Amelia Carstens is a senior at Central Kitsap High School. She is involved in a few clubs where she is also president of the Health Occupations Students of America (or HOSA for short) club at the school. Carstens is also a part of numerous AP courses this year including: AP Calculus, AP government, AP Physics and AP Literature. 

Carstens is a member of the National Honors Society and Key club, both of which prepare the members for college and could also provide financial assistance for higher education. In HOSA, Carstens puts together the meeting, and makes a schedule for the year on what activities they will do.

Carstens joined HOSA when the club was new to Central Kitsap High School about three years ago. She decided to run for President because

“There was a lot of space for it to grow, and I really wanted to help organize activities that would help people who are younger than me to figure out what part of the medical field they want to enter,” Carstens said.

As leader of HOSA Carstens has built a good reputation for herself with students and staff.

“Amelia is a fantastic leader because she collaborates well, she builds a team, she includes them in decision making, she’s very creative with her ideas on how to engage the club members, she’s very inclusive, and she’s super sharp,” said Katie Staker, the club advisor for HOSA and health science teacher.

Carstens also has a job as a server in the dining hall of Assisted Living at Crista Shores Senior Living. Having a job as well as heavy course loads is stressful, Carstens says, although she has kept her grades up it is more difficult to spend time with friends.

Carstens wants to go to college for Pre-Medicine, and with that degree work as a General Practitioner specifically in family practice.

“I think that being the president of HOSA will help her with her future goals,” Staker said. “She’s really built up the club so she has a lot of accomplishments that she can cite and that’s really valuable. She’s demonstrated leadership and that’s very valuable. So I do think it will help her improve her future goals. She’s also helped the club considerably, made it a better club, made it more engaging for our students.”

Carstens describes herself as studious, outgoing, and hard working, and with the course-load along with the clubs and working no one disagrees.

“She wants to do a good job, she likes to learn and figure things out herself, she’s not afraid to restart a project or to risk something to maybe not work out for the sake of learning something new, and she is very creative,” said Dawn Adams, Carstens pottery teacher.

Carstens showed her abilities to problem solve and be creative by creating two matching bowls for class. She wanted to make them look like koi ponds, Adams recalls. She had to sculpt small fish which hadn’t been taught, but she did an amazing job.

“I think one of the skills that we don’t teach enough of in school is the ability to problem solve and be creative,” Said Adams, “I think she has both those categories, you know, like, in creating the bowls, and something she does innately. I think it’ll help her in life, I think every kid needs to know how to do that.”

Even though COVID-19 has caused issues throughout Carstens high school years, she has formed great relationships with her teachers and students alike.

“I wish we’d been in person longer,” Staker said, “I haven’t had as much opportunity as I would have liked to work with her.”