Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / Ottawa Township High School faculty and staff select 2026 HOBY Student Leader candidates

Transcript

Ottawa Township High School faculty and staff select 2026 HOBY Student Leader candidates · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Ottawa Township High School Faculty and Staff select 2026 Hobie Student Leader
• 0:10
  candidates. Written by Matthias Werner This article is being read by
• 0:16
  an automated voice, brought to you by Everlet. The next generation of
• 0:22
  Leadership in Ottawa are getting a chance to hone their leadership abilities
• 0:26
  next summer. Faculty and staff at Ottawa Townshops Host School selected our
• 0:31
  students, to participate in the 2027 Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Program, according
• 0:37
  to a news release from the school. OTHS has a great history
• 0:41
  with the Hobie seminars encouraging personal growth in our students, Guidance Counselor
• 0:46
  Jennifer Rios said. Each year, according to the release, Hobie, Illinois Central
• 0:52
  South welcomes area students to a four-day conference that includes more than
• 0:56
  100 high school sophomores from across the state who take part in
• 1:00
  hands-on experiences that give them the tools to gain confidence in their
• 1:04
  leadership abilities and apply them in their own communities. Sophomores Daisy Rabadon,
• 1:10
  Elizabeth Arnold, Bodie Martin, and Luca Fernandez-Jobst plan to attend the 2027
• 1:16
  Hobie, Illinois Central South Leadership Conference next summer. The conference runs from
• 1:21
  Thursday, June 17th, through Sunday, June 20th, at Illinois Wesleyan University in
• 1:27
  Bloomington, according to them release. The Ottawa Kiwanas Club and OTHS Class
• 1:32
  of 1970 are sponsoring their participation. We are thankful for four sponsors
• 1:37
  who assist our students attending the Hobie seminar, Rio said. Hobie boosts
• 1:42
  those leadership qualities in our promising students and helps them gain the
• 1:46
  confidence to make a positive impact not just on OTHS but the
• 1:50
  world around them. Each of the four students hopes to sharpen a
• 1:55
  different side of their leadership skills at the conference according to the
• 1:58
  release. I want to find a way to use my strengths and
• 2:02
  I want to see what my weaknesses are, Rabadon said. Leadership comes
• 2:06
  in so many different forms. I'm an opinion-based leader and I just
• 2:10
  need to learn how to dial it back more and listen to
• 2:12
  others. Arnold described herself as the opposite of Rabadon. I'm a leader
• 2:18
  who's more on the quieter side who kind of just stands back,
• 2:22
  she said.
• 2:22
  Through Hobie, I really want to learn how to lead more efficiently
• 2:25
  and make my voice heard more. I also want to learn how
• 2:29
  to work with other people and just overall become a better person.
• 2:33
  Arnold said she has already seen the value of learning leadership alongside
• 2:37
  her peers at school. Being around everybody else and seeing everybody else's
• 2:42
  style of being a leader helped a lot, she said. Martin wants
• 2:46
  to use the conference to get better at thinking on his feet.
• 2:49
  When someone comes up to me and asks a question, I want
• 2:52
  to learn how to know what to say when needed. If a
• 2:55
  kid were to ask for advice, it would take me a minute
• 2:58
  to think of the right thing to say, he said. I really
• 3:01
  just want to learn how to become a better person and explore
• 3:04
  my options on how to be a better leader in ways that
• 3:07
  haven't been taught here at school, and I can learn from my
• 3:10
  peers around me. Martin said he heard about the program from past
• 3:14
  Hobie participants at the school. They were basically just saying how it
• 3:18
  was a good opportunity, he said. They made great friends along the
• 3:23
  way, and they still talk to them now. Fernandez Jobs is focused
• 3:27
  on public speaking according to the release. Especially since each participant presents
• 3:32
  a project to the group. I get pretty nervous, Fernandez Job said.
• 3:37
  I'm hoping to learn from everyone else there that's my age and
• 3:40
  try to implement it in the way that I speak and go
• 3:43
  about my ways of leading. The Hobie Leadership Seminar honors the vision
• 3:47
  of its founder, actor Hugh O'Brien, who established the nonprofit organization in
• 3:52
  1958, with a mission to inspire a global community of youth and
• 3:57
  volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service, and innovation, according to
• 4:01
  the release.