Hello Pennsylvania HOSA advisors, members, and staff:

        Welcome back to another great school year!  My name is Amy Peters. I am currently a senior at Lehigh Career & Technical Institute where I am enrolled in the Emerging Health Professionals Program. I am honored to serve as your 2010-2011 Pennsylvania HOSA Western Regional Vice President. Becoming a state officer has opened so many doors for me and given me many wonderful opportunities along with new experiences. I know that this year will be full of great experiences and opportunities and I am so grateful to have been selected to serve the wonderful state of PA.
        The State Officer Executive Team is currently planning for another exciting HOSA year. We are preparing for the Pennsylvania State Leadership Conference which is scheduled for the first week in March. Let’s hope for a mild winter.  The conference will be the highlight for many HOSA students.   I would like to encourage all HOSA members to set your goals high and plan on attending the conference this year.
 I also challenge you to increase your local HOSA membership by recruiting the new students in your school to join your local chapter.  Be sure to talk about our great organization with all the students in your health science classes. You can welcome back returning members and recruit new members to ensure that you will continue to grow in both spirit and size.  Inspire new students to join HOSA by showing your enthusiasm.  It is also very important to complete your chapter affiliations online as soon as possible. The online registration system is quite user friendly.
       Finally, I’d like to mention the HOSA National Service Project.  This summer, at the National Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida, I served as a delegate for National HOSA.   During the Business session, the voting delegates voted for our 2010 Executive Council, National Theme and National Service Project. As a result of this vote, the National Service Project for this school year is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  I invite you to explore the website at www.jdrf.org and check out all the great information.  Look for a walk date so that your chapter can get involved.  The link for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation can also be found on the HOSA website.   Have a great start to the new school year.  I wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

 Amy Peters
 2010 -2011 Western Regional Vice President