As young adults, we are at the point of life where we are making decisions that decide our paths. Decisions were never made to be easy, but when made correctly, the following things are considered: how does my community benefit from this, how does this effect my family, my friends, what about me? The choices young adults make are what give peers their perception on us. Simple notions like community service leave a positive impact on our lives. Personally, before I went to the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Conference (HOBY), community service was only an idea. The motive to volunteer was hidden deep and I needed a spark to ignite my unknown passion for community service. Fortunately, when I attended Spring Garden High School; I was selected to attend HOBY. If it was not for Hugh O’Brian creating this outstanding foundation, my passion to help out in my community would have not been ignited until a much later date. In my article, I want to make a contribution to Hugh O’Brian for how much he has changed my life and perspective on the communities and people around.

Hugh O’ Brian (1925-2016) was an outstanding man, outstanding is a common phrase for HOBY ambassadors, who gave back by creating this youth foundation to construct young leaders. Mr. O’Brian was born in Rochester, New York in 1925 where eventually he earned a career as an officer in the United States Marines. After his four years, Hugh O’Brian put enough money together to attend Yale for law school after moving to California. There, Mr. O’Brian got pulled into the theater world and even became loved by many people in the theater community. With the increase in popularity, he went to a university in California and played a lead role in a film and after his first Hollywood debut, Mr. O’Brian signed under Universal Studios and stared in 5 more motion pictures. After going through his movie and television debuts, Mr. O’Brian had the honor to spend nine days with Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, who impressed Hugh with the following quote, “the most important thing in education is to teach young people to think for themselves”. After those nine days, Hugh O’Brian was so inspired he created HOBY in 1958 and I could never be more grateful.

Attending HOBY at the end of my sophomore year was life changing. Thanks to Hugh O’Brian I not only gained a passion for helping others through community service, but by being a leader. One of the main things was for my peers and me to learn how to speak out on issues and take action. Taking the initiative to create an organization, perhaps, or just by simply being more involved. Before HOBY, I was a decently shy individual and was not very involved with my community. Hugh O’Brian changed me on my physical and mental level by making me a more outspoken girl who is capable of not just leading herself, but leading others too. When I heard the news about Hugh O’Brian’s passing, I was devastated; but it made me realize something: His organization is not dying, but thriving and it brought our HOBY community closer. I had the privilege to get to talk to a few people who were in my group at the conference and it made me happy to know that my peers had the same impact from Mr. O’Brian that I had.

No matter the things that may happen, a community/family will always stay strong. Our HOBY community has a never ending love and passion to each other and our communities. If I could talk to Mr. O’Brian now, I would tell him that his foundation has changed my life for the better. What he started will continue to grow, and this foundation will continue to change people’s lives like it did to my HOBY friends and me. I believe in leading by example and because of Hugh, I would have never been able to meet so many people who had the same passion as I did; so thank you Mr. O’Brian.