Rising seniors Angelina Antony and Disha Gupta placed first in Creative Problem Solving at the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) International Leadership Conference, which was attended by more than 200 top teams from around the world. Teams in the competition were tasked with completing a written exam on strategies and methods of creative problem solving. Upon qualifying for the second round, teams were then given 30 minutes to analyze a healthcare problem, develop a solution and give a presentation to a panel of judges.

“To prepare, we spent months deeply studying case studies, memorizing core creative problem-solving models, and rehearsing timed roleplays across a range of healthcare topics, from hospital system redesigns to improving community access to care,” Gupta said. “We also developed strategies to quickly identify root causes and deliver structured solutions in the high-stakes, timed format of the competition.”

Founded in 1976, HOSA is an international student-led organization that stages events for aspiring healthcare professionals. It boasts more than 260,000 members across 54 chartered associations.