HOBY Changed Me, So I will Change the World by Adrianne

HOBY Changed Me, So I will Change the World by Adrianne - January 2017 Scholarship Essay

One program that has been a major part of my life during my time in high school that motivated me to make a difference in my community has been Hugh O’Brian Youth, HOBY. HOBY is an annual youth leadership conference for high school sophomores that teaches them about leadership and service. I attended the conference my sophomore year and gained the motivation to start my own service project which helped me find my higher potential. HOBY gave me opportunities to work with similarly motivated peers and form connections that I maintain. Through hearing from motivational speakers and HOBY alumni who benefitted from attending HOBY years ago, I saw how to use what I learned and apply it. I learned about personal leadership, group leadership, and community leadership. This allowed me to become a leader in my school. The HOBY Maryland seminar also inspired me to perform service with something I enjoy. Little did I know, this is one of the best pieces of advice I would ever receive. After seminar concluded, I decided that I wanted to continue my involvement with the HOBY. As a junior I could help with the seminar by becoming a member of Team Alumni. Members of Team Alumni run around behind the scenes to keep the seminar running smoothly.
To become a member of Team Alumni, there were certain guidelines I had to meet. One requirement to become a member of the HOBY Team Alumni, was earning 100 service hours in between the conclusion of the 2015 seminar and start of the 2016 seminar. I received nearly triple the amount service hours I needed through starting my own service organization, COPE. Commemorating Officers and Personnel Everywhere, is a service project I started in November of 2015 that has a very personal meaning to me. My father is a police officer and I have experienced the fear of sending a loved one to work each shift. I made paracord bracelets in the thin blue line pattern which commemorates fallen police officers and gave them to my dad for his fellow officers. Paracord is military grade parachute cord that I make into survival bracelets and key chains that can be unwound in emergency situations and then used as multiple feet of rope capable of supporting up to 550 pounds. When Harford County, Maryland suffered the loss of two police officers, I sent Paracord bracelets and keychains to the police department to boost morale. After hearing about the positive response, I realized I could do this on a larger scale to help officers nationwide.
Once I realized that this project could help many more officers, I started to change the organization’s purpose. I started sending shipments to the families of fallen police personnel. The shipments contain at least ten thin blue line keychains and bracelets in order to commemorate the fallen heroes. I perform research on each officer to learn how many children or grandchildren each officer had and include colored keychains for each child impacted. I have sent shipments to families all across America. This earned me my one hundred hours but also instilled a passion for community service in me. Running this organization entails making the bracelets and preparing the shipments, keeping up with officer fatalities, updating the website and various social media accounts, checking the COPE email, and spreading the word about my organization. Performing service with something I enjoy has been highly beneficial. Because I enjoy running the organization, I never get bored or dissatisfied even when I don’t get any response. To keep up with the high amount of fatalities and spread my passion for community service I have started a club at my school that HOBY has helped me run effectively.
I am able to succeed as president of this club because of the training I received at HOBY. I am still learning more about leadership through my continued involvement with the seminar. I have been chosen to become a member of Team Alumni at HOBY for two years, and have spent nearly 500 hours helping hundreds of family members of fallen police personnel.