hoby

     One lucky Wilby Sophore was recently cosent to be an Ambassador to a prestigious Youth Leadership Conference.
      The Hugh O'Brian(HOBY) Youth Leadership Foundation sends one tenth grade student from every high school in the state to the Connecticut HOBY Leadership Conference. This year (1999) our HOBY Ambassador will be Greg Matskevich. Jessica Sharkey was chosen as an alternate.
      The students were chosen by a committee made of Vice Principal, Mrs. Wiggans; Guidance Counselor Mrs. Iantounne; teachers Mr. Dandonoli and Mr. Sinclair; and past HOBY Ambassadors Ryan Cofrancesco and Marsha Webber.
      The committee made the opportunity to apply to be chosen as the Ambassador open to all Sophmore students. A letter was sent to all English teachers telling them about the foundation and asking them to encourage their students to apply. That letter was accompanied by another letter that was to be read to or posted for their sophmore students. The English Department was used because all students are required to take 4 years of English, therefore ever Sophmore should have been notified about this opportunity by their English teacher.
     The Leadership Foundation was started in 1958 by actor Hugh O'Brian, who played the title character of the TV program Wyatt Earp in the 1950's.
     The first Leadership Conference was held that year in Los Angelos for about a dozen students. Last year, 13,000 students from 13,000 different high schools attended HOBY Conferences across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
     The Conferences have two major purposes. The first is to give the students everything they need to be good leaders. "HOBY taught me important characteristics of a true leader, and I now feel better equiped to handle the responsibilities I'll be called on to do," said Trina Dawn Black, a HOBY Ambassador from Oklahoma.
     The other major purpose is to improve the public image of teenagers. As Hugh O'Brian himself said in a speech at the 1997 Connecticut Leadership Conference, "Ninety-eight percent of all the news put out about teenagers is created by 2% of the teenagers - the ones who get in trouble." By helping students lead themselves and their peers toward positive, helpful activity Hugh O'Brian aims to change that.

Back to Current Affairs page

Ryan's Writings main page