Georgia HOBY Newsletter:
Fifty-Ninth Edition, March 23, 2016
Featured Alumna: Ariana Youmans Keenahan '04
I know from reading prior posts that I’m not alone in my small town beginnings. Like others, I came from a cookie-cutter town filled with cookie-cutter people and HOBY was the first time I remember coming into contact with what I considered to be true diversity. Never before had I felt so alike and so different from a group of people all at once. It opened my eyes to a world beyond just myself and my hometown and it allowed me to value others in ways I had not previously considered. What I experienced that weekend was enlightening and exciting and it opened my mind to a world yet to be discovered.
In college I decided to explore this further by participating in study abroad during the summer of 2008 at University College London. This experience led to the formation of strong bonds with what I now refer to as my London family and allowed me to explore not only the culture of England, but also that of Scotland, Ireland, and France. This travel instilled in me an even greater self-confidence that grew from the seed first planted at HOBY.
I later returned to America and, after finishing college, worked in the correctional system with Georgia’s inmates and former inmates. It was yet another opportunity to experience culture in a setting I had not ever imagined to be so diverse. Aside from my regular corrections job, I also traveled to other Georgia prisons volunteering my time to teach cultural diversity to inmates. Looking back, these experiences are still some of the most rewarding and eye-opening exercises in how we can be so different, yet so alike all at the same time.
After working in Georgia’s prison system I decided to take a break and return to a place that I had felt so close to five years before. What I thought would be just a one-year visit to Ireland turned into a permanent stay in which I have had the opportunity to appreciate and immerse myself in cultures not my own, build life-long friendships, and marry the most amazing life-partner for which a person could ask.
In August 2015, my husband and I were in France to celebrate the wedding of a girl I met during my first month of living in Ireland. As we walked through the picturesque little town of Kaysersberg I looked up and saw the Musee du Docteur Albert Schweitzer. In that moment, my HOBY experiences came full circle… the seed that was planted, the appreciation for people and diversity, the love and adventures that have occurred since. It has been an incredible and wonderful and humbling life journey and it’s not over yet.
So here’s to HOBY and all of the amazing life experiences, life stories, and little seeds planted year after year!
HOBY Info:
Amazon Smile
- If your shop at Amazon, the switch to Amazon Smile (https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-2861279). It is the exact same website, but 0.5% of purchases will be donated to a charity of your choice.
- Choose HOBY Georgia (Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership) as your charity!
Social Networking!!!
- Find us on Facebook: GA HOBY Alumni
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- Check our the website: www.gahoby.org
- Check out our YouTube channel: HOBY Georgia
- Check out http://hobycheers.wikidot.com/list-of-hoby-cheers for awesome cheers
Hours
- Keep logging them! Can you accomplish the 100 Hour Challenge? Georgia HOBY knows that you can. Here is the place to do so: https://reg.hoby.org/HOBYL4S/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fHOBYL4S%2f
- Need ideas for Volunteering projects? Email gahobyalumniadvisor@gmail.com, check the HOBY website: hoby.org, and/or research into what your community needs!
- How far has your Chain Reaction of Kindness reached?
This Blog
- If you would like post a "My Favorite HOBY Experience" in the future on this blog, then email gahobyfundraising@gmail.com also with your response!
- Be on the lookout for the next Newsletter or My Favorite HOBY Experience Post
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