Two Star Valley students, Tiffany Nethercott and Matt Ashton, recently had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and represent the state of Wyoming at the Hugh O’Brian Youth (HOBY) World Leadership Congress.

“HOBY’s primary purpose is to give high school sophomores the opportunity to discover their leadership potential to become the leaders of tomorrow,” said HOBY founder Hugh O’Brian. “We give them a hands on opportunity to interact with today’s top movers and shakers in business, government, education, technology and other professions.”

The World Leadership Congress was held in Washington D.C. from July 19-27. The selection process for students to attend the congress began last fall. Over 12,000 public and private schools in the country selected their outstanding sophomores to participate in a HOBY leadership seminar in each state. At the state seminars, several students were chosen to represent each state at the World Leadership Congress. This year the selected students from the United States met up in Washington D.C. with student representatives from more than 20 different countries, including: Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Great Britain, Germany, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Philippines, Malawi, Ethiopia and others.

For Nethercott and Ashton, their experience began by writing an essay and applying to participate in the Wyoming state seminar in Cheyenne. The students were asked to write an essay on a problem facing teenagers today. Ashton wrote his essay on pornography and the negative affects it has on today’s youth.

From there, Nethercott and Ashton went on to Cheyenne along with one other Star Valley student, to attend the HOBY leadership seminar which was held on June 14-17.

In Cheyenne, five girls and five boys were chosen to be interviewed out of a group of 30 students, and from those interviews, one boy and one girl were chosen to attend the World Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. Nethercott and Ashton were chosen as the two students to represent Wyoming.

Nethercott and Ashton flew to Washington D.C. on their own, and were joined by family members later in the week for sight-seeing.
In Washington D.C., they participated in panels on government, media, science, technology, business, law and justice, leadership and college preparation. They also got to listen to keynote speakers and motivational speakers discuss leadership. During an international panel, students from the United States got to ask questions to teens from other countries, and discuss what problems are facing other governments and the youth of other countries.

“It was very cool to learn about this stuff through kids our age,” Nethercott said.

“I really enjoyed the motivational speakers,” Ashton said. “They pushed us to figure out who we are as leaders, not to be prejudiced and to improve our leadership skills.”

All 425 students who participated in the HOBY World Leadership Congress also spent a day working on a service project in Washington D.C. through partnerships with Points of Light Foundation, the American Red Cross, United Nations Foundation, America’s Promise, Washington Parks and People, Junior Achievement, DC Habitat for Humanity, OurEducation and the GlamourGals Foundation.

Nethercott and Ashton worked on cleaning up a public park in Washington DC and making is usable and enjoyable for the local residents.
When asked about their favorite part of the experience of participating in the HOBY World Leadership Congress, Tiffany Nethercott said that she really enjoyed meeting and getting to know new people. “We spent a lot of time with the international students,” Nethercott said. “I roomed with kids from Hong Kong, Mexico and Taiwan. It was great to learn about other lifestyles and how teenagers in other parts of the world live and feel. A lot of the worries and concerns they have are very similar to the worries and concerns that kids in the U.S. have, even though our lives are very different.”

Ashton said his favorite part of the experience was getting to see the monuments in Washington D.C. “It was very cool to see those places, and it was amazing to experience that piece of our nation’s history,” Ashton said.

And what did they learn at the HOBY World Leadership Congress?

Nethercott said that she became very aware of some of the problems that are happening in other parts of the world, such as Darfur. She also learned an important lesson on leadership. “I learned how important it is to be true to yourself if you want to be a leader,” Nethercott said. “You have to know who you are before you can lead others.”

Ashton said that he also learned valuable lessons on being a good leader. “I learned not to judge people on first impressions and to really listen to what they have to say and where they are coming from. Leaders need to know how to listen, before they speak.”

The HOBY World Leadership Congress is only open to sophomores, so Nethercott and Ashton will not be able to return next year, however they will be able to continue to participate in the program by being junior leaders and ambassadors next year.

To learn more about HOBY, you can visit www.hoby.org.