HOBY: Stepping Out of the Box

Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Conference
Kim Sok
Nipmuc Regional High School
Mendon, Massachusetts

"It was a life-changing experience that I was so blessed to be a part of; I was taught so many lessons and grew to become better: a better leader, a better follower, a better thinker, and a better person. Honestly, when I heard I was selected, one of the main things I thought about is how this will look good for college; however, after attending the actual conference, I have realized that the Massachusetts Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Conference stood for so much more" I wrote in my thank-you note after the conference.

My name is Kim Sok, and I represented Nipmuc Regional High School as a sophomore in the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Conference at Bentley College during the weekend beginning June 8th, 2007. This annual conference happens in every state and around the world as well; it is an enriching experience, which implicates the meshing of cultures, societies, and personalities. From most schools in each state, a few sophomore students are selected to attend this enriching conference. The purpose of the conference is to bring distinguished leaders of schools in a state together to interact and develop leadership skills and a higher level of perception on worldly issues and conditions.

Throughout the conference, I learned some key points to being a leader:

• Engage others while being a leader
• Try hard or die hard
• Learn to deal with most communication obstacles
• Accept that to fulfill your own objectives you must fulfill those of others

These lessons came from a variety of different sources; they included speakers, games, activities, and group discussions.

One story I've already been telling to people is how in the first two hours of the conference I was thrown into a situation where I had to introduce and then had to have a conversation with a million dollar company owner named Laura Stone. Sounds easy enough; however, I had to do it in front of hundreds of kids that were selected by their schools to represent them and are considered leaders of tomorrow, the directors of the MAHOBY program, and the lens of cameras documenting me. I had not expected that I had to do all of this when I volunteered to introduce Laura Stone, but it turned out all right; I had learned to grow even more and step out of the box.

Because I stepped out of the box, I was able to accomplish much at the conference. The people organizing and coordinating MAHOBY all wanted me to come back and join the alumni program, I have built a relationship with the MAHOBY director, executive board members of the MAHOBY, and other student participants. I had so many people tell me that they think I'll go far in life and that I have extremely strong leadership skills. I cannot stress enough what a wonderful experience this was.