Different color shirts fill the University of Chicago Loyola
campus on Saturday afternoon with 450 high school students. Some have big smiles and others are loopy
from their travels. Some arrive with their parents, but most are alone. Some have 2 bags full of who knows what and
others just a carry on. After 30 minutes
of check in they’re all in the same navy t shirts walking with new found
friends to join in cheers and activities.
What’s on the front of those t-shirts? “HOBY”. What does it mean?
Family. Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership
(HOBY) is an international organization that teaches young people how to think
not what to think. The mission is simple…. Develop the global community of
youth to a life of leadership and service.
Six years ago my life was changed by this organization which is why this
year I wanted to be a facilitator for the 8 day World Leadership Congress (WLC)
in Chicago. I was given the opportunity
back in February and I couldn’t turn it down.
I turned down a couple of jobs to be here because I so strongly believe
in the organization. Throughout the
course of the week a transformation occurred among the 450 ambassadors and 90
volunteer staff from 10 countries and 47 states. Acquaintances became best friends. Dreams
became plans. Ideas became goals.
Saturday- The
welcome and Opening Ceremonies began as 10 flag bearers from their respective
countries marched in. Students quickly
found their 11 or 12 other ambassadors in the their groups (arranged by
color). After they found each other they
found their facilitators who were just as eager to meet them. Andy Stoll gave a speech about his 4 year
journey around the world. This talk
inspired many to go out and live.
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| speaks for itself |
Jennifer Santoro discussed living
life with purpose. Living a life with a
purpose takes courage and happiness is what drives you to get there. The #1 regret of people when they die is they
wish they would’ve lived a life for themselves versus the one others expected
of them. My favorite quote of the day
was “To do this or not to do this….which will I regret more?”
International presentations were
today with ambassadors singing, dancing and sharing about their countries. Every presentation was unique especially
since most ambassadors have never been out of the US.
Monday- Group leadership. The
World Café activity was presented by Eric Jones, a fellow 2009 WLC
ambassador with me. Students sat in
different groups and talked about their goals and hopes are and what kind of
difference they can make on their communities.
It got their juices flowing!
We took a trip
to the Museum of Science and Industry where we were given full range to explore
the maze, how to make tornadoes, and life aboard a submarine. Check out this museum if you’re in Chicago
because it’s a lot of fun for everyone, especially the ice cream parlor on the
main level!
Ms. Diane
came and electrified the crowd with her story of getting “kids off the
block”. She is a CNN hero and lives in
the south side of Chicago. She saw a
need in her community that kids were on the street and needed help so she
opened doors to the homeless and helpless youth. She sometimes has kids from two different
gangs sitting in her living room because they want to change their lives. She feeds them, lets them stay over, drives
them to school and does anything she can to keep them off the streets. The next time you think about helping
someone, think about this incredible women who lets gang members sleep in her
living room!
Tuesday- Leadership for Service. 550 ambassadors and staff loaded school
buses to head to Humboldt Park for a day of service. After lots of dancing and singing we were
scattered around the park some picking up trash, painting fences, or mulching
trees. This day of service saved the
park community over $100,000 in man power! The best part is how excited
everyone was to help out and get dirty.
Dave
Gamache or “uncle Dave” as he likes to be known as lit up the whole crowd with
his presentation about building your championship team throughout life. That team first starts with yourself and
builds from there. Leaders build
leaders. Crave connections and be
ambassadors of compassion. Everyone is
going through different things in life so why not have each other’s backs? You’ll always have goalies in front of you
trying to block your shots in this life, but see nothing but net and score!
Suehaila
Amen discussed life as an American Muslim.
For most students their view of Islam is similar to the majority of
Americans; that they are violent, disrespectful and not good people. Her speech changed many perspectives
enlightening the crowd about how much easier life would be if we just shared
more smiles and respect with one another.
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| Free high fives in downtown Chicago |
Wednesday- Global Citizenship. Ambassadors were broken into groups to
discuss what everyone deserves in the world.
Big issues like water, education, and food were some of the most
commonly discussed, but what it boiled down to was love and connections. We really do craze love, connections and
affection but we don’t do a good enough giving that to others. We’re all looking for love and respect to
help make this world a better place.
Each
facilitator took their 12 or 13 ambassadors on an Amazing Race into the city. Never
in my life have I felt like more of a mom and I have mad respect for parents
who take big families into big cities.
We followed clues to see the Water Tower, Hancock building and the Bean,
but along the way we participated in acts of paying it forward. We gave out free high fives by making a high
five tunnel on the sidewalk. We also
took sticky notes and wrote compliments to strangers on them. My favorite part was dancing while listening
to a street performer. We danced with
strangers and they turned from frowning passerby’s to smiling friends.
All of us
met up along the lake for a dinner of Giordono’s deep dish pizza and some ice
cream. We broke up into sections (5
facilitators and 60 ambassadors) to have our section nights. Luke, our
assistant section leader led one of my favorite activities. It’s called “tap somebody who” Everyone is sitting in a big circle with
their eyes closed and 5 students rotate being in the middle each round. Luke says things like “tap somebody who has
made a difference in your life”, “tap somebody who as inspired you”, “tap
somebody who you want to stay in contact with”.
It’s like a giant warm and fuzzy activity that makes everyone feel
good. This activity turned to lots of
tears and students expressing that they have never felt this loved or accepted
by anyone in their entire life. One boy
said he hasn’t cried in 14 years but he cried tonight because how amazing he
felt. One girl said she was bullied at
school and didn’t realize people noticed her, but now she felt loved. International ambassadors cried knowing that
even if they hadn’t talked much throughout their first few days here they were
still making a profound impact on people.
This is a night I will never forget as I hugged by ambassadors and let
me cry and release all these negative feelings they had. We watched fireworks and then took the L
back to campus.
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| section night by the lake with Luke as our fearless leader |
Thursday- Global
Citizenship. Hunger is a topic that
doesn’t really affect most people in my immediate community but it is a HUGE
problem. We participated in a series of
trivia games and activities that showed everyone problems around the world
involving women’s rights, water, and hunger among others. We had a simulation
about how there is enough food to feed the entire world, but it is not
dispersed correctly. Our students were
divided among different regions of the world split up according to the amount
of people in each region. Pizza’s were
divided among the countries with Asia have 200+ people in it and less than 15
pizzas for everyone to share. Countries
like America waste millions of pounds of food every year while other countries
can’t produce enough. Think about your
food waste the next time you eat or shop at the grocery store. Ask grocery stores or restaurants if you can
take left over food to shelters or people in need. Whole Foods is a good
example of this, Dunkin Doughnuts is a bad example.
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| making 53,000 meals for local students |
After an exciting talent show with
acts varying from poetry reading to rapping to baton twirling and break dancing
it was time to head outside for the HOBY story under the stars. Marcus Kelly, HOBY daddy, and his assistant
Mike Roy shared what it means to live HOBY.
Living HOBY means embracing each day, helping people every chance you
get and doing your part to change the world.
The theme song this year is “I Lived” by One Republic. This has been my favorite song for 2 years
now especially while living abroad. Some
of the lyrics include “Hope when the moment comes you’ll say I did it all”, “I
owned every second that this world could give”, “saw so many places, the things
that I did and with every broken bone I swear I lived.” Talk about compelling lyrics. The staff had our arms around one another
during the song and of course I cried but was embraced by big hugs from Luke
and Joel on either side of me. That’s
what community is like folks, it’s real!!!
Friday- A wrap up
with thank you letters to all those who made this conference possible. Another discussion about what it means to
live HOBY and then an activity with Lamarr Womble about turning your passions
into planning. How do you go from an
idea to a plan?
We took
school buses downtown to the Palmer House for the closing dinner and
banquet. Our bus driver managed to hit a
pole and break his mirror which led to panic and laughter, all were safe!
Dinner was a three course meal and general confusion amongst ambassadors about
what utensils to use when. It’s a
tradition for the ambassadors to sing songs to the audience that no one knows
and this year they mixed it up with some beat boxing and rapping. The staff got together and sang “If you’re
out there“ by John Legend. We danced the night away and said some
goodbyes before returning back to campus.
We had our
final group time with my 12 ambassadors which again led to many tears. This week my ambassadors talked a lot about
not being able to love themselves fully, but by the end of the week they shared
how they look in the mirror now and are happy with who they are. Talk about a powerful moment and a proud
moment as a facilitator. I don’t think I
did much this week but when you hear students say that they have never felt so
loved, inspired and happy in their life you know you did something right. It broke my heart hearing that these students
didn’t love themselves fully because every day of my life I have woken up happy
with myself and gone to bed happy with who I am and what I have done. Sometimes all people need is someone to tell
them what they admire in them and what they love which is why we had an
affirmation circle that let everyone share one thing they loved about the other
person and the person in the middle to share one thing they love about
themselves.
So love yourselves people because as one
of Ryan’s favorite quotes goes “If you can’t love yourself then how the hell
are you going to love anyone else?”
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| my B5 ambassadors from around the world. From strangers to family |
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| Luke, Megan and myself |
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| Marcus Edwards |
Returning to WLC I wasn’t really sure what to expect since I hadn’t been in 6 years. I knew that it was the best week of my life when I went in 2009 so I was hoping these ambassadors felt the same. I was so inspired by what these 16 year olds want to do with their lives and pained with the trials they have faced. I met staff that changed my life especially my blue crew. Jeremy, Luke, Megan, Ryan, JT, and Dawn you were the core of empowering our 60 ambassadors. You made the coffee runs, gave bountiful hugs and led me to snort more this week than I have in a long time! Luke you were an example to us with your big smile and open mind. JT your silent leadership is noticeable and commanding. Megan your spunky personality engages everyone. Dawn you are always on the ball ready for anything coming your way. Ryan you dance like everyone is watching in the best way and show the world how much you truly love yourself. Jeremy your leadership as a section leader led us to have a group that worked incredibly well with one another and made each of us feel empowered. Marcus Kelly and the entire operations team you somehow got 452 names on paper to appear as ambassadors in Chicago on Loyola’s campus which is truly amazing. You kept everyone safe and kept the staff in the know. Angie Magazino and the program team you created a program that had speakers and activities that were impactful and inspiring. As a first time WLC volunteer I thank God that Marcus Edwards took a chance on me and believed in me. And Jeremy I couldn’t have asked for a better section leader to have drafted me my first year. Everyone on staff you played a role in empowering me to empower my ambassadors. Whether that has a simple hello or a big hug you kept me going even after only 3 hours of sleep. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the entire HOBY organization for allowing me this opportunity. Thank you to my friends who shared their favorite quotes so that I could share them with my ambassadors. It truly was a team effort. If you want to learn more please talk to me because I could spend hours talking about what HOBY means to me! If you feel compelled to give to an organization that is empowering future leaders then do it!
But at the end of the day really it’s
pretty simple. Laugh often, love much,
and never miss an opportunity to smile!
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| Blue Crew: Luke, Ryan, JT, Dawn, Megan, Erin, Jeremy |
