Nearly 200 high school students representing all 55 counties traveled to West Virginia University in Morgantown this weekend to perform more than 600 collective hours of community service, discuss issues affecting youth across the state, and interact from state and community leaders as a part of the four-day Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership seminar.
“West Virginia University was honored to host the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership program on our campus,” says West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee. “This program brings together a number of the best and brightest sophomores students in West Virginia to learn more about leadership and then taking them home to their schools and communities. We look forward to hosting HOBY for many years.”
Each year, HOBY invites high school ambassadors to a college or university campus to interact with state and community leaders, while developing and honing their own leadership skills and promoting volunteerism and service.
“At West Virginia HOBY, we focus on providing our ambassadors the skills to not only reach their full potential as leaders, but also to recognize the importance of service on all levels—from their own communities to global causes,” says Tyler Clendenin, Putnam County native and 2018 West Virginia HOBY Leadership Seminar Co-Chair. “We’re also unique in that to plan, finance and execute this four-day event, we rely solely on a staff of volunteers.”
HOBY partners with a local community organization each June to complete a service project. The 2018 ambassadors traveled to Camp Mountaineer in Morgantown to assist in preparing the grounds for the summer season.
“Camp Mountaineer will be expecting 1000 youth resident campers over the next several weeks, but due to variety of uncontrollable circumstances, we were a little behind with getting ready to serve the camp,” says Tim Rumble, Vice President of Membership, Mountaineer Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. “We needed to get the winter off of the facilities.
“I was most impressed by their cheerful service,” says Rumble. “That’s one of the tenets we try to keep in scouting—not just service, but serving cheerfully. These students, some who had never put a tent up in their life, erected 65 in less than two hours. Today’s service saved us weeks in getting Camp Mountaineer camper-ready.”
The three main pillars of the organization are to empower, lead and excel. HOBY ambassadors are guided through the seminar with the goal of completing the weekend having learned not what to think, but how to think critically and collaboratively.
“It’s really inspiring to see the transformation these students make throughout the weekend. We’re with them from the time they arrive on Thursday afternoon until they leave on Sunday afternoon,” says Jennie Morrocco, Hancock County native and 2018 Leadership Seminar Co-Chair. “And it’s not only us. Each year at the conclusion of the seminar, we hear from parents who hardly recognize the charismatic, confident and inspired young adult they dropped off a few days earlier.”
The 2018 seminar program included support and representatives from Brickstreet Insurance, West Virginia University, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, ACLU of West Virginia, Senator Joe Manchin, the West Virginia House of Delegates, the Miss West Virginia Scholarship Organization, Inspire West Virginia, the West Virginia Department of Commerce and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
“As West Virginia’s youngest lawmaker, I am always encouraged to see other folks my age learning about leadership,” says Delegate Joshua Higginbotham, District 13. “Hundreds of high schoolers from around our state attended the HOBY Conference at WVU and I was pleasantly surprised by how well-informed the students are on current events and public policy. West Virginia’s future looks very bright so long as these young adults live, work and vote in the Mountain State.”
A wide range of representation of differing backgrounds, opinions, and missions encourages HOBY ambassadors to challenge the opinions and ideas of their peers and leaders, as well as challenges them to reflect and evolve their own.
“After I participated on the ‘Building a Community’ panel, a number of HOBY ambassadors approached me to talk about the plans they have to start organizations in their communities,” says Hilary Kinney, regional manager for Inspire West Virginia and Miss Kanawha Valley. “Sometimes people doubt the drive of younger generations, but in West Virginia and at HOBY, young people are prepared to make a difference in our state.”
In addition to delivering young leaders back to their communities across the world, HOBY ambassadors are encouraged to develop and outline for a service organization or activity to implement upon returning home.
“Before this weekend, I didn’t know anything about HOBY besides the name and I didn’t expect it to be anything special,” says Nazar Abbas, 2018 ambassador from Point Pleasant Jr./Sr. High School in Mason County. “But I’ve learned a lot. I actually want to really continue the organization concept we developed today. We connected with one of the panelists and she’s going to mentor us to help make it a reality. This weekend has really inspired a lot of people.”
As the 2018, West Virginia Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership seminar concluded on Sunday afternoon. It was clear that a new class of young leaders were departing WVU’s campus to return as champions in their community. These newly dubbed HOBY alumni not only surprised themselves, but left a lasting impact on their peers and all those they encountered during the weekend.
“One of my favorite experiences of 2018 was seeing over 200 hands shoot up when the students were asked who among them planned to change the world,” says Rochelle Goodwin, Senior Associate Vice President for Academic and Public Strategy at WVU. “Leadership. Hope. Inspiration.”
West Virginia Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation is an affiliate of Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership International. For more information about HOBY, visit the HOBY website.