More than 35 high school freshmen from local schools attended the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) Community Leadership Workshop (CLeW) held at Herschel V Jenkins High School on Jan. 25.
HOBY CLeWs are a one-day leadership training program for high school freshmen. Students participate in team-building activities, take part in community service projects, and listen to presentations given by local community leaders.
CLeWs are organized, developed, and implemented by HOBY’s alumni and/or members of the community, and are sponsored by local business leaders, civic groups, and service clubs.
The 2014 CLeW Savannah was the second year that Savannah has been able to hold the event. This year's theme was “Book Smart, CLeW Smart,” and emphasized education topics and leadership training for its participants.
Participants are hand-chosen to represent their high school and are called "ambassadors" during the event.
Local leaders in education spoke during the Education Panel, and included Dr. Thomas Lockamy, Savannah-Chatham Schools Superintendent; Henry Hubert, AASU Admissions Representative; Chad Griffin, Calvary Day School’s Athletic Director; and Ashley Raley, H V Jenkins High School’s Head Counselor. During the panel, the speakers answered questions asked by the group, and helped mentor the small groups as they complete a project where each group designed their own high schools.
After lunch, the ambassadors spent time with ennifer Guilliams of the Memorial Children’s Hospital and created personalized activity books for the hospital’s patients and young people to have during their stay in the hospital. These books were accompanied with a box of crayons that each ambassador donated.
The ambassadors also put their leadership and critical thinking skills to the test through a series of games called Team Scapes. Some activities required team work and asked the ambassadors to think “outside the box” to accomplish a task as quick as possible.
More games asked the ambassadors to analyze how they perceive schoolyard identities such as “nerd” and “bully” during “The Breakfast Club,” which helped them in with their communication and decision-making abilities to create a list of people to be saved in an apocalyptic situation with a NASA simulation.
The final competition of Team Scapes is called “The Tower of Babel-less” where the groups had to build the tallest free-standing tower possible using marshmallows and toothpicks, but they were not allowed to talk.
Many CLeW participants continue their leadership development their sophomore year by participating in HOBY’s State Leadership Seminars.