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My Time as a HOBY Ambassador
June 4-7 in Huntington, West Virginia
Emma Locarnini
Thursday June 4, 2015
One the first day of the HOBY
Leadership seminar, we were
arranged into small groups.
Each group was named by a
letter of the alphabet and had a
corresponding mascot. I was
in group H and our mascot
was the Humble Hufflepuff.
Once in our small groups we did
group activities that taught us the
importance of communication and
working together. One of theses
activities was building a gum drop
and tooth pick structure. Two
people had to relay information (the
architect and the engineer) about
the structure to the rest of the group
(the builders). This was difficult
because the rest of the group
couldn’t ask the architect and the
engineer any questions. Good
communication skills was a must
and it was timed, so efficacy was
also crucial.
We had our first guest speakers come
into talk on Thursday. After they were
done with their speeches, students were
allowed to get up and ask the speakers
questions. This allowed a deeper
understanding of the topics. Some of the
topics discussed that day were internet
safety (with a focus on social media), and
the old ideas in our school systems.
HOBY has many chants that we do together. They are
very catchy and lots of fun! They all involved motions
to go along with them. The staff would teach the kids
the cheers.
On the night of the first day,
we had a dance to end the
night. We could also
socialize and get to know the
other HOBY ambassadors
that were in different groups.
It was interesting to meet
people from all over the
state.
Friday June 5, 2015
Service was the one of the themes
of the second day of HOBY. The
ambassadors were asked to find a
group of people that had similar
passions, such as the preforming
arts, education, math, animals, the
environment, and many others.
Then we had to design a nonprofit
organization to support our
passions.
The organization that our interest group came
up with was to support the band programs in
West Virginia. We named it “Music for the
Mountain State” and figured out details of
where and how we would launch our program.
After we had finalized all of our details, we
had to explain our idea in a three minute
presentation. Each interest group chose a
leader to present the ideas on the stage.
To be dismissed to lunch, groups had to
yell their group names and the one that
was the loudest would be dismissed. It
took a team effort to yell all together to
be the loudest.
A student would be chosen from
each small group to introduce a guest
speaker. The student would interview
the speaker before hand and get to
know the person so they would be
able to tell everyone a bit about them
before they spoke.
After the interview was completed, I
practiced my speech with one of the
other ambassadors.
The introductions were done on stage
and were rather brief. Afterwards, the
speakers would being talking on their
given subjects.
That night, students were given the chance to
show off their talents in a talent show. I played
my clarinet for the crowd. Other students
danced, sang, told jokes, acted out skits, and
played other instruments.
Saturday June 6, 2015
Like most other days, Saturday
began with a seminar. Saturday
was our community service
day, and the seminar was a
briefing about what we were
going to be doing that day.
Each small group sat together,
and the people around me were
all part of group H.
Before the community service, each
small group got a picture together. Since
the Hufflepuff is from Harry Potter,
each of us had wands. In our picture we
are making the letter H and holding up
our magic wands!
For our service project, we
cleaned the city and pulled any
weeds in the side walk and
around trees and flowers. It
was rewarding because many
people in the community
thanked us for our hard work.
Sunday June 7, 2015
On the last day we had a banquet. It was very formal. This
is a picture of all of the people in group H. It was very sad
to say goodbye to new friends.
Traveling all across West Virginia
was very nice. The state is beautiful
and full of wonderful people to
complement its beauty.