Round Rock Healthy Hearts wins regional HOSA Community Awareness title, reaching 300,000+ through heart health initiative
Round Rock Healthy Hearts, a student organisation from Stony Point High School, secured first place out of 35 teams in the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) Area 1 Community Awareness competition at Byron P. Steele High School in Cibolo, Texas. The team will advance to the state competition at Kalahari on April 29, 2025, after competing against 21 teams from across the state.
The student-led initiative has achieved remarkable community impact, reaching over 300,000 people through various outreach programs. Key accomplishments include raising $1,500 for the American Heart Association, generating more than 109,000 social media views, and featuring in a KXAN news broadcast across Central Texas.
The organisation's impact has been particularly notable across three major channels. Their social media campaign has reached over 100,000 individuals, using a strategic mix of trending content for younger audiences and informational posts for adults. This approach caught the attention of the American Heart Association, a longtime inspiration for the group.
The team has also conducted an extensive educational outreach program, delivering 16 presentations across five elementary schools, reaching more than 1,500 students in grades 3-5. Their interactive presentations on heart diseases and healthy habits incorporated prizes and engaging questions, designed to help students share heart health information with their families.
In a significant media achievement, KXAN featured Round Rock Healthy Hearts in a live television broadcast, extending their message beyond Round Rock to the greater Austin area. The broadcast, including YouTube views, reached an estimated 222,000 viewers across Central Texas, promoting the importance of incorporating heart-healthy lifestyle changes.
Five Core Messages: Making Heart Health Achievable
Throughout their outreach efforts, the team emphasises five core messages that resonate with their audience: that small changes can lead to significant health improvements, the power of community support in building healthy habits, the importance of regular medical checkups, the value of mindful eating, and the effectiveness of setting incremental goals for lasting change. This consistent messaging framework has helped their audience understand that heart health is an achievable goal through simple, sustainable lifestyle modifications.
"Our ability to trust each other was our biggest strength," says Dhrupad Krishna, founding member. "Even in the most stressful situations, each of us was able to trust each other's passion in our cause. Not just to win a competition, but to leave a lasting impact on the people around us."
The winning team includes Ankur Shashidhar, Enrique Garza, Landon Rojas, Melissa Truong, Abhiram Nair and Dhrupad Krishna.
About Round Rock Healthy Hearts
Round Rock Healthy Hearts is a volunteer organisation of Stony Point High School (TX) students dedicated to raising awareness about preventable heart disease. Through social media campaigns, school outreach programs, and American Heart Association fundraising initiatives, the group promotes simple, sustainable lifestyle changes for better heart health in the community. Heart health is achievable through simple steps is their core emphasis.
About HOSA
HOSA is a global student-led organisation recognised by the US Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. Since 1976, HOSA has expanded to over 260,000 members across 54 chartered associations, including American Samoa, Canada, China, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
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