Hugh Obrian Youth Leadership

Hoby world leadership congress: each summer, the world leadership congress (wlc) welcomes high school/secondary school student ambassadors from around the globe for a week-long, immersive leadership experience. The wlc challenges student ambassadors to think critically, communicate effectively, and act with integrity. Students who attend our state leadership seminars automatically qualify to attend the wlc, and international and u.s. Students between the ages of 15-17, with a demonstrated interest in leadership and community service, are also invited to participate in this annual program. The wlc leaves student ambassadors with a robust global network and the tools to change the world around them. A week of programming that included peer-to-peer networking, challenging workshops, inspiring speakers, city adventures, a day of service, and more changed the lives of 232 students from 44 states and 6 countries. A total of 31 international students attended. We were proudly able to welcome an additional 71 students to the wlc thanks to scholarships from both the state and national levels.

Hoby service leadership: our 2025 seminar season began with our second volunteer development retreat (vdr). The mission of the volunteer development retreat is to enhance the leadership competencies and community connection among key hoby volunteers. This retreat aims to empower volunteers with the skills required for effective leadership within the organization, while fostering a strong sense of belonging and collaboration within the wider hoby community.the goal of the volunteer development retreat is to provide leadership development and skill building that will enhance volunteers' ability to lead well, both within the hoby community and beyond.each of our seminars is led by a team of dedicated volunteers and for our second vdr, we focused on our directors of staff. Fifty-four of these volunteers joined us for a three-day retreat where we enhanced their leadership competencies, built a strong community, promoted personal growth, and developed action plans.in addition to this dedicated in-person training time, hoby provides resources and training throughout the year to nearly 3,000 volunteers who give their time and energy to deliver hoby programs. Through both virtual and in-person platforms, volunteers have been trained on and given access to our annually refreshed program curriculum, positional guides and checklists, and operational resources and tools. With our consistent, proactive outreach, and facilitated forums for connection and best practice sharing, hoby volunteers are aligned and supported in proactive and accessible ways. Hoby volunteers, 81% of whom are alumni, invested over 400,000 service hours in planning and executing hoby seminars nationwide. This translates to $13,000,000 in economic impact that our alumni/ volunteers delivered to the hoby youth leadership mission this year; proof that a life with hoby is a life geared toward leadership and service. Hoby's leadership for service challenge encourages hoby community members to serve a minimum of 100 hours to their communities each year and track to engage in service and provides a system to manage and track their community service efforts. As a credentialing organization for the presidential volunteer service award, hoby submits alumni annually for recognition. This year, 369 community members logged a total of 68,400 hours and received recognition as follows: 94 received a gold award (250+ hours of service), 53 received a silver award (175 249 hours), and 222 alumni achieved the bronze award (100-174 hours of service) for their outstanding commitment to their communities.

Hoby community leadership workshops: community leadership workshops are developed by volunteers across the u.s. For 9th grade student ambassadors as an introduction to leadership education. These one-day workshops jumpstart student ambassadors' leadership journeys and connect them to peers in their communities.