Senoia Optimist Club sponsors HOBY Ambassadors at Leadership Seminar
Pictured above (left to right): Jean Cotton, Optimist Club Secretary; Phil Downey, Optimist Club President; East Coweta High students Taryn Timmons, Johnny Rament, and Addison Harrelson; Northgate High students Arya Poteet and Madison Harris; Dr. Dianna Johnson, Optimist GATEway District Governor. Not pictured – East Coweta High student Liliana Uribe-Hogan.
From Senoia Optimist Club Press Release
Six Coweta County high school students attended the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Georgia seminar at Middle Georgia College, Cochran Campus, this past June.
Every year the Senoia Optimist Club offers this opportunity to sophomore students from both East Coweta High School and Northgate High. Counselors and teachers are asked to identify and nominate students who demonstrate qualities of leadership, service, and purpose. This year sophomores Arya Poteet and Madison Harris from Northgate and Taryn Timmons, Addison Harrelson, and Liliana Uribe-Hogan from East Coweta attended the three-day session. Senior Johnny Rament from East Coweta High returned this year as a member of the Student Staff.
HOBY was created in 1958 by actor Hugh O’Brian. His inspiration came from Dr. Albert Schweitzer – a challenge to raise young people to think for themselves. Sophomores from all over Georgia and every other state enjoy three days of group activities, confidence-building sessions, and presentations by community leaders, successful business developers, and heads of national corporations. Students live in college dormitories, eat at the student cafeterias, and make life-long connections.
At the September 4 Optimist Club meeting, students spoke very positively about their HOBY experience. Parents noted that their teens were still in touch with new friends. HOBY ambassadors leave their training with a goal of one hundred hours of service during the next year. Senoia Optimists are proud to have supported and invested in the futures of these ambitious students and encourage them – as one of the lines of the Optimist creeds suggests – “To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.”
