On Thursday, January 26, 2023, Somerset Academy’s high school HOSA competed at regionals which took place at Keiser University’s Flagship Residential Campus. 

Twenty-two of Somerset’s students placed and nineteen students will be attending states in Orlando. Out of the 19 students, Kiona Presendieu, Kayla Jean-Francois, and Adriana Lubin placed first. This year those competing in regionals were required to create a PSA that spoke about mental health. They also had to show the PSA to their peers and then give a speech to the judges at regionals about the PSA.

Kayla, Adriana, and Kiona are not only a competition team but they are also friends who share an interest when it comes to the health industry, which is why they are a part of the school’s HOSA club. “In HOSA you’re able to compete in different events and are able to choose the events you want to compete in. You can either choose to work individually and complete a task or you can choose to work as a group on a project. We decided to choose the PSA for our project.”  said Lubin. On occasions when they are not competing you could see them laughing together, and walking in the hallway.

Weeks prior to regionals, the group did their research on mental health relating to teens and planned their execution of their PSA. “Kayla, she put together all the clips and edited them. We filmed for about four days, and did our research on depression and anxiety among teens.” said Presendieu. When the PSA was finished it was shown to an audience, which was Mr.Trodd’s first period history class. 

Competitors had to show their public service announcements and give speeches on them at regionals. “We had a four minute speech in front of the judges where we explained our inspiration and stuff.” said Kiona. 

The group was confident that they were on the path to victory early on. “For me…it was a confidence boost. I knew we were going to win and then we ended up winning.” says Kayla. They felt the message they wanted to get across was well conveyed. “I personally believe that the quality of our video, as well as the message was executed very beautifully. The quality was clear, the audio was wonderful. Our speech that we gave to the judges about our video was very compelling and appealed to their emotions.” said Lubin.

Kaylah feels that mental health among teens is a big issue and that it should be talked about.  “A Lot of people don’t take it seriously, and it’s a really big issue and is overlooked,” said Jean-Francois.

The winning team will be heading to states soon. States will be from April 13th to the 16th. “ I’m excited for the hotel…I’m excited to miss school and stuff like that.” said Jean-Francois.

“ Hopefully we make it to nationals, that would look good for colleges,” concluded Jean-Francois.