This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.

Current juniors Andrew Wang and Namrata Vakkalagadda attended the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Northern California Seminar in mid-June, held at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga. Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY for short) is a national organization that seeks to build principles of service and leadership in high school students. Students are selected by their schools to participate in HOBY events, where they participate in leadership-building activities, hear from important figures in a variety of fields and more.

“There were many activities that essentially made us ask ourselves how we would behave in certain circumstances that questioned our decision-making skills or our opinions,” said Wang.

Students also learned about different types of leadership, such as personal leadership, group leadership and society leadership.

“One of my favorite activities was where we answered a set of questions and found out which ‘color’ we are. each color represented certain qualities that person possesses,” Vakkalagadda said. People of the same color were then put into groups and told to build a tower with the materials provided. “Each group had a very different experience, but all the towers failed. The activity showed us how all four types of leadership are needed to keep any type of organization or group running.”