April 23, 2019 

Granbury High School students Brock Holmgreen and Rudy Obina have been selected to attend the Youth Leadership Conference during Summer 2019. 

Obina, a sophomore, is a cadet in the Granbury Marine Corps JROTC program while Holmgreen, a junior, represents GHS at large.  Both students were nominated from a board comprised of Military Order of the World Wars members and GHS JROTC instructors. 

GHS student Neesa McGuire and JROTC cadet Trevor Phillps, who are both juniors, are alternates. 

The YLC allows high school students a chance to develop leadership and public speaking skills through patriotic education.  In addition, the program included elements of leadership to maintain a free society, concepts of a free enterprise system, and the founding principles upon which the United State was built.  Participants develop an appreciation for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights as well as an awareness for the civic responsibilities associated with preserving rights and freedoms. 

At the conference, students devote half the class time to leadership development and the remaining half to American history, government, and economics.  Participants interact with instructors and peers in small group discussion, debates, skits, and other activities.  The program also included a mock trial of an actual court case as well as oral and written presentations. 

The conference is sponsored by MOWW, an organization founded in 1919 after World War I when General John J. Pershing requested that his officers continue serving the country after the conclusion of their active duty military service.  Today, the MOWW hosts the YLC program throughout the United States at no cost to the high school students attending and sponsors award programs for ROTC and JROTC cadets. 

Holmgreen will attend a conference at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth on July 7-11, while Obina will attend a separate session at Texas A&M University in College Station on July 21-25.