HOBY Competition

In December of 2023, Alyssa was able to participate in a youth-oriented competition run by HOBY (Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation), an organization that focuses on nurturing a worldwide community of young individuals and volunteers in leadership, service, and innovation. This was an opportunity targeted towards student leaders to share their initiatives from various service clubs and activities. As a participant, Alyssa wrote a short response to the following prompt: “Why are you taking action for this club and doing service activities in general?” In addition to that, she submitted a report detailing the activities within the club and its accomplishments. The submission earned the Grand Prize for Creative Service-Related Activities, an award recognized by the Gyeonggi-province Education Sector.

Here is the response that she wrote both as a leader and representative of the Philippines Service Learning Club and as a service student.

I am taking action in the Philippines Service Learning (PSL) and doing service activities because I believe that having a collective effort to address social issues would definitely make a positive impact on society. Being part of the PSL club allowed me to contribute and participate in meaningful activities that address the UN SDGs, as well as feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment. I was able to actually go and see in the Philippines the student beneficiaries whom we have provided support to, which has made me feel more passionate about making a difference as a PSL Club leader, and I want to move further with other creative projects as well. In addition, these service activities have made me develop personal growth. Through experiences in the club of global trips, I was able to build leadership and teamwork skills. This not only helped me in presenting and spreading awareness about hunger, but also myself. Overall, taking service action has made me build connections with members and leaders of the PSL club as well as other community members worldwide. I am very grateful for being part of this club, learning new things, and changing and expanding my perspective and mind through service.

Being able to participate in this competition was a great opportunity for me both as a student and as a leader to reflect on myself on what service truly means to be and what I have done throughout. Even though I wasn’t able to write everything that I have done in the response due to the word limit, I believe that I was able to at least express my eagerness and desire in service.