Hoover High School’s ASB attended the Youth Leadership Conference at Glendale Community College on Friday. The conference gave students the opportunity to learn about leadership while connecting with other student leaders from different schools.
The day began with a keynote speech by Dr. Saro Armenian, an oncologist who shared his personal journey of finding his purpose.
During his presentation, he discussed the book Ikigai, a Japanese concept about discovering your purpose in life and living a happy and fulfilled life.
Dr. Armenian also shared a very emotional story from his childhood.
He explained that his sister had leukemia, and he tried to save her by becoming a bone marrow donor twice. Unfortunately, the transplants were not successful, and she later passed away.
After this experience, he decided that his life goal would be to help save children with cancer. His story was very moving and left many people in the audience in tears.
After the keynote speech, students participated in breakout sessions where they met with different mentors.
During these sessions, they completed team-building activities that required critical thinking, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
In the afternoon, students had lunch and were able to mingle with other student leaders and groups.
Hoover’s senior ASB president, Tina Davtyan, also represented the school by giving an introductory speech about leadership.
Davtyan shared her excitement about the experience and said, “By the end of my speech, I felt really proud of myself for representing ASB and our school. It made me feel more confident as a leader and reminded me why I love being part of ASB. Moments like this inspire me to keep growing and encouraging others to step up as leaders too.”
ASB teacher Janna Kasmanian reflected on the message of the presentation and said, “The idea of ikigai reminds us that everyone has a purpose in life. Hearing Dr. Armenian’s story showed our students that even difficult experiences can inspire someone to make a difference and help others.”
