Want to volunteer at seminar but can’t be there in person?
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Hi! My name is Tom Bowman, I’m 23 years old, and I currently teach English at a public high school in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. As a sophomore in high school in Des Moines, Iowa, I never would have guessed that I would eventually end up in an unfamiliar country over five thousand miles away from home. Yet, here I am! As I look back on how I got here, I realize that it all stems from one particular experience during the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school.
In the spring of my sophomore year, I learned about the opportunity to attend the 2012 Iowa HOBY Seminar. My summer was already quickly filling up with football camps and work, but a school counselor approached me and convinced me to reserve one short weekend for the event. Frankly, I really didn’t understand what I was signing up for at the time. I had a vague idea that the seminar focused on development of youth leaders, but I didn’t know much else. When my mom first dropped me off, the energy immediately overwhelmed me. HOBY was like nothing I had ever experienced before.
In all the times that I’ve tried to describe HOBY to people, I have never quite been able to find the right words. To me, HOBY represents an environment bursting with life that does everything to foster youth leadership and civic engagement. In other words, it is a culture designed to help bright young people realize their potential to create the future. Over the course of the seminar, HOBY challenged me to connect with peers across the state and to form an understanding of how we could individually and collectively affect change in our communities and throughout the world. It was one of the quickest, most social, and most fruitful weekends of my life.
Following the seminar, I felt completely invigorated. I had just made tons of friends across the state, including some who I still stay in touch with today, and had all sorts of ideas how I could bring the culture of HOBY back to my school. Luckily for me, I even had the additional opportunity to attend the HOBY World Leaders Conference (WLC) in Chicago that same summer. Similar to Iowa HOBY, HOBY WLC brings youth leaders together from around the world in a week-long celebration of enthusiasm and ideas. Together, these two seminars really set the course for the rest of my high school and college experience.
Above all, HOBY instilled in me a sense of empowerment and solidarity. As I continued to grow as a student and a leader, I consistently felt like I had the confidence and support to overcome obstacles and build new opportunities for myself and those around me. Following my HOBY experience, I took on new leadership roles in student government and multiple sports teams. In addition, I helped teachers and students at my school get new clubs off the ground, and I found ways to help existing clubs expand their reach and grow. Throughout high school, I also remained very active in HOBY’s alumni programs, so every summer I returned to the seminar as a member of the volunteer staff to learn from my peers and the younger ambassadors.
A lot of the momentum that HOBY helped me create continued into college. I felt incredibly excited to meet people from across the world and to see the ideas that they brought with them. Although I certainly experienced the doubts and lack of self-confidence common to many new college students, before long, I found myself creating my own place within campus. I made tons of friends, I studied abroad in New Zealand, and I discovered a passion for community engagement. As a member of student government, I lead campus improvement initiatives, and as a manager of student employees on the admissions staff, I helped organized campus visits for thousands of prospective students. Of course, I didn’t accomplish any of these feats on my own. All along I had amazing support networks, including those going back to my original HOBY experience.
Honestly, HOBY will always be a part of me. Nowadays, I teach English to high school students in Bulgaria, and the HOBY spirit still shines through me. More than a teacher, I see myself as a mentor. In each of my students is a spark – the same spark that was inside of me. If I can reach any of my students in the way that HOBY reached out to me, then I will know I will have left my community in a better place.
Today on International Women’s Day, we honor all of Iowa HOBY’s outstanding female alumni and volunteers. Iowa HOBY is run by many women who volunteer their time and talent to help Iowa HOBY continue to grow. These women continue to empower young leaders to make a difference in their communities, lead with courage, and excel in all they do.
From all of us at Iowa HOBY, THANK YOU!
Long time Iowa HOBY volunteer wrote a blog about her experience with HOBY and why she continues to volunteer.
(http://masonredlinger.com/why-hoby-continues-to-change-my-life/)
I
owa Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership has seen many changes since our last seminar. We have moved to a new location, formed new partnerships, and most importantly, returned to our roots. HOBY was founded by Hugh O’Brian in 1958 on the basis of three key pillars: Empower, Lead, and Excel. He wanted to encourage young individuals to achieve their highest potential and recognize that while we are not all equal, each of us can become a leader.
As a not-for-profit and leadership seminar, Iowa HOBY strives to engage future leaders in current events, stay active on social media, and promote lifelong service and education. In my five years with HOBY, I have almost always heard the ambassadors say “You have to have been there to experience HOBY. It changed my life.” While Iowa HOBY cannot replicate the entire experience with others, we can help family, friends, and community members understand the experience. Through live streaming, media coverage, and a keynote speaker specifically for our parents and guests every Iowan will have an opportunity to engage in the fun. Through a new collaboration with the World Food Prize, a service activity with Meals from the Heartland, and an opportunity for our young ambassadors to engage with community leaders, the 2016 Iowa HOBY seminar will empower each young leader to find their passion.
Iowa HOBY is governed by a volunteer Corporate Board and the seminar is organized by an additional volunteer team. While the seminar only lasts three days, Iowa HOBY is a lifelong resource. I implore you to track your service hours using our free service and set goals. It is never too late to connect the dots and find your passion. Have an outstanding seminar!
Warmest Regards,
Aaron Horsfield
2016 Iowa HOBY Corporate Board President
The Iowa Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Organization (Iowa HOBY) would like to invite you to our 2016 Mentor Mingle!
Iowa HOBY is a leadership organization for Iowa high school students that helps provide them the skills to become leaders that have a positive impact. This year we are hosting an event for our students to connect them to the admired, respected, and innovative leaders in Iowa. The theme for our conference this year is connectedness. We are hosting this networking event to demonstrate to our ambassadors how powerful networking can be and that people are willing to help them advance their goals if only they work towards growing relationships.
The goal of this event is for mentors to listen and engage with ambassadors (rising high school juniors) regarding their ideas and goals. There is no preparation required from the mentors, you have been asked to participate because we believe the skills and qualities you possess will have a positive impact on our ambassadors!
When: Friday, June 24th 2016 | 5:45-7:45pm
Where: Drake University in the Olmsted Student Center at 2875 University Avenue – Des Moines, IA 50311
What: Each mentor will be assigned a small group of 4-6 ambassadors at the beginning of the event, all additional instructions will be given at the event. If you are willing to engage with ambassadors after the mentor event feel free to distribute business cards and contact information to facilitate further communication!
Perk for Mentors: This mentor event is a companion event to a keynote presented earlier in the day by Adam Carroll “How to Be a Super-Connector.” Mentors are welcome to attend Adam Carroll’s keynote, but it is not required. Two sessions of this keynote will be given at approximately 2:30pm and 3:45pm on Friday.
RSVP: If you are able to participate please complete the short survey below to RSVP by June 10th, 2016 to let us know you are coming and if you would like to attend one of Adam Carol’s keynotes for free! We will follow up and send you more detailed information about the event after you RSVP.
by: Katherine Jamtgaard
I went to Iowa HOBY in 2011, not sure what was going on or what HOBY was. I had not received much information prior to seminar regarding what the leadership seminar truly entailed. I ended up going with my cousin and another student from my high school. It made an outstanding impact. Since that life-changing ambassador year, I felt the need to come back and pass on the experience to others. I wanted other ambassadors to feel the joy and camaraderie that I felt when I went; I wanted to help others feel like they could be comfortable in their own skin – comfortable being themselves.
HOBY has taught me how I am unique and have my own signature style of leadership that is always changing and evolving. Since my ambassador year, I’ve returned as a JUFA for the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 seminars. Obviously HOBY has become a big part of my life, especially since- to be on junior staff- one has to commit to 100 hours of service each year. In achieving those 100 hours of service, I have come to understand how I prefer to serve and what my personal leadership style encompasses. I’ve helped with my home church’s vacation bible school program, volunteered through my high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society, as well as served as a team member for numerous retreats through the catholic student center on my college campus.
Being a JUFA has given me a different perspective of the seminar; showing me how vital everyone is to the program. As a staff member, I’ve had the opportunity to be that super-outgoing person that approaches an ambassador and challenges them to stretch their comfort zone and be kooky, from the moment they step out of their car. Actually, it’s my favorite part of seminar. I’m naturally an upbeat person, but I didn’t really show it until I went to HOBY.
Every year since, I have had the opportunity to be a super zany JUFA that wore a flower crown or graduation cap with a lei in it. But the really special thing, that I love to witness as a staff member, is the change that ambassadors go though. It may not seem like it, but the ambassadors go through a journey in those three days. Friday morning everyone is just like:
“Why are the crazy people in polo’s so loud?”
“Not going do that -that’s embarrassing.”
“Nope. Nope. Nope.”
But by Sunday afternoon, they don’t want to leave. They’ve established a family within that short time.
It is so cool to see that change. In a way, that’s why I keep coming back- because I know that I myself went through that change during my ambassador year. (#GroupSandbox)
My service with Iowa HOBY has not only been limited to volunteering as staff for the annual seminar. Once you’re in the Iowa HOBY family, they help you tap into your talents and utilize them. For the past few years I’ve been lending a hand with some graphic design work. I have helped with the Light Up the World design that was used for the 2013 seminar for t-shirts, programs, nametags, and door nametags as well as the Leader of the Pack design that was used for the 2015 seminar. Besides that, I have created button designs for my groups for the 2013 and 2014 seminars as well as for two WLC groups that my friend facilitated. Instead of giving me the tools and suggestions on how to change the world and leaving me on my own, Iowa HOBY has given me those things and has given me opportunities to actually do them.
Since I have completed my final JUFA year, and will (if they’ll have me) join the “blue polo club” AKA the SEFA staff, I hope to continue to return to Iowa HOBY, maybe go to other HOBY seminars, and even WLC to spread that HOBY cheer.
HOBY gives a person the tools, support, and connections to start their own movement to make a difference in the world. It arms its ambassadors, as well as staff, with the inspiration and willpower to achieve their dreams and aspirations. HOBY has given me so much. I hope to empower, lead, and excel and help others experience their own HOBY story.
“We’ve got a team that’s hotter than hot! How hot is hot?!” Iowa HOBY would not be possible without our Senior Staff, volunteers age 21 or older, who help facilitate a magical, meaningful, and memorable experience for our ambassadors! These Senior Staff are often the first ones up in the morning and one of the last to go to bed at night, all while working tirelessly to ensure their group of ambassadors are taking positive risks, creating new connections, and making the most of their weekend at Iowa HOBY!
This year, 20 Group SEFAs and 9 Operations SEFAs came together to form a truly outstanding team!! The camaradarie and support shown was incredible, and those whom were new to staff dived right in and never looked back! The team was comprised of the following superb volunteers:
Group SEFAs:
Erin Austin (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Janelle Brehm (First Year with HOBY!)
Emily Buehler
Taylor Cook (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Jacque Dunbar
Heather Gratz (First Year with HOBY!)
Rachel Henning (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Jessica Humke (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Timothy Martinez (First Year with HOBY!)
Libby McGuire (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Caley Medinger (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Virgil Morris
Jadeyn Pender (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Matt Ploessl (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Joanna Poole
Hannah Semsch (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Amanda Stefl (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Matt Straube (First Year with HOBY!)
Rebecca Sullens
Madeline Wright (First Year with HOBY!)
Operations SEFAs:
Rachel Anderson (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Ryan Anderson (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Sarah Burke (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Marcus Clark
Thomas Eslinger (First Year with HOBY!)
Keegan Kautzky (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Kristi Lange (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Adam Newland (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Morgan Owen (Iowa HOBY Alum)
Thank you to everyone who shared their time and talents to make the 2015 Iowa HOBY seminar truly remarkable!
HOBY Hugs!
B-rock “B-Rock” Holman
Director of Senior Staff
© 2024 Iowa HOBY.
