Founder’s Day Celebrations and Fundraising Underway for Iowa HOBY

By Founder's Day

Here’s to hoping you’ve had an outstanding month so far in March 2021. As we get ready for seminar, I wanted to share a little bit about a fundraising effort led by our very own Ryan Anderson.

Starting on March 19th we recognized Founder’s Day in honor of Hugh O’Brian’s birthday. For the next 30 to 40 days, we will raise money through a fundraising campaign to continue this organization’s work. All of the funds we raise (minus a 5% handling fee) come right back to Iowa HOBY! We’ve already received some outstanding donations, so please continue to share this news with your friends, family, and other supporters of Iowa HOBY.

The donor page for the campaign can be found here.

Thank you for your contributions to Iowa HOBY, and we’ll see you later this year at seminar!

Iowa HOBY 2021 Seminar Updates

By Seminar

Greetings and Happy New Year!

For over 20 years, Iowa Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) has provided leadership education and service-learning to the youth of Iowa. Iowa HOBY is built on the commitment of over 100 volunteers and the partnership of college campuses (to host the seminar). Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic shifted the daily lifestyle for many of us; virtual meetings and events became the new normal. While virtual interaction can never replace the in-person engagement and interaction previously core to HOBY, we live in unprecedented times where many colleges are still conducting virtual learning, and statewide limited gathering restrictions stand.

For the safety of our volunteers, ambassadors, and partnering organizations, the Iowa HOBY Corporate Board has voted to hold the 2021 Iowa Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Seminar as a hybrid seminar*. Both 2020 deferred ambassadors and new 2021 ambassadors will receive an email from the 2021 Leadership Seminar Chair asking them to choose one of the multiple statewide locations to attend a limited gathering, 3-hour, in-person event; the rest of the seminar will be held virtually.

There is still time to register new students for this event! We have included a registration poster in this email for you to use with your students and community. Student registration is $225, and we can’t wait to have a student from your school attend! You can find our digital registration kit HERE, or you can register your student HEREPlease complete your student registration(s) by March 1st, 2021.

Iowa HOBY is excited to continue our legacy of service and excellence for the youth of Iowa. Collectively, we can all help define a new era for Iowa HOBY. We look forward to this one-of-a-kind HOBY experience, and we hope that you’ll join us along the way.

Sincerely,

Aaron Horsfield
Corporate Board President, Iowa HOBY

Kaily Walsh
Leadership Seminar Chair, Iowa HOBY 2021

*Iowa HOBY reserves the right to change the 2021 seminar to a fully virtual delivery with two weeks’ notice to attendees.

Iowa HOBY 2020 Seminar Decision

By Seminar

For Immediate Release

Dear Iowa HOBY Ambassadors and Families,

We understand these are trying times for many of you; your safety and well-being are our top priority. After many conversations at the state and national level, Iowa HOBY has decided not to host an in-person seminar during the 2020 summer season.

HOBY Nationals has an incredibly strict No Refunds Policy and is providing currently registered families with two options: defer your registration to the 2021 summer seminar or use your registration to participate in a two-day virtual experience this summer.

2021 Seminar

The 2021 Iowa HOBY Seminar will be held at Drake University. We are currently working with the university to confirm a weekend, but the seminar will either be June 11-13, 2021 or June 18-20, 2021. If currently registered ambassadors have completed their payment, their payment will be transferred to the 2021 seminar year. Once a date has been confirmed, we will share additional information with you so you can plan accordingly.

Virtual Seminar

The Iowa HOBY team understands you may be craving content during this time. The virtual seminar is a two-day program using a nationally-provided, video-based, online platform. Each day would include seven hours of (live) online programming including speakers, panels, and virtual “group time” with other Iowa ambassadors. The virtual seminar program has been developed by the national HOBY organization to mimic the traditional HOBY experience. Iowa HOBY will be collaborating and communicating with families and students who elect the virtual seminar.

While virtual seminar attendees will be afforded the best experience we can possibly provide, Iowa HOBY stands by the belief that the “HOBY magic” is best experienced in-person.  Our recommendation to all students and families is that your child defer their HOBY experience to the summer of 2021. We recognize this unparalleled time necessitates the need for various options. Therefore, if you choose to attend the virtual seminar, we will do the best we can to make it as close to a traditional HOBY experience as possible.

We understand this decision is not easy to make. Our national organization will be contacting you with more information regarding your choices. In order to ensure timely communication of next steps and seminar details, please fill out the form coming to you from HOBY Nationals by Friday, May 15th, 2020; one submission per student. Regardless of your choice, your student will walk away having experienced Iowa HOBY!

If you have any questions, please contact our Leadership Seminar Chair, Kaily Walsh (lsc@iahoby.org) at your earliest convenience. We know these are trying times. We thank you for your understanding and flexibility as we are all doing the best we can to adjust in this new time. Have an outstanding day!

In Service,

Kaily Walsh
Iowa HOBY Leadership Seminar Chair

From HOBY to Bulgaria: Tom Bowman’s HOBY Story

By Alumni, MyWHY, Service, Volunteer

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.

International Women’s Day

By Alumni, Volunteer

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!

How do I remember HOBY after HOBY?

By Alumni, Seminar
The HOBY Store is your connection for sporting HOBY in style while sharing the HOBY spirit all year round!!
The HOBY Store has a number of outstanding selections of merchandise, and is open during check-in, during dinner on Friday, dinner on Saturday, breakfast on Sunday, and during checkout on Sunday as well!
Don’t have cash? Don’t fret!! The HOBY Store now accepts credit cards. Find t-shirts, tank-tops, buttons, temporary tattoos, mugs, bags, sunglasses, water bottles, and more!
Caleb and Stu love showing off their muscles with this very fashionable bro-tank! This tank is also great for the scorching hot days in the summer!

Lamar loves using the bag and the sunglasses when he’s on the go and speaking at conferences!

Allison and Brock love using the mugs for their coffee! It helps them be ALIVE AWAKE ALERT ENTHUSIASTIC in the morning because these are two of the busiest people we know!

We are so excited to share all these new looks with you! Please stop by to take a look, say hello, and perhaps buy something!
Thank you for your support of The HOBY Store and the Iowa HOBY Alumni Association!!

Summer Reunion

By Alumni

Alumni ReunionOn Sunday, July 17th, a group of approximately 20 HOBY alumni reunited at Principle Park in Des Moines, Iowa for the annual Iowa HOBY alumni (and friends) summer reunion. This event has traditionally been held as an after seminar reunion event and has taken place at Principle Park for the past few years. This year, everyone met up at 11:30 in the morning to share some chips, subs, and soda (or water). The Iowa Cubs’ game started around 1:00, and even though the Cubs fell to Las Vegas, it wasn’t enough to dampen the spirits of all the HOBY alumni present. Needless to say, everyone had an OUTSTANDING time! Great memories were had and many of those present were able to discuss not only past HOBY stories, but all the amazing goals and accomplishments the IA HOBY alumni have been busy pursuing.

The Iowa HOBY Alumni board would like to thank the Corporate Board (and specifically our advisor Rhonda for all her help), the alumni who attended, and all of the Alumni Board members who helped make this event such a success. Be sure to keep up-to-date with the Alumni Board this Fall as we hold challenges, volunteer hour contests, and plan the winter reunion! If you have past alumni photos, Iowa HOBY stories, testimonials, or want to get involved with the Alumni Board, be sure to email me for more information at sckock@iastate.edu.

Stay Outstanding!

 

Sophie Kock

2015-2016 Iowa HOBY Alumni Board President