HOBY MD Annual Seminar

The 2025 Maryland Leadership Seminar will take place June 5–8 at Towson University in Towson, Maryland.

During the seminar there are panels and keynote speakers on topics including entrepreneurship, diversity, education, and volunteerism. After each session, Ambassadors have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss the subjects with their peers.

Ambassadors practice leadership skills through Leadership Labs, a variety of hands-on and fun activities.

Each year, we complete a service project; in 2024, we partnered with Rise Against Hunger to provide packaged meals to global communities high on the Global Hunger Index.

All of the hard work and learning is balanced with activities dedicated solely to fun, including an Ambassador Talent Showcase and a dance.

See our 2024 seminar recap video.

View photos from past seminars on our SmugMug page.

A typical seminar weekend includes:

Welcome to HOBY
Multiple group times throughout seminar
Personal Leadership Introduction, Keynote, Activity, and Reflection
Group Leadership Introduction, Keynote, Activity, and Reflection
Social Responsibility Introduction, Keynote, Service Activity, and Reflection
Gratitude Activity, such as thank-you notes
Social Activities, including our Talent Show and Dance
Closing Ceremony

View last year’s program booklet

The Social Change Model of Leadership

HOBY teaches the social change model of leadership to its participants and volunteers.

1. To enhance student learning and development.

Self-knowledge: understanding of one’s talents, values, interests, especially as these relate to the student’s capacity to provide effective leadership; and
Leadership Competence: the capacity to mobilize oneself and others to serve and work collaboratively.

2. To facilitate positive social change.

High school sophomores are chosen because their age is critical in focusing on future goals and forming opinions for adulthood. They have the opportunity to create a “ripple effect” from their HOBY experience in their remaining high school years and beyond.

This model of leadership enhances the development of leadership qualities in all participants — those who hold formal leadership positions as well as those who do not — and promotes a process that actively engages all who wish to contribute.

The social change model allows students to describe HOBY and what they learn in a tangible way, and provide tools they can use in future leadership situations. The basic premises of this model are:

Leadership is a process rather than a position.
To promote the values of equity, social justice, self-knowledge, personal empowerment, collaboration, citizenship, and service
That service provides a powerful vehicle for developing student leadership capabilities in a collaborative environment; learning happens by “making meaning” of life experiences

Three Perspectives

Since this approach is embedded in collaboration and concerned with fostering social change, the model examines leadership development from three different perspectives:

1) The Individual: To foster and develop personal leadership qualities in those who participate; consider the personal qualities that are most supportive of group functioning and positive social change.

2) The Group: To design a collaborative leadership development process not only to facilitate the development of the desired, individual qualities (above), but also to affect positive social change.

3) The Community/Society: To direct the leadership development activity towards a social end; to consider kinds of service activities that are the most effective in energizing the group and in developing desired personal qualities in the individual; to emphasize the responsibility of leaders to contribute to positive change.

UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs)

The United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (also known as the SDGs or Global Goals) is a set of independent, yet interconnected goals. They were developed and adopted by 195 Countries, including the United States of America, to set a vision for a world free of poverty, hunger, disease, and want. The SDG’s represent a universal agreement to raise the conditions of the world for everyone.

In 2019, the HOBY Board of Trustees made an organizational commitment to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs have been integrated into our leadership seminar curriculum in alignment with the Social Change Model of Leadership. HOBY Leadership Seminars will introduce and take action on the Sustainable Development Goals component of social responsibility and citizenship.

When student begin their experience with HOBY, most identify themselves as members of a community. Many have even been involved in volunteer service. Our goal is to push them into becoming conscientious world citizens, by thinking critically about society’s issues. One way we do that is by educating students about the SDGs, including how they can contribute to advancing these goals and live sustainably.

The skills they learn at the seminar will further push them beyond simply thinking about these goals and social issues, and into the status of an active citizen where they are continuing to be involved in the education and action process.

Recruitment

Each September, Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership sends nomination materials to all public and private high schools in the United States. Each school selects an outstanding sophomore, based on their leadership potential, and nominates that student to represent their school at their state seminar.

HOBY Maryland registration opened September 23rd, 2024. As part of our early bird special, we invite schools to register their students as Ambassadors for $250 each until December 13th, 2024, after which registration fees will increase to $350 per Ambassador. This year, schools can register up to 2 Ambassadors for the 2025 seminar.

Sometimes this fee is paid by the parent. The all-volunteer Maryland committee raises the state seminar expenses for room and board, copies and postage, and program supplies from generous sponsorships from the private sector, service organizations, and individuals. Women’s Clubs, Jaycees, Kiwanis, and Optimists financially sponsor individual schools to the seminar.

For more information on participating in HOBY programs, contact our recruitment team.

Our 2025 Donors

HOBY Maryland has been developing youth leaders since 1979, and we can’t do it without our dedicated and generous sponsors:

Silver Level Sponsors

Additional Donors

Aaron Bernstein
Cambridge Rotary Club
Cecil County Board of Realtors
Chick Fil-A Gaithersburg
Chipotle – North East
Christy Applegate
Costco – Gaithersburg
Find Your Purpose
His Hope Ministries
Jo Benson Fogel PA
Junior Women’s Civic Club of Cumberland
Kalynn Stoner
KD Paint Party
Kiwanis Club of Crofton
Kiwanis Next Generation e-Club
Law Office of Robin Rucker Gaillard LLC
Lori Parks
Matt Smith
Matthew Talley
Natalie Gaudette
Noodles & Co – Frederick
Olaoluwadeji Jones
Quincy CFO LLC
Rachel Moon
Ramy Fayed
Ready Set Swim
Rebecca Riddervold
Robby May
Ryan Trout
Teri L. Branch
Timonium Optimist Foundation
The Woman’s Club of Dundalk
Wegmans – Germantown
Western District Juniors (Centennial Club of Western District)
Wicomico Woman’s Club

Annual Seminar