Rice University to Host Annual Hoby Foundation World Leadership Congress

Contacts:
Henry de La Garza
de La Garza Public Relations
(713) 622-8818

Michael Cinelli
Rice University
(713) 831-4794

RICE UNIVERSITY TO HOST ANNUAL HOBY FOUNDATION WORLD LEADERSHIP CONGRESS
U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Houston Mayor Bob Lanier
to Deliver Welcoming Remarks During Opening Session

United Nations Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Houston Mayor Bob Lanier will deliver
welcoming remarks to 244 high school students attending the Hugh
O’Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY) World Leadership Congress
at Rice University on Aug. 2.

Boutros-Ghali’s remarks will be given on videotape, while Lanier
will deliver his message in person. The opening session of the
congress starts at 6 p.m. in Hamman Hall on the Rice campus. Also
addressing the HOBY congress’ opening session will be actor Hugh
O’Brian, founder of the organization, and Rice President Malcolm
Gillis.

During the congress, which runs from Aug. 2-9, promising young leaders from across the nation and around the world will interact
with representatives from corporate, educational and political
communities. The HOBY “ambassadors” represent every state in the
nation and 33 countries and territories.

Held annually in a major U.S. city, the World Leadership
Congress is the culmination of the 90 HOBY seminars conducted each
spring in communities throughout America, Canada, the Bahamas and
Mexico. Student ambassadors invited to attend the congress have been
selected by HOBY volunteers as the next generation’s best and
brightest. International students were nominated by business or service organizations from their respective countries.

“We must provide students the skills they will need to compete in the international marketplace of the 21st century,” said O’Brian,
who founded HOBY in 1958 and built it into the nation’s foremost
youth leadership development organization. “The World Leadership
Congress this year will put the youth of our country in touch with
leaders in the local, national and international arenas, people who
can inspire students to become leaders of tomorrow.”

The student ambassadors come from as far away as the Sierra Leon, Israel, and Senegal. The World Leadership Congress seminars,
tutorials and question-and-answer sessions at Rice, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Texas Medical
Center, and the Rothko Chapel are designed to challenge the high
school sophomores to become positive catalysts for change through
leadership solutions.

“The `HOBY experience’ is based on interactive opportunities and
encouraging young leaders how to think, not what to think,” O’Brian
said. “Houston and its surrounding communities offer diverse
experiences and unique people which will positively shape their
lives.”

Best known for his role in the popular television series “Wyatt
Earp,” O’Brian founded HOBY after meeting Nobel Prize-winning
physician and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer during a visit to
Africa in 1958.
More than 160,000 students throughout the United States and
abroad have participated in HOBY’s interactive workshops, seminars
and other skill-building and critical thinking programs.

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