The Pennsylvania Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) seminar will be held during the summer of 2022 at Susquehanna University. HOBY is a selective leadership conference offered to sophomore students all around the United States. 

This year, sophomore Lily Adams was selected to represent the Altoona Area High school at the conference. 

“I was really excited because I figured it will help my leadership skills and help me for my future plans and goals,” Adams said. 

She heard about the conference through the school announcements and learned more about it through the HOBY website. 

“I thought it would be a good idea for me to gain better skills at speaking because I’m naturally a shy person,” Adams said.

Interviews took place in the middle of January. School counselor Rebeccah Anderson and Building Principal Andrew Neely and constructed the interviews and narrowed it down to one candidate. 

“We ask three simple questions that help us get to know all of the candidates. Some of the questions we ask are future career goals, how the seminar will help them as a person and what are some unique things that make them stand out from others,” Anderson said

These questions helped the staff in determining who the best candidate would be to represent the school at the conference at Susquehanna University.

There were not as many students this year who entered to go to the seminar.

At HOBY, the students learn about leadership skills and how to work with others. 

“HOBY is incredibly inclusive. Their overall goal is to make everyone attending feel comfortable and respected. The alumni team had us go around and say things such as pronouns and preferred names to make sure everyone was being called by their preferred pronouns to ensure a feeling of security in the new members which I thought was incredibly inclusive. Another one of my favorite parts was definitely getting to listen to the guest speakers. Everyday the alumni team had a guest speaker come on the zoom to talk to us and ironically, everyday the guest speaker spoke about something that I really needed to hear. We had a speaker who spoke about knowing your limits and knowing it’s okay to set limits,” junior Cassidy Klock said.

 The seminar has changed Klock’s life for the better. She had learned that sometimes she puts too much pressure on herself.

 “I have a bad habit of biting off more than I can chew, especially during school. I remember even recording the lecture, so I could go back and listen to it whenever I needed,” Klock said.

Around January last year, Klock was the HOBY representative. 

 “I remember being extremely excited. I ran downstairs to tell my mom and we celebrated together which was absolutely a memory I will cherish forever. After researching HOBY as soon as I heard about it, I knew it was something I wanted to do. After I was selected, I went back to the website to research a little more about the projects I was going to be taking part in during HOBY,” Klock said. 

 Even though Klock did the convention virtually last year due to COVID-19 regulations, she still met one of her best friends through the seminar. 

 “That did not stop me from meeting Ethan Lewis who was a part of my group. Ever since then, Ethan and I have talked every day and we don’t plan on stopping any time soon,” Klock said.