Summit Academy High School HOSA is Raising the Registration Bar in Utah
Jason Kupiec passed away on August 1, 2022. He was one of the “hearts” of Summit Academy High School. He was the “Voice of the Bears,” and a fixture permanently etched into the Summit community and culture. He died due to complications of lymphoma, and he was a reason for the members of Summit Academy High School HOSA to act.
During the 2021-22 school year Summit Academy High School became passionate about registering potential donors to the Be The Match Registry®, accounting for over half of the registrants added collectively by all US HOSA chapters.
“There is a serious need for bone marrow donors and National HOSA has the potential to add tens of thousands of registrants to the registry,” said Kelly Jones, a Summit Academy HOSA Advisor. Co-advisor, Jay Marshall added, “Unfortunately last year, less than 10% of chapters nationally participated in the Be The Match service project and averaged less than a single registrant per chapter. Be The Match is pouring significant resources into this service project. We need to do much better, and our goal this year is to help get as many Utah chapters signed up and holding registration events as we can.”
"...most importantly we just want to add donors and save lives. As we move forward, we will continue to honor and draw on Jason’s memory. His unwavering spirit lives in our hearts and helps drive our efforts.”
– Kelly Jones, Summit Academy HOSA Advisor
Over the past year and a half, Summit Academy has run or participated in over 20 registration events and is now regularly called on by Be The Match representatives to help out. At one of these events, the 2022 Utah Spring Leadership Conference, BTM asked us to present workshops and staff a registration booth. “Our interaction with HOSA members and leaders during those two days suggested to us that if chapters successful at recruiting registrants share their experience in the right way it may increase participation by other chapters,” said Marshall. Jones added, “Our idea was to come into Fall Leadership Conference, concisely explain the need and process of setting up a team to both advisors and HOSA presidencies, and then actually have them set up their team pages right then and there.”
As a result of this effort, during the conference and the days following, over 20 Utah chapters have set up their team pages, currently accounting for over 10% of HOSA Be The Match teams nationally. This type of activity could easily be replicated at any state HOSA conference.
But our efforts don’t stop there. Summit Academy HOSA will also be providing a large-scale virtual training event to make sure these chapters have everything they need to carry out their own successful registration events in their own communities. Additionally, Summit has also already held four successful registration events since the beginning of the school year. “We would love to see Utah HOSA be the leader in the Be The Match effort,” said Jones, “but most importantly we just want to add donors and save lives. As we move forward, we will continue to honor and draw on Jason’s memory. His unwavering spirit lives in our hearts and helps drive our efforts.”
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if we can help your chapter get started in any way. The link below is to the presentation we used at Fall Leadership to help set up new teams. Feel free to use it and modify it as necessary, with appropriate citations.
Summit Academy High School HOSA Chapter Advisors:
Kelly Jones: kelly.jones@summitacademyschools.org
Jay Marshall: jay.marshall@summitacademyschools.org
