On Sept. 19-24, Senior Mikayla Kitchen attended the Washington Leadership Academy for HOSA Future Health Professionals State Officers. She serves as Vice President of the Kansas HOSA chapter. 

Kitchen attended the conference alongside health science teacher and HOSA advisor Stuart Perez. 

“It was different than I expected because we got to play a lot of leadership activities where we moved around. We weren’t just sitting down and listening to speakers the whole time,” Kitchen said. “I was thinking about how to not only lead Kansas HOSA but also how to leave an impact when we leave.”

According to Kitchen, she benefited from the conference. 

“We got to do the kinesiology through the school public health which was cool because my undergrad will be kinesiology. So like in my career I’m doing kinesiology with public health and fitness.,” Kitchen said. “I think it’s really cool because not only have I been able to bring that information into HOSA, but myself also.”

Along with the leadership conference, Kitchen also got to tour the nation’s capital. 

“We got to see DC and all the monuments itself. They split us into groups and some people got to go to the National Institute of Health, some people went to the FDA or the Washington’s Children’s Hospital and some people went to the University of Maryland School of Medicine,” Kitchen said. “I went to the school of public health.”

Perez says that Kitchen is really helping branch out the HOSA program at PHS.

“Mikayla is that bright shining face that shows people what our organization is and what it can do for them,” Perez said. “We need people that out our program on the map and she definitely does that.”