NHS Student Attends Global Leadership Conference At UCLA

By Anna Hodge

Rising Newtown High School junior Liz Eiseman returned from a weeklong Hugh O’Brian Youth (HOBY) Leadership World Congress in Los Angeles on July 30. The experience, as she said this week, began in the fall of 2009.

According to Liz, there was an informational sheet about the HOBY leadership conference that was passed out in her homeroom at NHS one morning, which she happened to collect.

“I had to apply, fill out a resume, and then write an essay on the most challenging and rewarding aspects of being a leader,” said Liz.

When history teacher Jennifer Dellasala contacted Liz to tell her she had been chosen to represent NHS for the leadership conference, Liz was thrilled.

Months before she was scheduled to go to the University of California, Los Angeles, according to Liz, she attended a state seminar at Bridgeport University from May 21 through May 23 along with other student ambassadors who had been chosen from schools around Connecticut.

While in Bridgeport, Liz said the youths at the seminar were sent out to complete work in the area.

“We had a community service day, where we cleaned up Long Island Sound with Save the Sound, a local organization,” she said.

Along with a community service day, ambassadors attending the seminar attended lectures by panel speakers.

“They were influential people in the community who talked about entrepreneurship and leadership,” Liz said.

Then, on July 23, Liz made the plane trip to Los Angeles to experience the weeklong HOBY leadership conference at UCLA. Upon arrival, Liz said she met an array of different people, not only from the United States, but from all over the world.

 “There were ambassadors from Iraq, Nepal, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, and the United Kingdom,” she said. She also noted, “Just like when I was in Bridgeport, we had a community service day there. All 400 of us were split into groups.”

The student ambassadors then worked with local organizations to complete work in the area.

 “Some groups worked with Tree People, a group who plants trees in the city as needed. Some went with Glamour Gals and gave makeovers to elderly people in the area. Other groups worked with Habitat for Humanity to participate on local mission work. Heal the Bay was the final organization we worked with. By working with them, we were able to clean up the shore,” Liz said.

To pump themselves up for work, Liz said the students said cheers together.

“We use it to applaud for our guest panel speakers, congratulate others for doing good work, and sometimes just to get psyched up,” said Liz.

In terms of the guest panel speakers who have lectures to the student ambassadors at UCLA, Liz says they were “extremely motivating”

“We had one who showed us that you can do anything with your life as long as you ‘bounce the ball with energy,’” Liz said.

As for the overall experience, Liz says it was “completely life changing,” and encourages other students to get involved.

“It’s a rigorous program, you have to really want to be there, but it is very rewarding,” said Liz. “I’m still the same person I was when I got there, but my outlook on life and my goals have been changed. I had the privilege of meeting so many different people and now I know how I want to lead my life.”

HOBY can mean different things to its student leaders, but to Liz it means “a founding of your personal self. I will use it as the foundation for myself when I get older, and it will inspire me to be a great leader, work in my community, and become a good role model for others.”