Four Greenbrier East sophomores came to the recent meeting of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Greenbrier Valley to present a talk about Schizophrenia.

Having passed several testing hurdles already, Shyanne Sanford, Taylor White, Angelisa Groves and Autumn Hudson are on their way to the competition at the West Virginia State Leadership Conference on Mar. 10, sponsored by the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA). The competition takes place to “provide a system for recognizing the competencies these young ladies are developing in their knowledge and skills for careers as future health professionals.” NAMI presented each with a certificate of appreciation, “for finding her voice, her passion and her skills and using them to assist her community; working to help others find their own paths to information and resources and advocating to end discrimination towards people living with mental health disorders.”

The role of the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) organization is to “empower future health professionals to become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration and experience.” HOSA is a national organization of secondary and post-secondary students that supports career development in health professions and improvement of health services delivery to the general population. Today, over 165,000 students across the country participate in HOSA activities through its 3,000 chapters. For more information, go to www.hosa.org.