16 through June 22.

Through her enrollment in the health science course at the Lecroy Career Technical Center her junior year in high school, Patterson became active in the career technical club HOSA, Health Occupations Students of America.

In the spring, Patterson ran for the Southern Region State Vice President of HOSA, and was elected to serve for the school year 2008 to 2009.

She attended the Alabama State Leadership Blast Off in Montgomery from June 10 to 12. At Blast Off training, she attended various leadership training workshops. The workshops consisted of topics from speech writing, writing communication skills, conducting business meetings and proper etiquette. In Montgomery, Patterson had a chance to get to know other Alabama career technical state officers.

On June 16, Patterson along with her health science instructors flew to Dallas for the National HOSA Leadership Conference. More than 5,700 students and advisors attended the conference. These students attended workshops and competed in over 55 different health science competitive events from the Health Science Bowl to allied health science skills events such as nursing assistant skills, EMT skills and veterinarian assistance skills. Written exams in various fields of study such as pharmacy and pathophysiology were also administered.

Patterson attended a separate HOSA workshop for state officers, and was recognized for a Barbara Jones Service award for her completion of community service hours.

Alabama HOSA has five schools to make it to the top 10 in the events. Those events included dental assisting, medical assisting clinical, forensic medicine, medical reading and HOSA Bowl. Arab High School’s medical reading team finished in first place, and the school’s HOSA Bowl team placed fourth in the nation.

– from staff reports