PCHS Junior Says HOBY Changed His Life

“Hello, my name is Trenton Brock and I am a Junior at Pocahontas County HS. I had the opportunity to participate in HOBY, the Hugh O’Brien Youth conference this past summer as a sophomore.”

HOBY, or the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Foundation was founded as a non-profit in 1958 by actor Hugh O’Brien, best known for his starring role in the television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.  He was also dedicated to humanitarian causes and believed strongly in providing leadership skills to high school students.  The mission of HOBY is to inspire a global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service, and innovation.  For Trenton, attending the state HOBY conference last summer was a game-changer.

“And HOBY has changed my life drastically, it was probably one of the best things that’s ever happened to me,” said Trenton. “It just gave me so much. We did team building activities, we did community service; just a bunch of stuff to get us involved with the community.”

Trenton said he’s planning to attend the HOBY World Leadership Congress in Chicago in the summer of 2024, representing West Virginia.

“It’s the summer after your sophomore year, so you have to be a sophomore and you get recommended by your teachers and go through an application process,” he said. “And we was [sic] just trying to get more input from the community, just trying to get everyone interested so we could help the kids that want to go.”

Three current sophomore students at PCHS are interested in attending the state conference next year.  And Trenton has been busy reaching out to various groups in the county who might sponsor part of his trip to Chicago.  So far, $250.00 has been pledged toward the $2000.00 cost for the trip.

“What was it about going through this program that has just changed your life so dramatically?”

“Just the friendship and bonds that I’ve made along the way and talking to people like me.  A lot of the time, you just don’t fit in [but] people from this actually care about the community and want to help, involving everybody.  And it just boosted my confidence way more just talking to people like me.  And it showed me how to better myself and my community.”

“My community service hours are off the charts right now because it just makes me want to help within our community.”

You can find out more about sponsoring Trenton or the other PCHS students hoping to attend the conferences next summer by contacting Mrs. Beverage at the high school at 304-799-6564.  If your organization is interested in a presentation by Trenton, you can contact him via Facebook Messenger.

Here is the link to Trenton’s HOBY speech.