H-O-B-Y!!

This past weekend I was at Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership conference. It's this four day seminar for high school sophomores where every high school in the area of the seminar (in this case Central PA) sends one ambassador from their school to learn about leadership and volunteerism from local leaders within their community. I went my sophomore year and I absolutely loved it, so much so that I have gone back every year since then to be staff. It's definitely one of the highlights of my year every year.
The past two years I have gone as a member of Team Alumni, basically a group of high school juniors and seniors who do a lot of grunt work. They also do a lot of cheering (easily my favorite part). Anyways, this year I was an Associate Facilitator, or a counselor for a group of the ambassadors. It was SO MUCH FUN! It was really amazing to watch these kids go from being nervous about the uncertainty of the seminar to working together as a team by the end and not wanting to leave. My kids were even planning a reunion together for the summer!
Here are a couple pictures. The girl in the picture with me is Amanda Watsula. She and I were in the same ambassador group my sophomore year, and both were in TA the past two years. She is totally my best friend at HOBY, and it's going to be hard to not be there next year when she is there.