HOBY and why
Tomorrow, I am going to be training high school juniors to be staff members of the Central New York conference of the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program. I am in for year number two as the head of staff and I am far more excited about it than I was last year. Since it was the first time I was going to be doing what I did, I was nervous more so than anything else.
As an explanation: HOBY is a program with the tag line: We teach you how to think, not what to think. It is a way for students to explore leadership and outside-of-the-box thinking that a high school environment isn’t completely friendly to (socially as well as academically, given the desire for standardize testing). We encourage these tenth graders to look at the world as a place that they can influence in any number of ways, through service to the community. We place a huge emphasis on volunteerism, for working towards the greater good by helping wherever we can.
For my own part, I have been returning to the conference since 2002, when I was an ambassador (the scared-pantsless tenth grader attending). To say that it was one of the most influential moments in my life would be an understatement. Graduating from high school, earning my master’s degree and moving out had less of a profound effect on my life than HOBY did. It fundamentally changed me. I am who I am because of what I learned there and the people that I met. My confidence and my desire to help others, while present before, were coaxed into the open after one weekend that showed me that there are other people like me, who care about more than the present.
Over the last nine years, I have attended 11 conferences (eight in Central New York and three in Maine) and have gone to Houston for training. I have been a junior facilitator, senior facilitator, a general go-for staff, the head photographer and now the head of staff. I have donated hours and days of my time for this program, all for the love of it. All for the chance to give another scared-pantsless tenth grader to have the same experience that I did. And I hope there have been a few over the years.
I am going to be asking these returning staff a few questions tomorrow, and I figured, why not answer them myself? I already answered why I’m coming back, so here are the answers to the other questions:
What was your favorite moment last year? I have quite a few. There are the revelation moments, like short meetings, people going to bed without argument, having serious conversations with a man with a clapping chicken on his head and conference being over without any major difficulties. My greatest fear was that something awful was going to happen that I wouldn’t be able to handle and that it would be my fault… but that shoe never dropped. But for a singular moment: sitting in the lodge at Camp Hollis, laughing with Erica, John, Danielle, Kristen, Ashley and Sara.
What are you hoping to gain this year? This sounds like a selfish question, but it is valid. I hope that the staff benefits just as much from the conference as the ambassadors they’re trying to help. For me, I hope to gain new ideas from the staff on how to better run the conference and to make as many people happy as possible. I want everyone to have the best possible environment to expand their leadership abilities and to feel like they can take the instruction we give them and run with it. I want to find better ways for people to air complaints and to make it so that small annoyances don’t become reasons for disagreements or discontent. I want to learn something from our ambassadors, something I didn’t know before or a different perspective on an issue or idea.
What do you expect this year? I am half expecting that all the things I thought were going to go wrong last year are going to go wrong this year. But, thinking from a more positive perspective, I am expecting to have an enthusiastic staff that will overcome any of the doubts and fears that the ambassadors have. Having spoken to quite a few people on staff already, and knowing how excited the returning juniors are, I think that even the most resistant ambassadors will come over to the cheerin
g, ridiculous and happy HOBY spirit.
HOBY has become such a fixture in my life that I cannot really remember a time without it. The people I have met there are as much my family as they are my friends. I don’t think I’ve ever fell in love with such a wonderful group of people so quickly in my life. They have been so influential to me, I wish I could truly do something to thank them for all they have given me over the years.
I'm the one in the orange hat and glasses
for the love of radio
Over the last eight months or so, I have made it a habit to listen to podcasts while I work. Whether I was printing something or working mindlessly on the computer, I would plug myself into these stories that were being told on the radio. Granted, I wasn’t listening to anything live, as most of these programs aren’t available locally, but in essence, I was tapping into a nearly-extinct way to communicate.
All of these months, all of these stories that I have heard now… the hours upon hours of information I have been able to consume while my hands were busy with something else have shown me how valuable the old ways of telling stories are. Before anything else, before writing, even, people listened to stories. Poets memorized whole epic poems, reciting The Iliad before an audience. An entire work, with thousands and thousands of verses, recited night after night. That was their job.
It is amazing to think about this now. The only way for people to understand a story was to listen to it. There was no other way. And now, having experienced this, I am realizing the value in it. Listening forces one to hold on to multiple lines of thought, giving no convenient way to look back. Without the visuals, one is allowed to visualize what they want and forces one to really think for themselves.
Some of the programs are really informative. RadioLab, with Jad Abamunrad and Robert Krulwich, deals with science issues in a social way. They interview people who are involved with the issues they’re covering, as well as weave a story with natural progression throughout the episode. I have learned about diseases, peoples, places and scientific concepts I never knew existed before. Another information-based program is Stuff You Should Know. They take a topic and explain it in plain language in around 40 minutes. From the Black Plague to Munchausen Syndrom, Art Theft to the Mob, these guys cover anything and everything they’re curious about.
My particular favorite programs to listen to are the storytelling shows. Here are a few:
The Moth: This is a long-running live program that has the audience place their names into a hat to tell ‘stories without notes’ to an audience. The winner of a weekly show is chosen to be broadcast on the podcast. Sometimes they’re hilarious, sometimes I cry. But all are brilliantly told and are stories I can’t forget.
Risk!: Take The Moth, make it a themed hour-long episode with multiple stories and crank the rating up to NC-17 and you have Risk!. This show is hosted by Kevin Allison, a member of The State, a sketch comedy group out of New York City. From the looks of the first episode, it seemed like it was just an idea among friends to ‘tell stories you never thought you’d dare to share.’ Most of the stories are laden with swearing, sex and drugs, but they’re brilliantly told and the music is well-chosen. It feels like you’re sitting around with friends, trying to one-up one another with a funnier, weirder story.
Snap Judgment: ‘It’s that left, that right, jump! Or don’t… Storytelling with a beat.’ This is a newer NPR show hosted by the smooth-voiced Glynn Washington. These stories deal with a moment’s decision that changed the course of the person’s life, whether briefly or forever. They’re remixed with beats in the background, sound effects and commentary from the hosts. The stories, while not fall-over hilarious or soul-crushing sad, are completely engaging. They’re fantastic adventures that you can barely believe are real. Some of them have supernatural elements to them, those strange occurrences you can’t explain.
Standing boldly between storytelling and research-based is the long-running This American Life. Ira Glass presents two to 20 acts, with stories and documentaries researching specific subjects. There is a reason this show has been on WBEZ since 1995. It is thorough, indelicate and informative in the way it goes about looking for answers to specific questions. One of the first episodes was about gay men in straight marriages who cheat on their wives and never tell their children. Glass thew hard questions at the gentleman he was questioning and didn’t let him off the hook. It is a brilliant show that, while being an older show, doesn’t sell out for being popular.
I feel like these shows have helped me to continue learning while I am still out of school. I am able to listen for a long period of time without interruption and comprehend all of what was told to me as well as make connections in a way that I had some difficulty with before. I would often drift off and stop listening at certain points during lectures or conversations and I feel like it’s become easier to stay present.
