What is the HOBY Vermont seminar?
Our seminar brings select young leaders, with similar passions from all regions across the state, together in one location. HOBY Vermont provides the students, we call ambassadors, with experiences and opportunities to better the talents and skills that they already possess through a variety of activities. These include, but are not limited to, guest speakers, entrepreneurship workshops, team building activities, cultural awareness exercises, volunteer service projects, and social/personal leadership development. Ambassadors leave empowered, energized, and part of a greater network of leaders across the state.
When/Where is the HOBY Vermont Seminar?
The 2017 HOBY Vermont Seminar will take place at Saint Michael’s College (SMC) in Colchester, Vermont from the morning of Thursday, May 25 to the afternoon of Sunday, May 28. Ambassadors will arrive early in the morning at SMC, move into their dorms, say goodbye to parents, and get right into HOBY’s outstanding activities! The seminar will come to a close in the early afternoon of the 30th at our Closing Ceremonies. Parents are highly encouraged to attend the Closing Ceremony as well as the Parents’ Program which occurs immediately before. Information for the 2017 Seminar Ambassadors can be find here.
How do I apply?
Talk to your guidance counselor, and fast! Each high school in Vermont is responsible for selecting their ambassadors to the seminar. Each school does it a little differently. By talking to your guidance counselor now, you’ll get the ball rolling with the application process early. Guidance counselors are able to start registering their sophomores in the late fall.
What to Expect:
- To be exposed to important ideas, including opinions that may differ from your own.
- To be encouraged to ask tough questions and hear direct answers from those in the know.
- To jump in and discover more about issues impacting you and your community.
- To hear how others critically examine issues.
- To be challenged to be the person who “succeeds in making difference” – to see how you can improve your community – or in HOBY’s words, to “Get Going and Get Giving.”
- To be challenged to commit to 100 hours of volunteer activity in the next year – helping make your community stronger – any way you believe you can.
- To make new friends who are also committed to making a positive difference in this world.
- To get less sleep than you’d like.
- And to have more fun than you ever expected!
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
– Ralph Nader