Make Friends, Learn Leadership With Hoby

Last August, I had the honor of representing Eastern Washington at the Hugh O’Brien Youth (HOBY) World Leadership Congress in Houston, Texas.

HOBY is an organization founded in 1958 by actor Hugh O’Brien to discover leadership potential in high school sophomores. It is an international organization with high schools from all over the world participating.

Each school sends one representative to a local conference and from there one male and one female is selected to represent that local conference at the national level.

The next local conference is at Gonzaga University June 5-8, 1997. I encourage all high school sophomores to investigate applying to represent their schools at the conference. Speak with your counselors and principals about applying and, should all else fail, contact Joanne Poss, the Director of Student Recruitment, at 466-5216. Though the deadline for applications is past, students can still be accepted, so please investigate.

The local conference is truly a great experience where ambassadors not only got to interact with the local leaders in business and government but also with fellow high school leaders from around the state. When I left the local conference I felt exhilaration. I knew I had just been through a truly great experience.

I became more aware of the responsibilities of leaders and the demands that society should make of itself. What’s more, I had a good time.

As one of the 1996 World Leadership Congress ambassadors, I had the great privilege to meet with other leaders and learn from them through that interaction. Most importantly. I had the opportunity to forge truly life-long friendships. And that is what HOBY is all about.