The Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Leadership Conference took place on Jan. 29 through 31 at the Hawaii Convention Center and consisted of over 600 high school students from different schools throughout Hawaii participating and competing in various events such as practical skills tests, presentations, workshops, and other activities. Future Health Professionals (HOSA) and Construction students have participated in the competitive event. This year, five Radford students won in the following categories: Sadie Schulz (12) won first place in Physical Therapy, Landon Simonds (10) won first place in Research poster, Madison Soria (9) won third place in Research Persuasive Writing and Speaking, and finally, Zoe Kubina (10) and John Joseph Asuncion (10) came in third place in Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
“The conference overall is a good experience for the students. Not only do they participate in competitive events that test their knowledge and skills, the students have opportunities to meet HOSA members from high schools across the state,” said HOSA advisor and health teacher, Jennifer Sugahara regarding her class’s participation in the event.
Students participating in the competition are required to study on their own, find their own mentors, and become proficient in practical skills at this event. The students who participated had the opportunity to attend workshops and speak to people in the industry.
The purpose of this event is to help push the students’ knowledge and skills past the classroom.
“Students who go on this field trip or conference get to bond with each other because they room together and go out to eat, so students end up doing a lot of things together,” said Sugahara.
Students who managed to win first through third place will have the opportunity to travel to Houston, Texas as representatives of Hawaii in the International Leadership Conference on June 26 through 29. Stay up to date with Radford’s CTE classes by following @radfordcte808 on Instagram.