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
