<p>Does anyone have experience with this program? How does it work? It's hard to understand the elements of the program from the website and I'd love to hear someone's personal experience. It seems like there is a leadership training (one student from each h.s.) and then an international conference (that is limited to the first 400 that sign up)?</p>
<p>In our area, students are picked for the state leadership conference by the school.</p>
<p>I was a HOBY ambassador from my school, and ended up winning the state scholarship for my regional seminar to attend the international leadership conference (or the World Leadership Congress, as they call it). </p>
<p>Essentially, HOBY recognizes and empowers leaders. There is very little “training” or education involved, but rather a lot of getting kids pumped and encouraging them to be enthusiastic and loud. One of many HOBY mottos is, “At HOBY, we don’t teach you what to think; we teach you how to think.” But there really is very little of that. (What can you expect? It’s a three day seminar. You go, you cheer, you hear speakers, you eat food, you come home.) I think that the international conference is a good experience and connects a lot of people together in a cool way, but the program overall has had less impact on my life than it seems to for others.</p>
<p>Also, re: WLC, there is a hefty cost IMO. It’s $1500 for the 9 days there (not including transportation to DC), which wasn’t an issue for me since my regional HOBY was one of a few that offers a full scholarship to 2 ambassadors, but many people there paid the full price plus a plane ticket. I’m kind of skeptical of programs that cost this much per week, especially ones with practically no financial aid, so make of that what you will.</p>
<p>D was selected for the state conference as a HS sophomore. My understanding is every HS in the state could select 1 student to attend. As far as I know it’s not a program you can self-select to participate in. She wanted to attend a national HOBY conference in DC in the summer, but H & I thought another program was a better use of resources. She resisted right up to the end, but called us the day after getting to the other program to say it was the best thing she’d ever done.</p>