Georgia HOBY Newsletter:

Sixtieth Edition, March 30, 2016

Featured Alumna: Victoria Culver '12

     As so many of you, I never knew what I was getting in to when my high school counselor pulled me to the side of the hall one day and told me that I had been nominated to go to HOBY. The only thing that she knew about HOBY was that it was “a leadership seminar that would only take one weekend of my summer.” To this day, I can’t help but be blessed that I had been selected to attend HOBY as an ambassador, and I am even more fortunate to continue going back every year as part of the staff since my ambassador year in 2012. I try to live by the staff’s motto each time that I return, “Make it better than your year.” That is a difficult task to do since my first year was such an incredible experience, but somehow, together, all of the staff manages to do just that. Every year, I leave HOBY with a new light, a new spark, and a new generation of my HOBY family.

     When asked to describe HOBY, my mind draws a blank. There are absolutely no words that can sum up HOBY and the whole experience. The only word that can touch just the tip of the iceberg of what HOBY is, is Outstanding. The word itself is pretty self-explanatory. The dictionary defines it as exceptionally good, marked by superiority or distinction, excellent, and distinguished. HOBY, and all of its participants are just that and more. When asked to explain what HOBY means to me, once I start talking, it is hard for me to stop. As cliché as it might sound, HOBY has been a life changing experience for me, one that I will never forget and will continue sharing forever. As I left my first seminar in 2012, I initially didn’t feel the magnitude of the change that had taken place over the 72 or so hours that I had spent at HOBY. In the weeks and months that followed, I began to realize that HOBY had sparked a fire within me, helping me understand who I was and my position as a leader, as well as identifying my passions.

     Through HOBY, I have gotten more than just the tools and understandings of how to be a good leader. My favorite thing that I have taken away from HOBY are the amazing friends that I have made, though we are spread out all across Georgia. Even now, though it has been almost 5 years and we have spread across the country for college and jobs, we all still manage to keep in touch with each other, continuing to grow in our friendship. Every year, this group has grown with the addition of new ambassadors and staff members. These people are my HOBY family, and don’t know what I would do without them.

     HOBY really does mean to me more than words will ever be able to express. And as I tell people who are curious about what HOBY is like, it’s just something you have to be there, see and experience for yourself to really grasp what it is all about. I am ecstatic to be returning to HOBY for my fifth year this coming summer and can’t wait to see what it has in store for me and the upcoming ambassadors. HOBY Time and all, I know it will the best one yet!

     Stay Outstanding!

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
• Follow us on Twitter: @GA_HOBY  
• Follow us on Instagram: hoby_georgia
• Follow us on Vine: Georgia HOBY
• Follow us on SnapChat: hobygeorgia
• 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

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
• Follow us on Twitter: @GA_HOBY  
• Follow us on Instagram: hoby_georgia
• Follow us on Vine: Georgia HOBY
• Follow us on SnapChat: hobygeorgia
• 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

Georgia HOBY Newsletter:

Fifty-Eighth Edition, March 1, 2016

Featured Alumna: Amanda Dojack '12

Hello my lovely HOBY family!

This time of year is often very stressful for most. We’re consumed by school or work and in desperate need of a break or vacation that probably won’t come any time soon. It can get pretty depressing.

However, it’s times like these that I’m so thankful I have a support system of HOBY alumni surrounding me and making me feel like I’m not alone in my suffering. We all struggle to make it look like we’re okay, and many times it comes at the expense of our sanity, trying to make it seem as if “everything is fine” when really we’re in a lot of physical, mental or emotional pain.

This is your reminder that you are not alone.

HOBY has not only provided us with lifelong leadership skills, but also a legacy of people who understand the struggle and have walked in your shoes. I encourage you to not only reach out to your fellow alumni if you’re in need of someone like minded and strong to talk to, but to also be open to whomever else you come in contact with that might need the same sort of support. HOBY is a source of absolutely superb human beings, but we should always be willing to share our HOBY love and help make other people feel O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G!

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 Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (Atlanta, GA) as your charity!

Social Networking!!!

• Find us on Facebook: GA HOBY Alumni
• Follow us on Twitter: @GA_HOBY  
• Follow us on Instagram: hoby_georgia
• Follow us on Vine: Georgia HOBY
• Follow us on SnapChat: hobygeorgia
• 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