Almost 40 students from LHS will compete at the HOSA state competition in Boise on March 11.
HOSA stands for “Health Occupation Students of America,” and is available to high school and college students interested in the medical field and healthcare professions.
Jaxson Knieriem is a medical terminology student at LHS who joined HOSA in October 2025. He commented that there are different aspects of the healthcare field to compete for.
Knieriem is doing a health career display, where he researched a career in the medical field and put it on a triboard before taking it to state and seeing if it gets approved.
“It’s kind of like a senior project,” he said.
Knieriem said he is excited to see the career research and displays that other people come up with at state. He thinks that the opportunity to have so many resources at state: the people, careers and different skills are something to be excited for.
“It really puts into perspective what I want to do in the medical field after high school. And it’ll look good on a college resume,” Knieriem said.
Chealsee Kinzer has been the LHS HOSA adviser since August 2025.
“I think it’s the best students that put their foot forward and do healthcare for their classes, but the students who choose to work on it also in their free time are the ones that are truly passionate about healthcare,” Kinzer said about the students in HOSA.
She said she is excited to see which students will place and to watch them compete with one another.
She explains that she and her students don’t know which students will actually compete until they get there.
At state, students are tested on the same subject that they are learning in class.
“It kind of all ties in. You’re not being tested on things that you know nothing about. You’re being tested on things that are directly associated with the program that you’re taking at the school,” Kinzer said. “I think that that’s really beneficial for the students.”
