If you didn’t already know, JTED is a free program offered to high school students to help them further their future careers in the medical field, cosmetology or law enforcement. For example, I am currently taking the Health Care Foundations classes and next year I’ll be a part of the PTT program, Physical Therapy Technician. My goal is to become a Physical Therapist in the future and JTED will help me fulfill that goal.

On Friday, September 20th, I had the opportunity to attend the yearly JTED leadership training, where members of HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America), come together and get the proper training on how to be a leader for their specific chapter. I was voted in to be the Vice President of my HOSA chapter and this leadership training was very helpful for me and my fellow classmates. Together we came up with new and fun ways to run class meetings, and we even had the chance to discuss and really understand the term leadership.

As the Vice President of my HOSA chapter, I have many duties and responsibilities to fulfill in order for our class to be successful. Thanks to this training that started at 8 am and lasted till 2 pm, I had plenty of time to go over each task the Vice President must take on to be that leader that their chapter needs. We also went over all the responsibilities for the President of our chapter and the Secretary, (yes we have our own Secretary, and yes she’s amazing – shout out to Lauren!) Of course, they provided us with food, fun games, and breaks in between as well as very useful information that’ll really help our chapter grow successfully.

HOSA is a student-run organization where young adults, like myself, come together and make a difference for themselves and others. This training was only the beginning, now as future leaders of the health care community, we must go and make a change in our community to come out as successful leaders. Leadership is working together to fulfill goals, leadership is HOSA, JTED, and those involved who are leading instead of following. Be a leader, have fun, and make a difference..trust me it’s worth it!